Kennedy filed the federal case in June 2022 towards DeSantis, the City of Miami, Miami-Dade County, and FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass, saying he sued to “defend free speech and be sure that unbiased journalists” have entry to publicly funded press conferences. He claimed his placement on the FDLE record and the media-conference ban, which was applied after he loudly criticized DeSantis throughout a 2020 occasion, violated his rights to free speech, due course of, and equal safety.
“The plaintiff has been trying to find solutions from the governor on his administration’s plan for COVID, and different coverage issues, and has repeatedly been prevented from attending occasions and exercising his First Amendment rights,” the lawsuit alleged.
Under the settlement, the governor’s workplace agreed to permit Kennedy to resubscribe to its media advisory e-mail record, from which Kennedy says he was eliminated and blocked after his lawsuit was filed. The settlement additionally required the defendants to supply Kennedy along with his unredacted “situational consciousness” file.
“It’s simply ridiculous that we spent the yr and a half in court docket simply so I can get a doc about myself,” Kennedy tells New Times. “They had the FDLE legal professionals, governor’s workplace legal professionals, and so they wasted God is aware of how a lot of our taxpayer {dollars} hiring outdoors legal professionals, solely to have to come back and settle with a scrappy activist and two good legal professionals who’re focused on authorities transparency and accountability.”
Kennedy says that he’s nonetheless prohibited from attending DeSantis’ governor-related press conferences below the settlement, however he has leeway to attend DeSantis’ presidential marketing campaign occasions. He was represented by attorneys David Geller and Khurrum Wahid within the lawsuit.
A duplicate of the situational consciousness flyer obtained by New Times notes Kennedy and his “associates” haven’t any historical past of violence however “performed direct actions” previously, together with “sleeping dragon” exercise the place protesters chain themselves collectively inside PVC pipe so police can’t simply break them up and take away them. The paperwork record Kennedy’s tackle, private info, automobile, social media. Images of Kennedy and his alleged associates are additionally included.
Before the settlement, FDLE had urged the court docket dismiss the case, claiming the lawsuit sought to enshrine protesters’ potential to disrupt media conferences.
“This reduction would take the type of an order enjoining FDLE from any effort to supply safety which might contain this Plaintiff, and to be compelled to allow the Plaintiff to proceed his efforts to disrupt the decorum of the proceedings to permit him to shout on the Governor throughout press conferences,” the movement argued.
“The reduction sought shouldn’t be an injunction towards a protected constitutional proper, however the correct to interrupt a press convention. No such proper exists,” FDLE argued.
Kennedy made nationwide headlines in July 2020 when he interrupted DeSantis’ press convention at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital and berated the governor for his COVID-19 response.
“Shame on you!” Kennedy shouted. “You are a humiliation! We’re getting record-breaking instances daily, and you’re doing nothing.”
Five months later, Kennedy, along with his press credentials in hand, tried to attend DeSantis’ press convention in Broward County, however a safety guard informed him he was on a restrictive record and couldn’t enter.
In April 2021, Kennedy arrived at PortMiami for an additional press convention the place DeSantis introduced plans to sue the federal authorities over its COVID-related ban on cruise journey. But as quickly as Kennedy parked his automobile, Miami-Dade cops detained him and prohibited him from attending.
Following the incident, Kennedy and Grant Stern, the chief editor of Occupy Democrats, obtained greater than 80 pages of public data that confirmed FDLE had labeled Kennedy as a “identified agitator” and notified police about him forward of the PortMiami press convention. Kennedy stated the data additionally indicated that since July 2020, the division had been monitoring his social media, tackle, automobile, and his so-called associates.
At a press occasion at a National Guard base in Miami in July of 2021, Kennedy stated, he noticed Miami cops and army officers reviewing FDLE paperwork along with his face and private info together with photos of the “identified associates.”
As outlined in his lawsuit, Kennedy describes himself as a journalist who has written for publications for Occupy Democrats and Latino Rebels. He doesn’t conceal his political leanings and maintains that advocacy-driven journalists ought to have entry to politicians’ press occasions.
Thomas Kennedy says a army officer was reviewing a “situational consciousness” flyer on him previous to a press convention held by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021.
Photo by Thomas Kennedy
The governor’s workplace has not responded to a request for remark.
Though he initially sought declaratory and injunctive reduction, Kennedy tells New Times he proposed a settlement settlement with three factors: that he might attend the governor’s press conferences, resubscribe to the governor’s workplace media advisory e-mail record, and obtain the unredacted model of his “situational consciousness” file.
“At the top of the day, we could not get all the things we needed, however we needed to come and make them settle. I’m proud of it,” Kennedy says.