A new legal center has been launched to fight the global tide of censorship.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) this week announced a new litigation team, which they call the Center for Free Speech. ADF explained that one of the center’s initiatives will be to sue private censors who are coordinating with government to crush free speech, or who are displaying clear bias in attempting to suppress certain viewpoints.
ADF Senior Counsel Phil Sechler, who is now also the new center’s director, stated in a press release, “In a world experiencing mounting censorship, it’s critical that we protect each person’s right to speak freely.” He added, “Speech is an intrinsic part of what it means to be human, and indispensable to a free society. It’s a fundamental human right, guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and every major human rights treaty around the world.”
The Center for Free Speech has already jumped straight into the fight by helping litigate three cases, ADF noted in the press release. One such case undertaken by the Center is The Babylon Bee v. Bonta, a lawsuit against California for a law punishing certain election-related speech. In another lawsuit the Center has undertaken on behalf of video platform Rumble, Rumble v. Bonta, Rumble challenges the California law that attempts to force tech platforms like Rumble to act as the “government’s censorship police.”
Finally, Studnicki v. Sage Publications challenges the potentially improper retraction of “three articles on abortion,” including the risks of abortion pills, which Sage had originally passed under peer review, published, and lauded, according to ADF.
ADF further noted in its press release that this is not its first foray into the free speech realm. It has won free speech cases before, including NIFLA v. Becerra, which championed the right of pro-life pregnancy centers to refuse to tell women where they can obtain abortions. Furthermore, ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom has helped students at public universities to achieve over 400 wins for free speech, according to the organization.
Sechler declared, “A new era of censorship calls for innovative strategies and a renewed focus on protecting speech.” He concluded that “[t]hat’s why we’re creating the Center for Free Speech. A complex international web of shadowy government actors, nonprofit groups, and for-profit corporations are colluding to stop speech they don’t like, chanting buzzwords like ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ as they go,” and legal accountability is key.
MRC Free Speech America has been on front lines of the fight against online censorship, and the MRC-led Free Speech Alliance brings together more than 100 state, national, and international organizations to fight for free speech against Big Tech.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.