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How Each Pillar of the 1st Amendment is Under Attack [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-04-12

See full essay at Brian Krebs, Krebs on Security

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” -U.S. Constitution, First Amendment.

(Short summary of points made by Mr. Krebs, details and relevant links are at Kreb’s ‘Pillars’ page. Added some related points and text on the topics.)

Petition

- Republican leadership recommends canceling town halls.

- Trump fired most federal employees who process Freedom of Information Act requests.

- Trump administration using self deleting Signal for meetings, a way to avoid creating a lasting (and potentially FOIA-able) record of their deliberations, ignoring retention of federal records law.

- Signal chat by 16 Trump administration officials on Houthi war plans - known due to Atlantic Magazine editor accidentally in on the chat.

- FOIA requests by citizens almost impossible without use of lawsuits handled by experienced law firms.

- On March 22, the president issued a memorandum that directs heads of the Justice and Homeland Security Departments to “seek sanctions against" law firms filing lawsuits on Trump actions.

- President Trump recently took the extraordinary step of calling for the impeachment of federal judges who rule against the administration, who review the many lawsuits on his actions, and his violations of the Constitution.

- House Speaker Johnson said Congress could use the power of its purse to keep courts in line, perhaps even the wholesale financial elimination of federal courts. such an action would make petitions/lawsuits against the executive branch impossible. there would be no venue to file them.

Freedom of Assembly

-Trump has taken a number of actions to discourage lawful demonstrations at universities and colleges across the country, cut federal funding for any college that supports protests he calls “illegal.”

- The administration is targeting students and academics who spoke out on Gaza war.

- Trump threats to use the national guard or the U.S. military on protesters.

- Trump removes top judicial advocates in the armed forces who would push back on any request by the president to use the military on public protestors.

- Military.com warns that the purge “sets an alarming precedent for a crucial job in the military, as President Donald Trump has mused about using the military in potentially illegal ways.”

Freedom of the Press

- Trump has sued a number of U.S. news outlets, including 60 Minutes, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other smaller media organizations for unflattering coverage.

- The president sued The Des Moines Register and its parent company, Gannett, for publishing a poll showing Trump trailing Harris in the 2024 presidential election in Iowa.

- The POTUS also is suing the Pulitzer Prize board over 2018 awards given to The New York Times and The Washington Post.

- Following the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Facebook blocked President Trump’s account. Trump sued Meta... in 2024 Zuckerberg announced Facebook and Instagram would get rid of fact-checkers.

- On January 22, 2025, the FCC reopened complaints against ABC, CBS and NBC over their coverage of the 2024 election. The previous FCC chair had dismissed the complaints as attacks on the First Amendment and an attempt to weaponize the agency for political purposes.

- Trump has repeatedly threatened to “open up” libel laws, with the goal of making it easier to sue media organizations for unfavorable coverage.

- The president also has insisted on picking which reporters and news outlets should be allowed to cover White House events and participate in the press pool.

- the Defense Department has ordered a number of top media outlets to vacate their spots at the Pentagon, including CNN, The Hill, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NBC News, Politico and National Public Radio.

- “Incoming media outlets... are seen as conservative or favoring Republican President Donald Trump,” Reuters reported.

Freedom of Speech

- In January 2025, the administration began circulating lists of hundreds of words that government staff and agencies shall not use in their reports and communications.

- The New York Times reports that in the past two months, "hundreds of terabytes of digital resources analyzing data have been taken off government websites.”

- On Jan. 27, Trump issued a memo (PDF) that paused all federally funded programs pending a review of those programs for "alignment with the administration’s priorities".

- Called blatant attempt to censor speech.

- On March 14, the president signed another executive order that effectively gutted the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) ...supporters say it has been one of the most reliable tools used by the US to counter Chinese propaganda.

Freedom of Religion

- The Trump administration rescinded a decades-old policy that instructed officers not to take immigration enforcement actions in or near “sensitive” or “protected” places, such as churches, schools, and hospitals.

- Quakers, Baptists and Sikhs, who argued the policy reversal was keeping people from attending services for fear of being arrested on civil immigration violations.

- Weaponizing anti-semitism to arrest Muslims: “130 Jewish members of the Georgetown University community in Washington, D.C., released a signed statement Friday in support of Badar Khan Suri, a Muslim professor at the school who was arrested and targeted for deportation last month by the Trump administration.” link

- The president announced the creation of a “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias,” to be led by Attorney General Pam Bondi. No Task Force for bias against any other religion has been proposed.

- From allowing immigration raids in churches, to targeting faith-based charities, to suppressing religious diversity, the Trump Administration’s aggressive government overreach is infringing on religious freedom in a way we haven’t seen for generations,” Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and head of the progressive Interfaith Alliance

- “As I watch from afar what’s happening to the free press in the United States during the first weeks of Trump’s second presidency — the verbal bullying, the legal harassment, the buckling by media owners in the face of threats — it all looks very familiar ...The MAGA authorities have learned Orbán’s lessons well.” Hungarian investigative journalist András Petho.

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