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Institute for Justice updates
FIRST AMENDMENT
Citizen Journalist Arrested for Filming Police Fights for Free Speech
Justin Pulliam is an independent journalist in Fort Bend County, Texas, who covers local government issues, often by going to the scene of events himself and filming on-the-ground footage. Although Justin has been filming deputies for years, his relationship with the department took a turn for the worse after a new sheriff took office in 2021. Soon, officers arrested and prosecuted Justin for filming a mental-health call from 130 feet away. Journalism and political commentary like Justin’s are at the heart of the First Amendment, so Justin has teamed up with IJ to fight back.
On this Groundhog Day special we’re sniffing out a couple eternally recurrent subjects: limits on government surveillance and limits on property rights. We’re joined by IJ’s Seth Young and Mike Chase, author of How to Become a Federal Criminal.
Could you identify a “bag of dope” through a tinted car window? A police officer in Euclid, Ohio thought he could, but it turns out the effort wasn’t close enough for government work. Under the Fourth Amendment, at least.
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