Join our fight to overturn the unconstitutional ban of Militant issue no. 42 by authorities at the Lower Buckeye Jail in Phoenix — the largest detention facility in Arizona. Letters have been arriving at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office from around the country, and more are needed.
“Please reverse the decision to ban the Nov. 11, 2024, issue of the Militant,” wrote Timothy Frankland, a member of American Postal Workers Union Local 7019 in Eagan, Minnesota, in a note sent Jan. 24 to prison officials in Maricopa County. “The impoundment of this issue of the Militant violates the constitutional rights of prisoners to read political literature of their choice and to form their own opinions about important political developments in the U.S. and worldwide.”
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office says issue no. 42 was impounded because of “a photo on the cover of the newspaper that was found to violate MCSO policy,” which “does not allow photos of weaponry.”
The photo illustrates armed Hamas thugs seizing a woman and taking her hostage during the murderous Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom the reactionary outfit carried out in Israel. The photo accompanied an article explaining why the fight against Jew-hatred and the potential for a new Holocaust is central to the working class everywhere, including in the U.S.
“Amnesty International USA is calling on the Ancillary Services Division Commander to overturn the impoundment,” wrote Justin Mazzola in a Jan. 29 letter, “so that subscribers may maintain their connection to the outside world during their incarceration.”
“An image to inform subscribers about current events of the outside world in and of itself and without more should not be a means to violate prisoners’ freedom of expression,” Mazzola wrote. “A blanket ban of all images with weapons without further context of the reasoning for inclusion is far too broad and violates individuals’ right to freedom of expression.”
Earl Christy, a retired member of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, writes from Red House, West Virginia: “I urge you to reverse your decision to ban the issue of the Militant newspaper depicting the same photo of the Hamas terror attack against Jews and others on Oct. 7, 2023, that was published in many other publications, including newspapers. Your decision is a disservice to the U.S. Constitution.”
“If this decision stands, every inmate in Maricopa County will find it extremely difficult to get access to newspapers or TV news, since they all, almost every day, carry news and photographs of Moscow’s war on Ukraine, Israel’s fight to exist as a refuge from Jew-hatred and pogroms and myriad other conflicts that depict weapons,” Militant editor John Studer said.
Militant attorney David Goldstein filed an appeal of the ban Jan. 13. The “confiscation of an inmate’s political literature violates the First Amendment,” he wrote. “It is discriminatory and arbitrary, in violation of the Militant’s rights to Due Process and Equal Protection under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.”
Join the fight to get this impoundment overturned. Spread the word. Mail letters urging the reversal of the ban to Ancillary Services Division Commander, MCSO, 3250 W. Lower Buckeye Road, Phoenix, AZ 85009. Email a copy to mcsocentralmailroom@mcso.maricopa.gov, and also to themilitant@mac.com.