Friends of the Freedom Center,
It has been a fantastic month for the First Amendment. Not only has the U.S. Supreme Court continued its trend toward severely limiting the government’s authority to interfere with speech, yesterday we got the very exciting news that our friends at the Institute for Justice won a major free speech victory before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals! These rulings may have enormous implications for all sorts of government limitations on expressive freedom – including our Kansas City Premier Apartments case. Today I am pleased to be sending the second letter in the last month notifying the Missouri Supreme Court that there is powerful new precedent in support of our client’s position.
Next week will be particularly exciting. On Monday I will have the pleasure of appearing on St. Louis Public Radio as part of the monthly Legal Roundtable discussion on Don Marsh’s “St. Louis on the Air” show. As with my previous appearances on the show, the one-hour conversation about important cases nationwide will air live at 11:00 am on KWMU 90.7 and will thereafter be available as a podcast on the radio station’s website. Next week will also mark the first major hearing in our Girl Scout Cookie Stand case – which becomes more important with each passing day as local officials all over the country continue to clamp down on kid-run concession stands. The City of Hazelwood filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the Mills family must jump through meaningless bureaucratic hoops before the courts may hear their claims, although our written response thoroughly refuted the City’s position. We will be arguing the City’s motion before a St. Louis County judge on the morning of Thursday, July 21. The hearing should be open to the public, and we would love for any Freedom Center supporters in the St. Louis area to come see us in action!
For all of the exciting things that are happening, I have to say that the Freedom Center is on the edge of a significant financial challenge. In the lead-up to our September trial in Brooke Gray’s case we will face thousands of dollars in expenses and, frankly, we are not yet certain where that money will come from. While Jenifer and I are incredibly honored that more than sixty individuals have already chipped in to help us advance liberty in the courts of law and the court of public opinion, we very much need to identify and reach out to many more who can help us to meet these expenses. If you have not yet contributed to the Freedom Center, please consider doing so even if you can only manage a small amount each month – smaller contributions really do add up – and please help us reach out to others (particularly business owners and community groups) who might be interested in our work! Financial support from people like you is the ONLY way we will be able to keep up this fight.
For Liberty,
Dave Roland
Director of Litigation