Chelsea Green Joins Lawsuit Alleging Sen. Elizabeth Warren Violated First Amendment, Tried to Stop Amazon From Selling ‘Truth About COVID-19’
Chelsea Green Joins Lawsuit Alleging Sen. Elizabeth Warren Violated First Amendment, Tried to Stop Amazon From Selling ‘Truth About COVID-19’
Contact:
Margo Baldwin, [email protected], 703-661-1589
Katherine Paul, [email protected], 207-653-3090
SEATTLE – Nov. 8, 2021 – A lawsuit (2:21-cv-01508 Kennedy et al v. Warren) filed today against Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) alleges the senator violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by seeking to stop booksellers from selling and/or promoting the plaintiffs’ book, “The Truth About COVID-19: Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and the New Normal.”
The book’s co-authors, Dr. Joseph Mercola and Ronald Cummins, along with author of the foreword, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and publisher, Chelsea Green Publishing, Inc., filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
The complaint relates to a letter from Warren to Amazon.com, Inc., the world’s largest bookseller, warning Amazon’s “peddling” of plaintiffs’ book is “potentially unlawful.”
The letter does not specify what laws Amazon is “potentially” breaking.
According to the complaint, in Bantam Books v. Sullivan, the U.S. Supreme Court held state officials violated the First Amendment by sending letters to booksellers warning the sale of certain books was potentially unlawful.
Warren’s letter calls on Amazon to stop selling ‘The Truth About COVID-19’ on the grounds it purportedly contains “vaccine misinformation.” The term “vaccine misinformation,” as Warren uses it, refers to any speech challenging the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines, even when that speech consists of factually accurate information or reasonable and protected opinion.
Plaintiffs allege Warren’s letter contained blatant falsehoods and unsubstantiated accusations about the book and that Warren’s claims, even if correct, would not alter the book’s constitutional protectedness.
“Senator Warren broke the law and betrayed our fundamental right to free speech,” said Dr. Joseph Mercola, founder of Mercola.com, a natural health website. “No politician is above the law, I will do everything in my power to defend my constitutional rights as an American.”
Ronnie Cummins, co-founder of the Organic Consumers Association, said: “Constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech is necessary if we are to achieve a system of participatory democracy and solve the interrelated crises that threaten our survival — health, food, environment, climate, politics.”
“The government trying to ban books is a very dangerous slippery slope to totalitarianism and cannot be allowed,” said Margo Baldwin, Chelsea Green president and publisher.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., chairman, Children’s Health Defense, said: “If a government can hide what it’s doing by censoring its opponents and silencing dissonants, it has license to do anything that it wants. Sen. Warren must be held accountable.”
Copy of the complaint available on request
Download a copy of the release here
Vermont-based Chelsea Green Publishing, founded in 1984, is an American publisher of non-fiction books focusing on nature and the environment, organic food and agriculture, holistic health, and community resilience.