United States v. Lemon

United States v. Lemon

On August 12, 2026, the Knight Institute joined the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 44 other news and media organizations in filing an amicus brief in support of Don Lemon’s and Georgia Fort’s motions to dismiss the superseding indictment against them on First Amendment grounds. On January 30, 2026, the government arrested independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort in connection with their reporting during a January 18, 2026, protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Lemon and Fort were charged with violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinical Entrances (“FACE”) Act, 18 U.S.C. § 248, and for conspiracy against rights criminalized by statute, 18 U.S.C. § 241. The Knight Institute’s amicus brief argues that the FACE Act and Section 241 cannot be applied to Lemon’s and Fort’s newsgathering conduct for two reasons. First, they lacked the specific intent required by the statutes because they were at the protests with the intent to cover a news story, not to deprive anyone of the “right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.” Second, if the statutes were interpreted to extend to journalistic activity, the statutes would be unconstitutionally vague and overbroad because they could be construed to apply to reporting in public spaces. Status: Briefing on motion to dismiss ongoing. Case information: United States v. Levy Armstrong, No. 0:26-cr-00025 (D. Minn.).