Police in two Georgia towns—Alpharetta and Blackshear—arrested, searched, and even issued criminal citations against a man for holding a sign intended to raise awareness for homeless veterans. Jeff Gray, a U.S. Army veteran himself, says the police tried to stop him from exercising his First Amendment rights. Now, officials in both cities are facing a federal lawsuit.
"Jeff Gray doesn't need a government-issued permission slip to speak — the First Amendment is his permission slip," said Harrison Rosenthal, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment nonprofit that filed the lawsuits on Gray's behalf. "Speaking out in public areas is a core First Amendment right, whether government officials recognize it or not."
