Free Expression Foundation 2024 Year End Summary and Fundraising Appeal
By Glen Allen Esq., FEF President
2024 was an exciting and productive year for the Free Expression Foundation. With your continued support, FEF will continue this momentum into 2025 and beyond.
During 2024, FEF accomplished the following:
- Through attorneys that FEF obtained and in many cases paid for, FEF litigated five cases (trial courts and courts of appeal) in four jurisdictions (Idaho, Virginia, Washington State, and the District of Columbia) on behalf of a total of 16 dissidents. Three of these cases will continue into 2025. All of the cases presented important issues of freedom of speech and assembly. Although the two cases that have been resolved (Idaho and one of the Virginia cases) did not result in complete victories, the results were nonetheless beneficial to the dissident parties and, above all, sent a defiant message that the dissidents would not surrender their First Amendment rights without a legal fight.
- FEF employed (part-time) two young lawyers and mentored two law students, who have expressed their intention to work for FEF in the future.
- FEF gave out approximately $5,000 in grants to persons of limited means who had been harmed as a result of exercising their rights of free expression and assembly.
- Glen Allen gave several speeches to sympathetic groups promoting FEF.
- Glen Allen gave several interviews to newspapers and magazines promoting FEF.
- FEF responded to numerous email and telephone inquiries from persons seeking advice and legal counsel for issues relating to their First Amendment activities.
- FEF continued to expand FEF’s network of sympathetic attorneys and potential local counsel.
Looking forward, in 2025 FEF’s plans include:
- Continue litigating the three pending cases mentioned above, namely, the case in Washington State (Patriot Front members are plaintiffs against an Antifa infiltrator), Virginia (filing a petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court on behalf of a Charlottesville Unite the Right demonstrator), and the District of Columbia (defending a Proud Boy who marched at a pro-Trump rally).
- File amicus briefs and otherwise vigorously defend First Amendment issues in the Charlottesville Tiki-Torch prosecutions now pending in Virginia.
- Continue to mentor and employ fledgling lawyers.
- Continue to mentor and financially support promising law students.
- Potential new lawsuit in Georgia to protect pamphlet distributors.
- Continue to expand network of sympathetic lawyers.
- Continue to promote FEF through speeches and media interviews.
- Launch possible monthly or semi-monthly FEF podcasts.
In closing, I would make a few comments. Freedom of expression has been defended on many different grounds. Some see it as necessary for the proper functioning of a democracy; some believe it derives from our religious and political faith in the sanctity of the individual, who must be given space even for mistakes; some see it as a safety valve that our quarrelsome species needs to vent our unending frustrations and animosities. Perhaps freedom of expression is all these things at the same time. But to me, and I believe also to you who have supported FEF, one thing is clear: without freedom of expression life is uncreative, ignoble, and hardly worth living. And so we must all do our parts to protect and maintain it, so that we may hope to build the best versions of ourselves and our future generations.
Thank you for your support in 2024. FEF needs and will appreciate your continued support in 2025 and beyond, as we head into what I think will be a very turbulent period in our nation’s history. As always, I assure you that your donations, which are tax deductible, will be used honestly and efficiently.
My best to you all!
Glen Allen
