Several civil rights organizations including the ACLU are asking a state appeals court to throw out a no-contact order against Amanda Wallace, a Durham activist accused of harassing a county official.
The appeal contends that the no-contact order—issued in December on behalf of Durham County Department of Social Services Director Maggie Clapp—violates the First Amendment twice: once by curbing Wallace’s speech and movement in response to protected criticism of a public official, and again by drawing those limits so vaguely that Wallace can’t tell what’s forbidden, thus casting a chilling effect over her advocacy work as a whole.
Wallace runs an organization called Operation Stop CPS that advocates for child protective services reform. At protests, she frequently likens family separation practices to “kidnapping” and “genocide,” terms she has said match the severity of what families endure when the system takes their children…