Jacob Goodwin attended the Charlottesville demonstrations as a pro-monument demonstrator. At some point in the melee, Goodwin, along with other persons, kicked a counterprotester several times. He should not have done this. But the sentence he received after a subsequent prosecution – eight years in prison in Virginia – was grossly disproportionate, given that the counterprotester’s injuries from the kicks…
On February 14, 2020, Glen Allen, who has received financial aid from FEF, filed his initial brief in his appeal from Judge Blake’s dismissal of his complaint against Heidi Beirich, Mark Potok, and the SPLC. Allen presented a number of arguments for reversal of the district court’s decision. Included among them were that: the court failed properly to take into…
On January 31, 2020, Glen Allen, as an observer, on behalf of FEF attended oral argument in the Fourth Circuit Miselis appeal. He noted that the Chief Judge, Judge King, seemed hostile to the RAM defendants, that Judge Rushing asked virtually no questions, but that Judge Diaz did pose several pointed questions to both sides. He commented that it was…
Although amicus curiae parties are rarely permitted to file two amicus briefs in an appeal, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has accorded FEF this unusual distinction. On January 9, 2020, the Fourth Circuit allowed FEF to file a second amicus brief – FEF’s reply amicus brief – in the United States v. Miselis Rise Above Movement appeal. In its…
On December 10, 2019, Glen Allen filed a timely notice of appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals from the Maryland District Court’s dismissal of his complaint against the SPLC and two of its officers, Heidi Beirich and Mark Potok.
On November 13, 2019, Judge Katherine Blake dismissed Glen Allen’s complaint against Heidi Beirich and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Allen had filed his complaint in the federal court in December 2018., alleging nine counts, including claims under the Racketeer and Corrupt Organizations (“RICO”) statute and common law claims for tortious interference and defamation. After the SPLC defendants moved to…
On November 11, 2019, Charles Randy Sheppard, FEF Board Member, published in the American Free Press an update on FEF’s progress (article can be viewed here)
On October 8, 2019, FEF filed an amicus brief in the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the Rise Above Movement defendants who had been prosecuted under the Anti-Riot Act for their participation in the Charlottesville, Virginia, Unite the Right Rally. At the trial court, the defendants, under intense pressure and in difficult prison conditions, had agreed…
On June 17, 2019, the American Free Press (“AFP”), citing FEF’s contributions, published an article commending the Rise Above Movement defendants’ victory in California. The front-page AFP article about the RAM victory can be viewed here.
On June 3, 2019, in a great victory for free expression and the rule of law, Judge Cormac Carney granted the Rise Above Movement defendants’ motions to dismiss their indictments in the United States v. Rundo, et al. prosecution in California under the Anti-Riot Act. FEF had filed an amicus brief in support of the motions to dismiss and the…
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