{"id":29424,"date":"2026-04-02T20:27:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=29424"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:27:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:27:27","slug":"pfdf-leads-cohort-fighting-trumps-unconstitutional-media-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=29424","title":{"rendered":"PFDF Leads Cohort Fighting Trump\u2019s Unconstitutional Media Attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"has-underline\">By constitutional design,<\/span> the press is antagonistic to the government. As the late Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote in his opinion defending the publication of the Pentagon Papers more than 50 years ago, \u201cOnly a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Such a free and unrestrained press requires a cohort of committed legal advocates.\u00a0Whether to counter the federal government\u2019s repeated insistence on ignoring freedom of information laws, or the Trump administration\u2019s overt hostility and <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/02\/23\/press-freedom-defense-fund-ftc-media-matters-amicus-brief\/\">retaliation<\/a> against news organizations that confront and debunk its unconstitutional narratives, a robust network of attorneys is needed to protect the press\u2019s constitutional function.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why President Donald Trump\u2019s unconstitutional executive order aiming to punish preeminent United States law firms over their pro bono clients represents an unacceptable attack on the legal profession and poses a threat to an independent press.\u00a0And that is why 42 media organizations and press freedom advocates, led by The Intercept\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/02\/03\/press-freedom-defense-fund-relaunch\/\">Press Freedom Defense Fund<\/a>, filed an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/27995245-perkins-brief-as-filed\/#document\/p1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">amicus brief\u00a0<\/a>Thursday urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to affirm four District Court decisions.\u00a0All four lower courts found the Trump administration\u2019s executive order that imposed sanctions on law firms for representing President Donald Trump\u2019s political opponents unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>The amicus brief, authored by\u00a0Andrew Sellars and Kendra Albert of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.albertsellars.law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Albert Sellars LLP<\/a>, argues that the press plays an essential role as both a proxy for the public and a check on government power. This role requires an oppositional relationship with government interests. The president\u2019s executive orders targeting lawyers with clients opposed to his agenda severely restricts press organizations\u2019 access to legal counsel, particularly for outlets relying on pro bono or reduced-fee representation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn independent media requires First Amendment champions to guarantee citizens access to the information necessary to hold our government accountable,\u201d said David Bralow, PFDF\u2019s legal director. \u201cThis is why The Intercept\u2019s Press Freedom Defense Fund, legal advocates, and other partner organizations nationwide filed an amicus brief to prevent the administration\u2019s unconstitutional efforts to intimidate lawyers fulfilling their professional oaths.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The coalition includes news organizations, press associations, advocacy groups, media law firms, and individual attorneys with over five centuries of collective experience in First Amendment and press freedom issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are honored to represent this august group of news outlets, advocacy organizations and First Amendment attorneys at the D.C. Circuit. The public needs the press, and the press needs independent counsel, who cannot be subject to sanction because the president dislikes their clients,\u201d said Kendra Albert, partner at Albert Sellars LLP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Press Freedom Defense Fund exists for moments like this one. Alongside 42 coalition partners, we are drawing a clear line: a free press is not a privilege this or any administration may revoke,\u201d said Annie Chabel, The Intercept\u2019s CEO. \u201cIt is a constitutional right \u2014 and so is the independent counsel required to defend it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>#PFDF #Leads #Cohort #Fighting #Trumps #Unconstitutional #Media #Attacks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By constitutional design, the &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[246],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}