So Much for Free Speech. A Year of Trump’s Attacks on the First Amendment
The ICE killing of Renee Good marks a turning point in Trump’s unprecedented assault on the right to protest, record ICE activity, and express political dissent without fear of government retaliation.
The horror and outrage over last week’s killing of Renee Nicole Good has centered around the legality of ICE – its rogue violence, the Trump administration’s icing out of state investigators and, on Tuesday, the resignation of numerous Justice Department lawyers after they were reportedly instructed to investigate the actions of Good’s widow at the scene – not Jonathan Ross, the officer who shot her three times, including in the face.
Yet the implications of the incident reach far more deeply, striking at the heart of American democracy’s existential crisis and marking a turning point in Trump’s unprecedented assault on core First Amendment rights – specifically the right to protest, record ICE activity, and express political dissent without fear of government retaliation.
At the time of her death, Good was participating in a community effort to check license plates and flag vehicles residents don’t recognize, use whistles to alert one another of ICE activity, and even drop groceries off to neighbors afraid to leave their homes. The neighborhood in Minneapolis had gone on high alert following a DHS announcement of increased immigration enforcement in the area. Video shows that Good, with the family dog in the car, was pulling away from the scene when Ross shot and killed her.
The Trump administration has called this kind of organized neighborhood activity “domestic terrorism.” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem characterized videotaping of agents as “violence” and “doxxing,” while officials have threatened to prosecute those who do so.
What Good and her Minneapolis neighbors were engaging in was core speech and assembly. Courts have specifically held that the First Amendment establishes a fundamental right to observe and record “law enforcement” officers (if ICE can be called that) carrying out their duties in public. The Supreme Court has stated that it “is beyond debate that freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect of the ‘liberty’ assured by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” as well, “which embraces freedom of speech.”
That Good was killed for engaging in First Amendment activity protected by the Fourteenth Amendment – and that the Trump administration is backing Ross while maligning Good and her wife – shows how far America has gone down the dark tunnel of fascism. It’s dire. It’s urgent. It’s likely going to get much worse.
To help capture the vastness of the problem, here’s a (non-exhaustive) highlight reel of last year’s blows to the First Amendment: