amicus brief<\/a> in Upsolve, Inc. v. James, now on petition to the Supreme Court, to protect the First Amendment rights of Upsolve, Rev. Udo-Okon, and the countless New Yorkers seeking their advice.<\/p>\nThese statutes are content-based restrictions on speech<\/p>\n
When the government restricts speech, courts usually ask whether the law targets the speech\u2019s content or whether it applies regardless of the message. A noise ordinance, for example, treats every message the same; that\u2019s a \u201ccontent-neutral\u201d restriction, and courts give the government more leeway to enact it. But a law that singles out a particular topic or type of message is \u201ccontent-based,\u201d and the government faces a much steeper burden to prove the restriction is justified.<\/p>\n
The Second Circuit agreed that New York\u2019s UPL statutes regulate speech as applied here\u2014Rev. Udo-Okon wants to communicate advice, not draft pleadings or appear in court\u2014but classified the restriction as content neutral, giving the government an easier path to prove its restriction is lawful.<\/p>\n
But as PLF\u2019s brief explains, UPL statutes target a specific category of speech: legal advice. To enforce them, the government must examine the speech\u2019s content and decide whether those words constitute individualized legal guidance.<\/p>\n
To determine whether someone has violated the statute, the government must evaluate what was said\u2014whether the words constitute legal advice rather than, say, an intellectual debate or casual conversation. A restriction that requires the government to assess the substance of speech to decide whether a law has been broken is, by definition, content-based and warrants the Constitution\u2019s strongest protection.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, as PLF\u2019s brief explains, the Second Circuit \u201conly looked at one side of the First Amendment coin when it held that the UPL statute is content-neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n
The First Amendment protects listeners, too<\/p>\n
First Amendment cases tend to focus on the speaker. But the Supreme Court has long recognized that freedom of speech protects the right to listen no less than the right to speak.<\/p>\n
The listeners here are New Yorkers served with (often meritless) debt-collection complaints who cannot afford an attorney and are faced with navigating legal jargon on a state-provided form. When Rev. Udo-Okon tries to refer them to outside legal aid agencies, they land on long waiting lists and often don\u2019t receive help until it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlanners and regulators have often thought to keep the public in the dark for their own good or for the good of others,\u201d explains the brief, condemning this \u201cbabyproofing of the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLimiting who they may speak with on these topics to a select few whom they cannot afford to pay is like blocking a drowning man from seizing a life ring because it wasn\u2019t thrown by a licensed lifeguard.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the people in Rev. Udo-Okon\u2019s community, the stakes couldn\u2019t be more concrete. They don\u2019t need expensive legal counsel\u2014just assistance on a one-page form. The First Amendment protects their right to receive that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In New York, a debt collector can sue you for money you don\u2019t owe\u2014and win, if you don\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-162840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}