By Liberty Counsel ——Bio and Archives--March 11, 2024
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Liberty Counsel has asked the California Supreme Court to dismiss 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 previously filed an appeal to the California First District Court of Appeal to dismiss the remaining eight 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. The decision from the Ninth Circuit declaring that Oregon’s recording law is unconstitutional justifies dismissing the remaining criminal counts against Sandra Merritt.”
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Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.