{"id":18244,"date":"2026-03-30T15:46:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/?p=18244"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:56:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:56:57","slug":"press-release-dhs-withdraws-summons-in-resounding-win-for-first-amendment-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/press-release-dhs-withdraws-summons-in-resounding-win-for-first-amendment-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"PERSBERICHT: DHS trekt dagvaarding in na klinkende overwinning voor rechten op de Eerste Amendement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>March 30, 2026<br \/>\nContact: media@cldc.org<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Department of Homeland Security Withdraws Summons <\/strong><strong>in Resounding Win for First Amendment Rights<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>San Francisco, CA \u2013 Today, Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC) dismissed a federal case that asked the court to stop Reddit from responding to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) administrative summons seeking our client\u2019s personal information, following DHS\u2019s withdrawal of the summons. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigator in Virginia had submitted the blatantly illegal summons to Reddit, demanding that they produce extensive private information about our client (with a \u201crequest\u201d that the demand not be disclosed). After Reddit informed our client of the request, CLDC immediately filed a motion to quash the summons in federal court in the Northern District of California. Rather than defend their request in court, ICE almost immediately withdrew it, without explanation.<\/p>\n<p>This unequivocal victory demonstrates that ICE\u2019s legal justification for their actions is barely paper thin, crumpling under even slight resistance. While CLDC is proud to have protected our client and their information, we remain concerned that ICE is deploying a large-scale information dragnet by submitting bogus, illegal summonses and subpoenas to social media companies, and developing a database complied out of information obtained from those who don\u2019t fight back.<\/p>\n<p>Our client, J. Doe responded to DHS\u2019s withdrawal:<\/p>\n<p>When Reddit first notified me of the summons, I was alarmed and fearful. Reddit \u2013 or any social media platform for that matter \u2013 should protect its users\u2019 personal information. This news today is a major relief for me and for my family. This is not just a win for one person but for anyone who speaks out against government abuses.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. and state constitutions guarantee the right to freedom of association and speech.<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> The bonds we form through the associations we make and the speech we share form the fabric of our society. When the government attempts to control speech and association through targeted surveillance, it is not only an attack on our civil rights, it is an attack on who we are as people.<\/p>\n<p>If you have received an email notification that a government agency has submitted a request for your personal information and you suspect it is related to your environmental or social justice activism, CLDC encourages you to take action immediately. Contact us, and if we cannot help, we know others who probably can. Fighting the request, and winning, is possible \u2013 even likely.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> <em>NAACP v. Alabama,<\/em> (1958) 357 U.S. 449<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 30, 2026 Contact: media@cldc.org\u00a0 Department of Homeland Security Withdraws Summons in Resounding Win for First Amendment Rights San Francisco, CA \u2013 Today, Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC) dismissed a federal case that asked the court to stop Reddit from responding to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) administrative summons seeking our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[721],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18245,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18244\/revisions\/18245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}