The Civil Liberties Defense Center is representing an antifascist who was charged with disorderly conduct in the second degree in Springfield Municipal Court. This week they pled not guilty to this charge, which stemmed from a May 5, 2019 “flag wave” event hosted by Patriot Prayer on the on […]
BREAKING NEWS
April 8, 2019
Today the Washington Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the conviction of climate activist Ken Ward and sent his case back to the lower court for a third trial because Ward was denied his Sixth Amendment right to present the necessity defense to a jury of his […]
Bethany Sherman voluntarily dismissed her frivolous lawsuit against anonymous antifascists that exposed her and her boyfriend’s ties to neo-Nazi/white-supremacism. The dismissal is “without prejudice,” meaning that Sherman could try to sue again. The San Francisco Superior Court entered the dismissal […]
Anti-Fascist Action Flag
Last week in San Francisco, Attorney Cooper Brinson of the CLDC, along with co-counsel James Wheaton of the First Amendment Project, argued that a subpoena issued by OG Analytical (a cannabis testing company based in Eugene, Oregon) […]
Current SLAPP Suits:
Resolute Forest Products and Kasowitz Law Firm SLAPP Stand.earth and other Environmental Organizations
On May 31, 2016 Resolute Forest Products filed a $300 million (CAD – Canadian dollars) lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia alleging violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt […]
We are pleased to announce a victory in our Minnesota Valve Turner case! This trial was a rollercoaster with many twists and turns, but all three defendants were acquitted of their charges this morning in court. They were acquitted, not on the necessity defense, but because the prosecution could not meet the […]
Watch Lauren Regan’s interview recapping the victory in the Minnesota Valve Turner trial.
Starting on October 8, 2018, CLDC along with co-counsel, will be defending the Minnesota Valve Turners, Annette, Emily, and Ben by presenting the climate necessity defense to a Clearwater County jury. We have been developing this cutting edge legal strategy with help from many other lawyers around the country for […]
Lauren Regan is headed to Clearwater County MN, to argue the Necessity Defense along with co-counsel Tim Phillips of Minneapolis and Kelsey Skaggs, on behalf of brave Valve Turners, Emily and Annette Klapstein, and climate activist (and repeat CLDC client) Ben Joldersma. Two years ago they turned off 2 pipeline […]
Update: The trial will be October 8th-11th.
In 2016, five brave individuals, now known as the Valve Turners, turned off all 4 pipelines bringing tar sands oil into the US from Canada for a day. There have already been 3 trials (with Lauren as one of the trial counsel), in Washington, […]
