Latest news with #FourthAmendments
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
ACLU files federal lawsuit against Chambers County Board of Education
The Chambers County Courthouse as seen on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023 in Lafayette, Ala. ACLU filed a federal lawsuit against the Chambers County Board of Education on behalf of two teachers who were wrongfully arrested in 2023.(Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector) The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alabama filed a federal lawsuit in May against the Chambers County Board of Education on behalf of two teachers who were wrongfully arrested in 2023. According to the lawsuit, Yolanda Ratchford and Tytianna Smith held letter-size papers at a Chambers County Board of Education meeting picturing John Lewis reading 'Good Trouble.' 'Silently holding pieces of paper is not a crime. What happened to Ms. Ratchford and Ms. Smith is a clear and shocking abuse of power,' said Alison Mollman, legal director at the ACLU of Alabama. 'These women were exercising their most basic constitutional rights—freedom of speech and peaceful protest—and they were punished for it.' According to a May press release, the complaint includes claims under the First and Fourth Amendments, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Alabama common law. The litigation, filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, is to get Ratchford and Smith compensated for the harm they endured while in police custody. She said Ratchford is wheelchair bound and was not given access to a toilet while in police custody. A judge ruled the two teachers were not guilty of disorderly conduct. Messages seeking comment from Chambers County Board of Education and the Valley Police Department were left Tuesday. As of Tuesday, the defendants have not responded to the lawsuit through the court. According to a press release, the silent protest was part of ongoing community opposition to the school board's plan to consolidate the county's two public high schools into a new facility located in Valley, a predominantly white city, which would displace Black students and educators from LaFayette. Mollman said the merging of the two schools would cause issues with commuting for Black students that live in spread out county and they would get a different education in the city. 'When you're going a few miles down county roads, it's much different than going down I 65 or 85 you know, at 80 miles an hour. And so that's part of the issue,' Mollman said in an interview in May. The merging of the two schools, Mollman said, would put the Black students at a disadvantage because they would no longer be with their teachers. 'Many of those teachers were black, and so it's not just the bussing times. It's also where those students are going to be placed, who they're going to be taught by, and how that's going to be different, how they're going to be differently situated than from their white peers.' 'A judge determined that they were not guilty of those offenses, and made comments to the effect that if anyone was disorderly in the incident, it was law enforcement,' she said. For the past 50 years, the Chambers County School District has been under a federal desegregation order. A federal judge ruled that both Valley and Lafayette high schools must be combined into one Chambers County High School. A new consolidated high school is set to be built this year, according to WTVM.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk's 'X Corp.' sues MN over constitutionality of political deepfake law
The Brief X Corp. filed a lawsuit suing Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison over the state's laws over political deepfakes. The lawsuit says the state law is a violation of free speech and X's Community Notes can provide context for deepfake content. Minnesota passed a bill on deepfakes with political misinformation into law in 2023. ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Elon Musk's company, X Corporation, filed a lawsuit against Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison challenging the constitutionality of a law that prohibits political misinformation from being shared through deepfakes. The law went into effect in 2023 and was meant to prevent deepfake technology from interfering in the 2024 election, according to the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State. Click to open this PDF in a new window. Big picture view The lawsuit claims the state law "violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitutition, because its requirements are so vague and unintelligible that social media platforms cannot understand what the statute permits and what it prohibits, which will lead to blanket censorship, including of fully protected, core political speech." READ MORE: Social media restrictions in Minnesota focus of new bills The lawsuit also takes issue with the threat of criminal liability, saying there is no penalty for too much censorship, which incentivizes platforms to remove any content that could even be close to a deepfake under Minnesota statutes. Instead of government regulation, the lawsuit points to "robust policies and features" meant to address problematic content. Among those features are "Community Notes," which X uses to provide context to a post in the form of "replies," and can also outright disagree with the original post. Another feature includes an AI chatbot to help the user better understand the content. A full copy of the