From the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists
Marc Murphy, President
There’s a reason free speech and freedom of the press are the first of the essential liberties enshrined as the Bill of Rights in our Constitution. If people aren’t free to speak and assemble and if the press isn’t free to report those protected activities the government can conduct its business in secret and lawlessly. Journalists stand on the line that divides democracy and tyranny. Only tyrants attack journalists. Only tyrants arrest journalists.
Our members are artists, commentators, and thought leaders. They are journalists. We stand with Don Lemon and other journalists who have been arrested, threatened, and attacked. The Trump Administration’s arrest of Don Lemon for the constitutionally protected act of reporting in Minnesota is the act of a tyrant. Previous efforts to indict and arrest Mr. Lemon had been consistently rejected by prosecutors and federal judges as clearly contrary to the law, the Constitution, and established principles of democracy. Despite this, the Administration weaponized the President’s now personal prosecutors from the headquarters of the Department of Justice to make Don Lemon’s arrest. Those lawyers should be disbarred. Mr. Lemon should be freed.
This arrest is about more than Don Lemon. It is intended as a threat to all Americans and in particular those who do the hard work of putting the words and principles of the First Amendment into action. The AAEC and its members are not afraid. We will continue to fight this and any tyrant who threatens the freedoms for which all Americans should stand.
Marc Murphy is the President of the AAEC and a lawyer and law professor.
