*Taps microphone* is this thing on?
Thank you for subscribing to the mailing list for the Initiative for a Representative First Amendment (IfRFA)! The excitement and energy coming out of the announcement has been keeping us going even as fall in Cambridge means that it gets dark far too early.
What’s happening now: First, a quick introduction - the incomparable Sybil Gelin, a project coordinator at the Cyberlaw Clinic has been pitching in on this project, handling communications and generally making sure that Kendra doesn’t get too lost in the weeds.
Right now, Sybil is hard at work building out our website. Meanwhile, Kendra is recruiting an advisory board of thoughtful freedom of expression advocates and practitioners to keep us accountable.
What’s up next: We’ll be soft-launching the website sometime in November and opening our fellowship application to current 1Ls and 2Ls on December 1, 2019. We’re also likely hiring for a part-time coordinator to build out the program structure—keep an eye out for that job posting!
What’s on our minds: Kendra’s been really enjoying the podcast All My Relations, where Makita Wilbur and Adrienne Keene explore relationships between indigenous communities, land, and people. In particular, episode nine “Can Our Ancestors Hear Us?”, on the importance and power of indigenous languages and indigenous language revitalization efforts had Kendra thinking about being able to learn and engage in particular languages as a freedom of expression issue.
Oh, was this supposed to be about the First Amendment? Well, in that case, back in September, a South Dakota district court judge granted the ACLU of North Dakota’s motion for a preliminary injunction against the state’s new “riot-boosting” law. If “riot-boosting” isn’t a familiar word to you, that’s because it can mean anything from tweeting in support of protesters to funding a cup of coffee. The riot-boosting law was aimed, in the words of the South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, at “out-of-state money funding riots” and “outside professional protests.” Unfortunately for Governor Noem and the legislature, First Amendment rights aren’t left at the state or tribal border, and out-of-staters have speech rights too.
It’s good news that the judge blocked this law, but as Mother Jones has reported, it’s part of a broader trend of anti-protest laws passed in a number of states and used to prosecute climate protesters. That makes us grateful for folks like the Climate Defense Project that provide direct legal support and training to climate protesters, in addition to organizations like the Indigenous Environmental Network and the NDN Collective who served as plaintiffs in the South Dakota lawsuit. Keep fighting the good fight!
Warm thoughts, apple cider, and more details soon,
Kendra and Sybil