Petigru Free Speech Defense Reactivates in Charleston, SC

Petigru Free Speech Defense Reactivates in Charleston, SC

Petigru Free Speech Defense (https://www.facebook.com/petigru.free.speech.def) will be reactivated by Lowcountry Up is Good, PAC, Inc. under the leadership of Activist Attorney William J. Hamilton, III, (Admitted to the SC Bar in 1985). Pettigrew Free Speech defense was founded during the time of Occupy Wall Street in Charleston in 2011 to provide counsel and legal assistance to Occupiers arrested during that movements actions. The organization has been reactivated several times since. Over a dozen SC attorneys have been involved. Some members have been involved with free speech issues in Charleston since 1994. We've worked with the ACLU, Unions and national free speech advocates.

14 Years of Protecting Free Speech in Charleston, SC

While Charleston's tight historic public spaces (increasingly privatized) and tourism focused governments do present special challenges to activism and free speech, the area is not so unique that the Constitution of the United States do not apply here. Challenges regarding activism vary throughout the area. We have assisted in filing and assisting others in filing applications for permits. 

We and the ACLU were able to end the illegal prohibition against political activity in Summerville's public parks in 2019. We've helped plan demonstrations to avoid predictable roadblocks and fine avenues for activism which evade Government's desire to silence local citizens so tourists can enjoy “Confederate Disneyland” for Black Lives Matter.

Current Free Speech Issues in the Lowcountry

We're familiar with the speech regimes of the area's various governments. While the landscape is changing rapidly, we've had good luck helping people stay loud and effective in a red state culture which regards citizens as a nuisance.

We have several serous issues which need to be addressed now, including unnecessarily restrictive limits on the use of amplified sound and where people can gather. The Customs House steps, traditionally used for local demonstrations have had their use restricted.

The work group is named after Charleston Attorney James L. Petigru who defended the rights of Northern property owners during the American Civil War here. During the secession convention he famously told a Northern newspaper reporter that, “South Carolina was too small to be a sovereign country and too large to be an insane acylium” during the reporter's visit to his Law Office on St. Michaels Ally (which still stands today).

If You See Free Speech Rights Being Violated or Want to Help

If you are aware of issues arising please take notes, capture video and get the names, addresses, phone numbers and contact information of witnesses. Legal actions aren't won with principles and ideas, but with facts. Dates, locations, times, names, distances and other details matter. Judges do not grant injunctions based on a vague sense of oppression. They will still protect our rights if we can prove they have been violated in ways the law and court decisions prohibit.

To Join the Effort

If you are an attorney, paralegal or private investigator interested in assiting with our work please email William Hamilton at wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or call (843) 870-5299.

We post on blue sky under https://bsky.app/profile/wjhamilton29464.bsky.social and maintain a Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/petigru.free.speech.def Posts include the hashtag #chsresist