Profs and Pints Onlinepresents: “Paramilitaries as Constitutional Threats,” with Mary McCord, visiting professor and legal director at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.

Increasingly, heavily armed private militias are engaging in unlawful and dangerous behavior that threatens First Amendment rights around the country.  Before their recent appearances at racial justice protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd—intimidating protesters and chilling their participation in protected speech and assembly—they regularly showed up at white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, and elsewhere.  Militia members also have appeared in large numbers at county board meetings in states across the nation, pressuring them to become Second Amendment sanctuaries in opposition to gun-safety legislation. In April, they brought their guns to statehouses and governors’ mansions, emboldened by President Trump’s tweets to “LIBERATE” the states from shut-down orders issued to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Most recently, the Department of Homeland Security’s paramilitary units in Portland, Ore., have been accused of recklessly abusing power.

Come join Mary McCord, an expert on constitutional law, for a discussion of such developments and the degree to which they threaten First Amendment rights.

Professor McCord will provide a thorough grounding on the constitutional and legal principles that apply to protest activity and prohibit private armed militias.  She’ll look at how armed militias have frightened people seeking to expressing their views and petition their elected officials. And she’ll talk about how the presence of armed militia members emboldens some protesters in ways that often lead to violence, and how the existence of right-wing militias has understandably encouraged the formation of leftist ones, leading to the face-off between the black NFAC militia and right-wing Three Percenters in Louisville last month.

A former Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice, McCord has since played a key role in the fight to prevent recurrences of the violence that rocked Charlottesville, Va., three years ago, when heavily armed groups descended on the college town for a “Unite the Right” rally.  She’ll discuss how lessons learned then can be applied to prevent violence while protecting First Amendment rights. (Ticket: $12. This talk will remain available in recorded form.)

Profs & Pints Online: Paramilitaries as Constitutional Threats