Federal Judge Nixes Teachers Union’s Suit to Stop Attack Video

DETROIT, Mich.—A federal judge on May 8 once again rejected a request by the American Federation of Teachers to stop Project Veritas from releasing information it obtained by sending a spy to work as an intern at the union’s Michigan affiliate under a false name. U.S. District Judge Linda Parker, citing the First Amendment, denied AFT Michigan’s emergency motion for a temporary restraining order intended to prevent teachers from being “falsely disparaged.” “We’ll keep pursuing every possible legal avenue to protect Michigan students and teachers from Project Veritas’ unethical and unlawful smear campaigns,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. Project Veritas targets people, media, and institutions it considers liberal with selectively edited videos and scams such as sending a woman to the Washington Post with false claims that Alabama Republican Senate candidate had gotten her pregnant when she was a teenager. The group released video and documents May 9 it said revealed that the Michigan AFT “protected a teacher after accusations of sexual misconduct with a seven- or eight-year-old girl arose.” Its evidence for that was that the union had represented the teacher, who denied the accusations, in disciplinary proceedings. Read more