*National Lawyers Guild Lawyers Victorious in Internet Free Speech Case*

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*Contact*: Jamie Munro, 212-679-5100 x12,
www.nlg.org/news/press-releases/guild-attorneys-victorious-in-internet-free-speech-case

New York. In a case with precedential value for internet free speech,

National Lawyers Guild members Larry Hildes of Bellingham, Washington, Devin
Theriot-Orr of Seattle, and Mark Sniderman of Indiana successfully
defended several
activists who received subpoenas from Mt. Hope Baptist Church
demanding they turn
over their internet account records. Federal judge Richard A. Jones ruled
that technology collective Riseup.net did not have to turn over the records.
Riseup.net provides online communication tools for individuals and groups
working for social change. Google received subpoenas in the same case and
turned over its Gmail information without informing the individuals
involved.


Mt. Hope Baptist Church subpoenaed the records of several Riseup.net users
alleged to have taken part in a 2008 protest. They were members of the queer
rights group Bash Back! which disrupted a 2008 Sunday Service at the
conservative Mount Hope Church in Lansing, Michigan. Months later, the
church and the Alliance Defense Fund, a reactionary Christian nonprofit
organization, sued Bash Back! and named 15 activists under the Freedom of
Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The church and Alliance Defense Fund
subpoenaed identifying information from dozens of emails addresses;
Risup.net was the only email provider to challenge the subpoenas.



“This was a major victory for the rights of those engaged in political
action or supporting those who are to freely associate safe from the prying
eyes of the government, corporations, and fundamentalist churches and law
firms. We are proud to have successfully defended this challenge, which is
essential to effective political organizing, and proud to have worked with
Riseup to do so,” commented Larry Hildes after the victory.


Attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund representing Mt. Hope Baptist Church
claimed that the Riseup.net users did not deserve protection because their
speech was not “patriotic” free speech.



“To assert that some speech is unpatriotic and therefore unworthy of full
First Amendment protection is an affront to this nation’s venerated
principles of fostering robust debate,” said NLG Executive Director Heidi
Boghosian.



The National Lawyers Guild, founded in 1937, is the oldest and largest
public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its
headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.