The First Amendment Project is the only nonprofit organization in the country dedicated to providing free and low cost legal services exclusively on free speech and press issues and they are in fund raising mode. Located in the East Bay and staffed by some of the Bay Areas best legal minds, they have been at it for over a decade.

Consider this:

* Beth Armstrong was sued by her landlords after she notified the local Adult Protective Services agency of her suspicions that an elderly co-tenant was being financially exploited. FAP moved the court to dismiss the case under the California anti-SLAPP statute, arguing that Ms. Armstrong could not be liable for exercising her First Amendment right to inform the government. The court agreed and dismissed the action against Ms. Armstrong.

* After the passage of the global warming legislation, Gov. Schwarzenegger directed the California EPA to establish a “market advisory committee” to provide the industry perspective on how to establish a proposed cap-and-trade plan for CO2. But the market advisory committee defied open meeting laws and met only in unannounced, closed sessions. FAP represented Comité Pro Uno, a community based non profit organization dedicated to seek environmental justice in the communities of Southeast Los Angeles County, which wanted to ensure the public had access to the market advisory committee, and formally demanded that Cal EPA make public all records of the market advisory committee, and require the committee to open its meetings to the public. Cal EPA agreed.

* FAP represented freelance videographer/journalist Josh Wolf in his efforts to secure his release from federal confinement for refusing to comply with a subpoena demanding that he testify before a federal grand jury as to and produce otherwise unpublished video of his newsgathering activities around a San Francisco street demonstration. FAP led the negotiations that resulted in Wolf’s release after seven months without having to testify before the grand jury.

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