A federal district judge now has a chance to vindicate the First Amendment rights of every American citizen and group, writes QuinHIllyer. Judge Burke would be right to order that no subpoena at all be issued. Fundamental rights aren’t sliceable.
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Judge Liles Burke of Alabama held a hearing on Friday on a motion to quash an abusive subpoena by the Justice Department. The subpoena was issued against the conservative Eagle Forum of Alabama, but it would have been just as abusive if filed against, for one example, the liberal NAACP. To assess constitutionality, it matters not which outside groups supported the law or why. Every citizen and group of citizens has a First Amendment right to petition the government and to speak and otherwise engage in the political process, for any reason whatsoever.
“Every individual and every public policy organization on the Left and on the Right should care when the Department of Justice seeks to chill the First Amendment rights and the speech and lobbying activities of American citizens,” said Anne Cori, national chairman of the Eagle Forum . “Weaponizing the Department of Justice hurts all sides of the political debate.”