WASHINGTON – Organizations, former American Civil Liberties Union president Nadine Strossen and other civil rights activists, and entertainers Penn and Teller have filed briefs supporting the New Civil Liberties Alliance’s arguments in the case FDRLST Media v. NLRB, NCLA officials said in a news release.
NCLA’s appellate brief asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to reverse the National Labor Relations Board’s ruling from last November, which concluded that Federalist owner Ben Domenech’s satirical tweet from his personal account constituted an unfair labor practice by his employer.
FDRLST Media, publisher of the online magazine The Federalist, is fighting back because the NLRB has neither subject-matter jurisdiction over this case nor personal jurisdiction over the company, according to the news release.
Eighteen people and organizations filed six briefs supporting of FDRLST Media and against NLRB’s position, according to the news release. Cato Institute, Reason Foundation, Individual Rights Foundation, DKT Liberty Project, Nadine Strossen, P.J. O’Rourke, Clay Calvert, Robert Corn-Revere, Michael James Barton, and entertainers Penn & Teller filed jointly; five organizations and two Federalist employees filed separate briefs.
The briefs contend that individuals have the right to speak freely and satirically to express their personal views under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, according to the news release.