lawsuit can be viewed below: Click to open this PDF in a new window. What they're saying A spokesperson for the Minnesota Attorney General's Office released a statement, saying, "The Minnesota Attorney General's Office is reviewing the lawsuit and will respond in court." FOX 9 also reached out to the authors of the bill and will update this story if they respond. Dig deeper Minnesota lawmakers also hope to criminalize "nudification" technology that uses another person's likeness without their permission. The bill defines "nudify" as the "process by which an image or video is altered to reveal an intimate part that is not depicted in the original unaltered image or video." READ MORE: Minnesota advances deepfakes bill to criminalize people sharing altered sexual, political content The Source This story used a court filing document from Minnesota District Court and past FOX 9 reporting.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dearborn attorney's detention condemned as ‘blatant' intimidation by Trump administration
Photo byU.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin has condemned the detention of a Dearborn attorney by federal agents as he returned from a vacation with his family, calling it an attack on the legal profession by the Trump administration. Amir Makled was detained by customs agents at Detroit Metro Airport on Sunday as he and his family returned from a trip to the Dominican Republic. 'When coming into the airport, I was screened and flagged when a Customs and Border Protection agent requested that they need a TTRT agent, Terrorism Task Force Response Team, to be summoned to the scene,' said Makled in a video posted to TikTok. 'I said, 'Oh, crap. Here we go.'' Makled said he was subjected to prolonged questioning, during which agents demanded he surrender access to his phone despite not having a warrant and refusing to specify what it was they were looking for. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'This kind of intrusive border search, untethered from individualized suspicion, not only raises serious constitutional concerns under the First and Fourth Amendments, but also risks chilling protected speech and association,' Makled said in a statement released by the Detroit & Michigan chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. But an official with Customs and Border Protection said Makled was referred for secondary inspection, which she called 'a routine, lawful process' that can apply for any traveler. The guild noted that Makled currently represents Sammie Lewis, a pro-Palestinian demonstrator who was of seven individuals charged by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel with misdemeanor trespassing and an additional count of resisting or obstructing a police officer, a felony that carries a penalty of 2 years in prison, after officers cleared out a protest encampment from the University of Michigan campus. 'Attorneys, regardless of whom they represent, must not be subject to intimidation tactics by the government,' the guild said. 'This incident is a blatant attempt by the Trump administration to deter attorneys from representing clients in politically sensitive cases.' In response to the incident, Slotkin (D-Holly) also denounced Makled's detention. 'You can't just detain the people you don't agree with. That's not how our democracy works. Everyone in our country has a fundamental right to representation in court, and this Administration is attacking lawyers and the legal profession for simply doing their job,' Slotkin said in a Facebook post. After about 90 minutes, Makled was released, but not before letting agents see his phone's contact list. However, he said he refused to surrender access to the phone itself as it contained privileged attorney/client information. 'The lawyer has a fiduciary duty to protect the secrets of their client. Border patrol agents, Customs and Border Protection, the law allows them to seize our phones at the border crossing. They do have the right to take your phone. They do not, however, have the right to go through your phone without consent unless they have a search warrant,' Makled said. Makled's detention follows a March 22 presidential memo issued by President Donald Trump directing the U.S. Justice Department to 'seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States.' 'It is because I took a position in the protester cases that I have been targeted. It is because I choose to stand firm on the beliefs that we should all have the right to speech, the right to protest, and the right to say no,' Makled said. Customs and Border Protection Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs Hilton Beckham posted to social media Wednesday and called Makled's accusations 'blatantly false and sensationalized.' Beckham said officers worked to ensure Makled's attorney-client privilege was respected and that all actions were conducted in accordance with established protocols. 'Claims that this was an attack on his profession or were politically motivated are baseless. Our officers are following the law, not agendas,' Beckham said. However, the National Lawyers Guild disputed that characterization. 'We decry the use of law enforcement agencies to attempt to chill dissent and undermine the rights of our members, attorneys, and their clients. We applaud Mr. Makled for safeguarding client information as well as his personal data from government intrusion and intimidation, and demand an end to these tactics from all parts of the government,' the guild said.
