老澳门开奖结果 and Knight Institute Challenge Constitutionality of Far-Reaching Government Censorship System
Organizations Argue 鈥淧republication Review鈥� Unconstitutionally Restricts Speech of Millions of Former Public Servants
GREENBELT 鈥� The 老澳门开奖结果 and Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University today filed a lawsuit on behalf of five former public servants challenging the government鈥檚 鈥減republication review鈥� system, which prohibits millions of former intelligence-agency employees and military personnel from writing or speaking about topics related to their government service without first obtaining government approval. The plaintiffs argue the system violates the First and Fifth Amendments, and they call on the courts to block the government from enforcing it in its current form.
鈥淭he prepublication process in its current form is broken and unconstitutional, and it needs to go,鈥� said Brett Max Kaufman, staff attorney with the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Center for Democracy. 鈥淚t鈥檚 one thing to censor the nuclear codes, but it鈥檚 another to censor the same information high schoolers are pulling from Wikipedia. Prepublication review gives the government far too much power to suppress speech that the public has a right to hear.鈥�
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Timothy H. Edgar and Richard H. Immerman, former employees of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Melvin A. Goodman, a former employee of the CIA; Anuradha Bhagwati, a former United States Marine; and Mark Fallon, a former employee of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Between them, they served in the intelligence community and the military in a diversity of roles for almost a century. The plaintiffs have submitted written works for prepublication review in the past and intend to continue writing works subject to review in the future.
Prepublication review is not governed by a single executive-branch-wide policy. Rather, agencies impose lifetime prepublication review obligations through a complex tangle of regulations, policies, and non-disclosure agreements. The complaint filed today describes a broken system. Submission requirements and review standards are vague, confusing, and overbroad. Manuscript review frequently takes weeks or even months. Agencies鈥� censorial decisions are often arbitrary, unexplained, and influenced by authors鈥� viewpoints. Favored officials are sometimes afforded special treatment, with their manuscripts fast-tracked and reviewed more sympathetically.
鈥淭his far-reaching censorship system simply can鈥檛 be squared with the Constitution,鈥� said Jameel Jaffer, Executive Director of the Knight First Amendment Institute. 鈥淭he government has a legitimate interest in protecting bona fide national-security secrets, but this system sweeps too broadly, fails to limit the discretion of government censors, and suppresses political speech that is vital to informing public debate.鈥�
Four of the five plaintiffs joining the lawsuit had work subjected to long publication delays and haphazard redactions. For instance, it took nearly eight months, a letter to six senators, over a dozen requests for updates, media attention, and the 老澳门开奖结果 and the Knight Institute鈥檚 involvement for the government to complete its review of a manuscript of Fallon鈥檚 book about the George W. Bush administration鈥檚 interrogation and torture policies. Immerman鈥檚 manuscript, which did not refer to any classified information he obtained in the course of his employment with the ODNI or State Department, took six months for review and was returned with extensive redactions. Some redactions related to information that had been published previously by government agencies, and many of them related to events that had taken place, or issues that had arisen, after Immerman had left government. In some instances, the government redacted citations to newspaper articles.
The plaintiffs argue that the prepublication review regimes they are challenging violate the First Amendment because they impose sweeping, indefinite prior restraints that suppress or deter core political speech, including speech that is unclassified or already in the public record. They also claim that the system violates the Fifth Amendment because it fails to give them fair notice of what they have to submit and of what they can and cannot say, and because it invites arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.
The lawsuit was filed in the District of Maryland and against the CIA, NSA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Department of Defense. Between 2016 and 2018, the groups filed seeking documents on prepublication review processes and practices. The documents reveal that the system has grown increasingly far-reaching and burdensome in recent years.
The complaint can be found here: /legal-document/aclu-and-knight-institute-challenge-constitutionality-far-reaching-government.
A blog post on today鈥檚 lawsuit can be found here: /blog/free-speech/employee-speech-and-whistleblowers/governments-system-censoring-its-former
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WASHINGTON 鈥� Today, the 老澳门开奖结果, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to block the enforcement of a law that would effectively ban people in America from using TikTok as soon as January 19, 2025. Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected TikTok鈥檚 challenge to the law. TikTok has asked the Supreme Court for a temporary injunction to prevent the app from being banned while the court considers whether to take the case, saying that unless the justices intervene, the law will 鈥渟hutter one of America鈥檚 most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration.鈥� 鈥淭he Constitution imposes an extraordinarily high bar on this kind of mass censorship,鈥漵aid Patrick Toomey, deputy director of 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 National Security Project. 鈥淭he Supreme Court should take up this important case and protect the rights of millions of Americans to freely express themselves and engage with others around the world.鈥� The brief argues that the D.C. Circuit failed to fully address the law鈥檚 profound implications for the First Amendment rights of the 170 million Americans who use TikTok. While the lower court鈥檚 decision correctly recognized that the statute triggers First Amendment scrutiny, it barely addressed users鈥� First Amendment interests in speaking, sharing, and receiving information on the platform. The court also perplexingly attempted to cast the government鈥檚 ban on TikTok as a vindication of users鈥� First Amendment rights, which it is not. The rights groups also explain that the law was intended to suppress certain content and viewpoints that many legislators believe could be amplified on TikTok, including the risk of foreign 鈥減ropaganda.鈥� But under the First Amendment, the government must meet a very high bar to restrict speech based on concerns about its 鈥渕otivating ideology鈥� or 鈥減erspective,鈥� and the government has not come close to meeting that bar here. 鈥淭he government should not be able to restrict speech, especially to the extent here, based on guessing about the mere possibility of uncertain future harm,鈥� said David Greene, civil liberties director at EFF. 鈥淭he Supreme Court should put the TikTok ban on hold while it considers the DC Circuit鈥檚 erroneous ruling.鈥� Finally, the brief underscores that the government can鈥檛 impose this type of sweeping ban unless it鈥檚 necessary to prevent extremely serious and imminent harm to national security. But the government has not provided evidence of impending harm, or evidence that banning TikTok is the only available way to address its concerns. As the brief explains, the D.C. Circuit improperly treated the government鈥檚 invocation of 鈥渘ational security鈥� as a trump card and failed to hold the government to its burden. 鈥淩estricting citizens鈥� access to foreign media is a practice that has long been associated with repressive regimes, and we should be very wary of letting the practice take root here,鈥� said Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. 鈥淚t would do lasting damage to the First Amendment and our democracy if the Supreme Court let this ban go into effect even temporarily.鈥� You can find the brief online here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24A587/335380/20241217144322392_24A587%20TikTok%20v%20Garland%20Amicus%20Brief%20pdfa.pdf -
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