Don Lemon Arrest: Laws, Liberty and the Slippery Slope

“I will not be silenced.” That’s the quote making its rounds on social media after former CNN Anchor Don Lemon walked out of a Los Angeles County jail on Thursday. Lemon was arrested by federal agents and charged with federal civil rights crimes, including conspiracy, for his role in a January anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was accused of disrupting worship and violating worshippers’ rights under the FACE Act. His arrest, alongside independent journalist Georgia Fort, also covering the protest, sparked widespread conversation about potentially politically motivated attacks on press freedom. The Trump administration claims Lemon acted as a co-conspirator, not just a journalist.