Trump Judge Rules Armed Vigilantes Filming Voters Is 'Free Speech'

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Hey, remember that time in 2008 when four Black guys stood outside a polling station — literally holding the door open for little old white ladies — in Philadelphia and found themselves on the sharp end of a federal indictment for voter intimidation? Remember when the case fell apart and Republicans screeched about it for years on end?

TIME MACHINE! Fox & Friends: New Black Panthers Back And Intimidating Voters By Holding Door Open For Old White Ladies 

Let's keep that in mind when we talk about the case of the vigilantes intimidating voters outside ballot drop boxes in Arizona to ensure "election integrity." Because those assholes have gotten a rather different reception, both in the courts and on Fox News.

“A grandmother in AZ confronted two armed men in tactical gear sitting on a ballot drop box. This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party.”

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦) 1666696318 

Two years ago, MAGA world convinced itself that God King Donald Trump could not possibly have lost the 2020 election without rampant fraud. When no evidence of that fraud emerged — and finding themselves the butt of jokes about Italian space lasers and Chinese thermostats — the wingers made some up with the help of Dinesh D'Souza and his pals at True the Vote. What if they recast everyone who deposits multiple ballots in a drop box as a "mule"? Or what if they cast everyone who walked by those boxes more than once as one? It all just makes too much sense!

So a bunch of cosplay weirdos from groups calling themselves Lions of Liberty LLC, the Yavapai County Preparedness Team, and Clean Elections USA parked themselves near ballot drop boxes in Arizona and started filming anyone depositing more than one ballot — something which is entirely legal for family members and caregivers — taking down their license plates and reporting them to the police. Which is very clearly voter intimidation designed to discourage Americans from helping family members cast legal ballots. And not for nothing, but Dinesh and his pals just got sued for defamation because they used footage of a Black man legally casting ballots for his family in Georgia and falsely described him as a mule engaged in criminal activity.

IT WAS BAD Y'ALL! Dinesh D'Souza Defames, Gets D'Sued. DOH! 

Last week, the League of Women Voters and the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans sued in federal court in Arizona alleging "an escalating scheme of voter intimidation and harassment in Arizona" relying on "(1) intimidating voters by collecting their personal information and surveilling them while carrying firearms and wearing military tactical gear, and (2) propagating false information to citizens about the manner in which they can lawfully vote and groundlessly claiming that voters are engaged in election crimes, thereby threatening voters’ reputation and personal safety." (The two cases were originally separate, but have been consolidated.) They demanded that the court find that the vigilante campaign violates the Voting Rights Act and should be permanently enjoined.

But Judge Michael Liburdi, a 45-year-old Trump appointee, ruled in the Arizona Alliance case that the vigilantes were engaged in protected First Amendment activity, that the First Amendment encompasses a right to film matters of public interest, that there is no "true threat" inherent in following voters and filming them after they cast their ballots, and that "Defendants’ conduct does not fall into any traditionally recognized category of voter intimidation." In his denial of a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, Liburdi wrote:

Plaintiffs have not provided the Court with any evidence that Defendants’ conduct constitutes a true threat. On this record, Defendants have not made any statements threatening to commit acts of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals. There is no evidence that Defendants have publicly posted any voter’s names, home addresses, occupations, or other personal information. In fact, Jennings continuously states that her volunteers are to “follow laws” and that “[t]hose who choose to break the law will be seen as an infiltrator intent on causing [CEUSA] harm.”

It's not as if they were Black guys standing outside a polling station, he did not add .

The Justice Department disagreed. In a statement of interest filed yesterday it argued that the alleged conduct may violate Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which "broadly prohibits threats and acts of intimidation and coercion at all stages of the voting process, including voters’ depositing of ballots in a drop box where provided for by state or local law." The DOJ argues that the issue isn't whether the vigilantes' activity constitutes a "true threat," but rather whether it "has the prohibited effect of intimidating, threatening, or coercing voters, or attempting to do so."

Polling-place conduct, such as private surveillance or investigation, that would ordinarily tend to intimidate voters and has little salutary purpose has long been considered to implicate Section 11(b). And while balancing any prohibition on conduct or potential remedy against an individual’s First Amendment rights can present a fact-intensive inquiry, protecting voters’ right to cast their ballot without the specter of threats, intimidation, or coercion is fully consistent with appropriately crafted limitations on private actors’ conduct.

We are now waiting to see if Judge Liburdi backs down after another hearing this afternoon in which the League of Women Voters makes its case for injunctive relief, and meanwhile the plaintiffs have vowed to appeal the prior order to the Ninth Circuit. Chances of further fuckery: 100 percent.

[ League of Women Voters v. Lions of Liberty LLC , Docket via Court Listener / Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans v. Clean Elections USA , Docket via Court Listener]

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