Proud Boys’ First Amendment Claims Have Been Rejected

Proud Boys
Proud Boys

A judge at the Federal level has deemed it necessary for the conspiracy case against 4 Proud Boys leaders to move forward. This would be in accordance with the Capitol Riots on the 6th of January, as the judge periodically rejected their bid to throw out the charges placed against them.

The Judge in question, Timothy Kelly, put up an opinion issue of 43 pages on Tuesday, where he sided with the Department of Justice on several key questions of a legal nature- which further provided momentum to prosecutors as they started preparing for the first wave of the trials for the Capitol Riots to start beginning in February. 

Proud Boys Accused Of Felony Obstruction

Kelly also greenlit the prosecutor’s use of a charge for felony obstruction against the Proud Boys leaders- Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, and Charles Donohoe. The judge also further rejected the claims of the defendants that the riot would have been a demonstration protected under the First Amendment as prescribed in the Constitution of the country. 

Timothy Kelly further wrote that no matter the political motivations of the defendants, or the political messages that the Proud Boys wanted to perpetrate, this conduct from them was simply not protected under the First Amendment. He further stated that the defendants were not being charged with something like wearing black armbands, or burning flags, but something far more serious. In fact, if their conduct had some expressive aspect, it lost the protection of the First Amendment. 

The charge of felony obstruction, which brings with itself a prison term of 20 years has been the cornerstone for the most serious cases related to the Capitol Riots. And now, the Proud Boys could be a part of it.