On May 7, 2020, the American Freedom Law Center filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his police commissioner.
The lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of political activist Pamela Geller, challenges Mayor de Blasio’s recent announcement that, pursuant to his executive orders, the First Amendment no longer applies in the City of New York as he has made it unlawful to peaceably assemble and protest.
Geller is an author, a conservative blogger, and champion for the First Amendment. In addition to successfully challenging government restrictions on free speech in New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Seattle, she was the organizer of the successful public protest of the Ground Zero mosque construction in Lower Manhattan.
But for Mayor de Blasio’s suspension of the First Amendment, Geller would organize and participate in a public protest of de Blasio’s policies, including the draconian restrictions he has imposed upon fundamental liberties during the COVID-19 pandemic.