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JoAnna Suriani, counsel at Protect Democracy, said the lawsuit will “ensure that the federal government can no longer use unconstitutional surveillance tactics to silence its critics and sideline the observers who protect our communities.”
Hilton and Fagan are both represented by lawyers from the national nonprofit Protect Democracy. JoAnna Suriani said her clients are requesting class action status so they can represent other observers across the country who have been told by ICE agents that they were being added to a government database.
“They were there to bear witness,” Suriani said. “They were there to record, which they have a right to do.”
On Tuesday I emailed with Ian Bassin at Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan organization that, well, helps protect democracy. He shared a different proposal for state legislation designed to hold federal officials accountable for violating constitutional rights.
It’s called the Universal Constitutional Remedies Act, and it’s a state law that would grant citizens the right to sue federal, state or local officials in state court for violations of the federal Constitution.
As Bassin explained via email, the constitutional theory behind the law is that “federal law only supersedes state law when federal authority is exercised ‘in pursuance’ of the Constitution. And unconstitutional acts are the definition of acts not taken ‘in pursuance’ of the Constitution.”
“The DNI was created to be a high-level intelligence coordinator, not a field operator. By personally participating in a raid and acting as a switchboard for the president, Gabbard has traded her statutory mandate for a partisan performance,” Alexandra Chandler, director of Impact Programs, Free and Fair Elections, Protect Democracy, told Newsweek on Monday.
“This invites damning claims of undue influence and selective prosecution, effectively handing a roadmap to the defense in a future case. When the lines between national intelligence, domestic law enforcement, and the president’s personal grudges are so erased, any resulting prosecution looks less like the rule of law and more like a political hit.”
Jared Davidson, counsel at Protect Democracy, also worked on the legal challenge. He noted that Gibney’s ruling could open up lawsuits in other former Confederate states that agreed to similar terms to be readmitted to Congress after the Civil War.
“We’re very excited by the prospect that this decision provides a pathway, not only to restoring the rights of Virginians, but also finally, fulfilling the promise of Reconstruction throughout the South,” Davidson told VPM News.
“Kristi Noem didn’t come up with the idea of calling protesters terrorists. Trump did,” said Amanda Carpenter, a former GOP Senate aide and now a researcher with the nonprofit group Protect Democracy.
“Trump owns the unlawful ICE operations,” said Carpenter, who was among many democracy advocates and authoritarian experts who warned that Trump would rule as an autocrat if returned to power. “He can move around and replace people in charge, but he is the one putting masked federal agents in the streets, issuing orders wrongly characterizing those who challenge his policies as domestic terrorists, and leading these authoritarian policies.”
Attorney Jared Davidson of Protect Democracy, representing the disenfranchised voters, said the ruling opens the door for disenfranchised voters in other southern states with readmission acts.
“While this decision applies only to Virginia, it provides a pathway for individuals in other former Confederate states across the South to have their voting rights protected,” Davidson said.
Beau Tremitiere, counsel and deputy impact director at Protect Democracy, said on Jan. 20 that attempts to suppress veterans’ speech is “not just illegal – it’s un-American.”
“Our national security is strengthened − not weakened − when those with firsthand expertise can speak openly and inform public debate on matters involving the military and our defense,” he said.
“The pardons for Jan. 6 rioters were extended to all violent criminals, his DOGE disaster with (billionaire donor Elon) Musk, his reckless foreign policy adventurism, gross politicization of the Justice Department and deployment of the military to 10 American cities are all instances where the stated threat was not taken seriously enough by people,” said Amanda Carpenter, once a Republican Senate aide and now a researcher with the Protect Democracy nonprofit group.
“A lot of people are realizing the two-tiered system of justice we have right now,” said Cameron Kistler, legal counsel for the nonprofit Protect Democracy. The ability to sue for damages, he added, should depend on whether an officer violated the Constitution, “not what badge they’re carrying when they shoot” someone.
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