The Alliance Defending Freedom, an influential legal group that advocates for religious freedom, has launched a new litigation team called the Center for Free Speech, which will focus on combating the rise of global censorship.
ADF has already won major victories for religious freedom and free speech in numerous landmark cases, including, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights, 303 Creative v. Elenis, and NIFLA v. Becerra. And ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom has secured more than 400 victories protecting students’ free-speech rights.
Now, with the Center for Free Speech, ADF will fight to “defend every person’s right to speak freely and hold the government and powerful corporations accountable when they unlawfully censor or punish speech,” the group said.
“This team’s efforts will include suing private-sector censors who are working with the government or abusing their power to suppress disfavored speech or deplatform speakers.”
From social media companies apparently working with the federal government and supposed truth-rating operations like NewsGuard, to State Department propaganda agencies like the Global Engagement Center, Americans are under greater threat than ever of being censored.
ADF Senior Counsel Phil Sechler, who will serve as director of the Center for Free Speech, told The Daily Wire that these groups and any other entity that tries to censor Americans under the guise of stopping “misinformation” will be held to account.
“A new era of censorship calls for innovative strategies and a renewed focus on protecting speech,” Sechler said. “A complex international web of shadowy government actors, nonprofit groups, and for-profit corporations are colluding to stop speech they don’t like, chanting buzzwords like ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ as they go,” Sechler noted.
“The Center for Free Speech will work to expose what they’re doing and hold them accountable under the law.”
The Center for Free Speech has already started litigating three free speech cases, including The Babylon Bee v. Bonta, which takes on a new California law that bans certain election-related speech, including even satire.
The Center is also taking on Rumble v. Bonta, targeting another California law that would require social media platforms to act as the government’s censorship police and remove or label certain election-related content. Litigation is also underway in Studnicki v. Sage Publications, which centers around an academic publisher improperly retracting pro-life papers.
“In a world experiencing mounting censorship, it’s critical that we protect each person’s right to speak freely,” Sechler added. “Speech is an intrinsic part of what it means to be human, and indispensable to a free society. It’s a fundamental human right, guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and every major human rights treaty around the world.”
