Breaking: NH Citizens (NH9) Sue Gov. Chris Sununu and NH State Police

Just days after the third anniversary of the wrongful arrest of nine New Hampshire citizens during an Executive Council meeting, these defendants are now plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Governor Chris Sununu and the NH State Police.

The Civil Suit claims that,

Count I – Violations of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution ensures the peoples’ right to freedom of speech, freedom of peaceable assembly and the right to redress governmental grievances. The protections of the First Amendment are applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

35. As more fully articulated, supra, the Defendants’ collective actions denied the Plaintiffs’ their
    Constitutional right of freedom of speech by preventing the Plaintiffs from participating in
    the public comment portion of the October 13, 2021, Executive Council Meeting. The
    Defendants denied the Plaintiffs the opportunity to publicly comment of the agenda items,
    which was the sole purpose of the October 13 ,2021, Executive Council meeting. But for the
    actions of the Defendants’, the Plaintiffs could have, and would have, exercised their rights to
    comment on the Executive Council’s agenda items.
36. Moreover, the Defendants’ actions further denied the Plaintiffs the right to redress actions
    being taken, or about to be taken, by the Executive Council.
37. Also, as the Plaintiffs did nothing to disrupt the October 13, 2021, meeting, nor did they
    engage in any disorderly conduct, the actions of the Defendants also violated the Plaintiffs’
    Constitutional right to peaceably assembly.
38. Based upon the foregoing, the Plaintiffs aver that their First Amendment Rights have been
    violated by the Defendants.

Additional counts cite violations of the Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments, as well as additional counts (seven in total). I can’t speak to the specific legal claims, but generally, we’ve been writing about this for three years.

There is concrete evidence that no disruption occurred. The governor appears to signal the State Police to detain and arrest people known to them in the crowd, which suggests premeditation, intimidation, and violation of the rights enumerated in the civil suit.

We’ve covered this story since day one, from live video of the event to the arrests and after. We covered the AG finding no reasonable way to proceed with prosecution, an admission that the state had no case, and allegations that the governor pressured state representatives to ignore what appeared to be unlawful arrests of their constituents.

We have more coverage and background here and here.

Here is the civil suit.