The settlement agreement requiring victims to drop support of certain bills was “extraordinary” as it allows one branch of government to demand citizens not engage in advocacy protected by the First Amendment, said James Marsh, an attorney whose White Plains, New York Marsh Law Firm represents sexual abuse victims.
“It’s like basically giving the residents of Flint a bottle of water in exchange for them not exercising their First Amendment rights to petition the Legislature,” said Marsh, whose firm tweeted about the MSU settlement.
A University of Michigan Law School graduate who still owns property in the state, Marsh, partner of New York-based Marsh Law Firm, specializes in representing victims in Title IX, sexual abuse and child pornography cases.
He said the agreement goes beyond the silence of a non-disclosure agreement, which would require the plaintiff to refrain from talking about the event in question or the existence of the agreement.
“This is not a private organization,” Marsh said. “This is the government that’s acting here, and these are First Amendment rights.”
