The battle waged over your rights does not end when oppressive, draconian laws are signed into law.
Politicians in California aren’t satisfied with stifling your Second Amendment rights. They have to attempt to squelch your First Amendment rights, too.
One of our FPC members decided to stand up in their own way to the “Gunpocalypse” legislative package that forced seven new anti-gun bills into law.
That member, known as “Publius,” published an aptly-named “Tyrant Registry” on their personal website hosted on web publishing platform WordPress. The Tyrant Registry detailed the names, addresses, and phone numbers of lawmakers because Publius believes “the people who voted to send you to prison if you exercise your rights and liberties” should have their information on a list as well.
Anticipating that some would allege that publishing the information was dangerous, Publius wrote:
“Isn’t that dangerous, what if something bad happens to them by making that information public?” First, all this information was already public; it’s just now in one convenient location. Second, it’s no more dangerous than, say, these tyrants making it possible for free men and women to have government guns pointed at them while they’re hauled away to jail and prosecuted for the crime of exercising their rights and Liberty.”
Under the First Amendment, Publius has the right to aggregate and publish this publicly-available information. Whether through blogs labeling the tyrants in the California government, well, tyrants, through peaceful “We Will Not Comply” protests, or through contributions to FPC, we all are entitled to protected free speech.
Apparently the state of California hates THAT right TOO!
Soon after our FPC member published the Tyrant Roster, California Legislative Counsel decided to CENSOR our member’s speech. Legislative Counsel Diane Boyer-Vine sent WordPress a NASTY “takedown” letter threatening to sue them over the publication of the Tyrant Registry because it broke California Government Code section 6254.21(c), which prohibits the publication of the home address or telephone of any “elected or appointed official” on the Internet.
WordPress immediately bent over for the Legislature and REMOVED the Tyrant Registry with no pushback. Boyer-Vine's actions CHILLED free speech.
THIS OFFENSE WILL NOT STAND.
It’s not enough for us to work to kill anti-gun laws. We will advance to the next battlefield to defend our members and their rights.
That’s why we’ve filed Publius v. Legislative Counsel Diane Boyer-Vine, a First Amendment lawsuit, on behalf of our member. The suit “argues that a State of California statute and the Legislative Counsel's demand letter threatening legal action and penalties unconstitutionally forced WordPress into taking down the material” and seeks a restraining order against and challenges California Government Code section 6254.21(c).
When our rights are ruthlessly attacked by the corrupt oligarchy, we WILL FIGHT BACK.
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