First Amendment
The government cannot punish people for what they say, what they teach, or how they assemble. The firm represents people whose free-speech rights have been infringed by government agencies and public institutions, including universities, in claims to vindicate expression the Constitution protects.
Overview
First Amendment cases arise when a public body uses its authority to silence, punish, or chill protected expression: an arrest aimed at a protester, discipline aimed at a professor, an ordinance drawn to reach disfavored speech. Because the actor is the government, these claims are brought under Section 1983 and the Constitution directly, and they often move quickly, on injunctions and emergency relief as well as damages.
Initial consultation is free. Fee arrangements depend on the nature of the case; we will explain the options for your matter when you get in touch.
Free speech and retaliation
The core of the First Amendment is the rule that the government may not retaliate against people for protected speech. The firm represents people penalized for criticizing officials, for reporting on or recording the government, or for expressing views a public body wanted suppressed, whether the retaliation takes the form of an arrest, a firing, a charge, or another official act.
Academic freedom and higher education
Faculty and students at public institutions, and at private universities that hold themselves out as committed to free expression, have expression rights that the institution cannot lightly override. The firm represents professors and others in academic-freedom disputes. It filed suit on behalf of three Emory University professors after the university pursued charges against them following a 2024 campus protest; the charges were later dismissed. The matter has been covered by the Associated Press and other outlets.
Protest and assembly
The right to assemble and protest is among the most established in the First Amendment, and also among the most frequently tested, through arrests at demonstrations, selective enforcement of permit and ordinance rules, and charges brought to break up an assembly. The firm represents people arrested or charged for participating in protected protest and assembly.
Challenges to government silencing
Some First Amendment cases are not about a single arrest but about a rule or practice: a policy that conditions a benefit on giving up expression, a scheme that lets officials pick and choose which speakers to allow. The firm challenges laws and practices that let the government silence people, seeking to strike them down or narrow them, not just to compensate the person in front of it.
Coverage: MSGF’s First Amendment work has been covered by the Associated Press, The Emory Wheel, and others. See our news.
Representative results
A series of civil rights settlements against a Georgia city and its police officers, recovering more than $1,000,000 for clients who were falsely arrested or punished for speaking out.
A settlement resolving a First Amendment claim over religious ministry in a county jail.
Representative work
Briefs and filings in this area, with the documents as filed.
Amicus brief for University of Mississippi faculty in a First Amendment appeal
Filed on behalf of three University of Mississippi faculty members, supporting the appeal of a university employee fired over a social media post. The brief sets out the university’s own history of suppressing speech on matters of public concern, and argues that history is the lens through which its stated reason for the firing should be read.
Read the filingLawsuit for three Emory professors arrested at a 2024 campus protest
Filed for three tenured professors who were arrested and charged while observing a 2024 campus protest, charges later dismissed. The complaint alleges Emory violated its own open-expression policies and falsely imprisoned them, and seeks damages and their defense costs.
Read the filing