1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

Mike Lawler have scheduled a Town Hall meeting at Clarkstown High School on April 27, 2025. How can you ban signs which people use to express their First Amendment-protected speech at such a public meeting? How can you dictate that people in attendance at this public meeting not record your responses to questions and do whatever they wish to publish those responses and theirs to the general public? How can you invite your preferred guests before allowing the general public to attend? The First Amendment is a great equalizer, and you cannot negate its grandeur with petty rules intended to stifle expression. The meeting you have planned unlawfully contravenes the First Amendment as it seeks to restrict expressive speech in a public forum and these restrictions cannot be justified as prior restraints necessary to ensure the orderly conduct of your meeting. I commend you to relax these anti-constitutional restrictions and face the full range of your constituents' views. It appears all too clear that your restrictions are intended to stifle expression against your votes and the positions of your caucus which significantly curtail critical health care and education programs like HEAD START upon which many of your constituents rely. I am also quite sure many want to speak out against your party's ongoing denial of American history and your own steadfast support for a President to whom the rule of law is tantamount to toilet paper. In context, all can easily understand why you would choose to suppress the free expression of your constituents. Their responses frighten you. As a pretext, you pretend that your safety is imperiled. In fact, your party loyalty and votes imperil your constituents. There is nowhere to hide from the heinous agenda you have embraced and you will have to defend it, whether at this meeting or others.