Attorneys asks appeals court to dismiss criminal case against pro-life investigator
(Liberty Counsel) Liberty Counsel filed an appeal to the California First District Court of Appeal pursuing the dismissal of the criminal case against Sandra Merritt brought by former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for her undercover journalism and videos which exposed Planned Parenthood’s trade in baby body parts.
Liberty Counsel’s appeal asks the State Court of Appeal to dismiss the remaining criminal counts because those counts are based on California’s recording law. The Ninth Circuit federal Court of Appeals recently ruled that Oregon’s substantially similar recording law violates the First Amendment Free Speech Clause.
In a recent precedent set by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Project Veritas v. Schmidt, Oregon’s similar ban on surreptitious recordings of conversations was determined to be a content-based restriction infringing on free speech. California’s Penal Code section 632(a) is nearly identical to Oregon’s unconstitutional statute. It should suffer the same fate and Merritt’s case should be dismissed.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The criminal charges are based on an unconstitutional recording law. Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong. All her recordings were done in public places. The decision from the Ninth Circuit declaring that Oregon’s recording law is unconstitutional justifies dismissing the remaining criminal counts against Sandra Merritt.”
Editor’s Note: This press release was published at Liberty Counsel.
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