European Heritage group Return to the Land has filed a massive lawsuit against the United States Federal Government. The 51-page lawsuit names 17 defendants; including various departments and individuals on the federal, state, and local levels. The action, filed in Federal court, accuses the defendants of the following:
- First amendment retaliation
- Conspiracy to violate civil rights
- Selective enforcement
- Compelled speech
- Violation of due process
- Violation of the Administrative Procedure Act
- Abuse of process
The plaintiffs seek injunctions and declaratory relief.
This lawsuit was filed in response to a government campaign against their first-amendment rights, opening multiple never-ending investigations which were poorly handled, adding people to investigations without notifying them, including random unrelated people and businesses in the investigations as a sloppy intimidation tactic, escalating despite exculpatory evidence, and refusing to close investigations despite having found no wrongdoing.
Disparate treatment is also a large part of the lawsuit; with substantial evidence that the government is taking a heavy-handed, guilty-until-proven-innocent approach with Return to the Land, that they have not taken with dozens of other similarly-situated groups, including one that is even called "Black to the Land".