Dear IfRFA Mailing List:
Now more than ever, we find it difficult to carry on business as usual given the current state of the world. We’d like to express our solidarity with the Black community and the protesters who have fought and continue to fight against racial injustice. We see you. We hear you. We stand with you.
What’s on our minds:
Those risking physical violence and deadly illness to protest police violence against Black people. Not just because the violence may affect us and those we love, but because violence against protesters and journalists alike reminds us of why our work is necessary.
Advocacy for First Amendment rights must be part of a broader constellation of work towards justice. What good is the right to assemble if police officers continue to drive cars at protesters and terrorize the Black community with impunity? What good does peaceful protest do if property destruction is the only way that elites care? How can we say we have freedom of the press when Afro-Latinx journalists get arrested, live and on air, for reporting?
It becomes too easy to engage in First Amendment exceptionalism, to imagine that the work of First Amendment lawyers is separate and apart from fighting white supremacy. But freedom of speech does not exist when Black people face disproportionate harm for exercising their voices. IfRFA stands in solidarity with those protesting. We believe Black lives matter, that Black queer and trans lives matter, and we strive through our work to build one component of a world where those statements are not just aspirations but reality.
What’s happening with IfRFA:
Over the next few weeks, our fellows will be starting their summer internships. The IfRFA clinic placements are as follows:
• Korica Simon is at the University of California, Berkeley’s Law and Technology Clinic.
• Jafet Martinez-Molina is at the Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic.
• Stacey Menjivar is at the Yale Law School’s Media, Freedom, and Information Access Clinic.
• Alyssa Morones is at the Cornell Law School’s First Amendment Clinic.
• Sara Beladi is at the University of California, Irvine’s Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic.
Our fellows will also be participating in weekly virtual seminars where they will have a chance to dive substantively into a range of free speech and freedom of expression issues. Sometime later in the summer, we hope to host a virtual speed networking event for our fellows and advisory board members.
Also, we’re happy to welcome
Danielle Blunt to the IfRFA advisory board. Blunt is the co-founder and organizer of Hacking // Hustling as well as the co-author of a study on the effects of FOSTA-SESTA and the removal of Backpage. She has a passion for issues at the intersection of sex work and equitable access to tech from a public health perspective and we deeply value her guidance.
What we’ve been working on:
We’d like to thank IfRFA team member and resident First Amendment expert, Gautam Hans, for leading a successful virtual seminar on the vices and virtues of professionalism. We deeply appreciate Gautam for engaging our fellows and providing his incredible insights on a very important topic.
But the fellows aren't the only ones who are engaging on Zoom. In May, staff and supervisors of our clinic placements spent a few hours learning about some strategies and solutions to create an inclusive environment for our fellows this summer. Kim Tran of
ReadySet, a DEI training firm, utilized her expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion to facilitate the training. Overall, the feedback we’ve received for our virtual events for both fellows and clinic staff has been positive and we’re continually thinking of innovative ways to keep our community informed and engaged.
As always, we thank you for your support for IfRFA. In the words of
Mariame Kaba, may tomorrow bring us more justice and some peace,
Kendra, Sybil & Jasjot