The Roller Coaster of Life
The Gavel Project's End of Year Recap
To be blunt, this year has been a roller coaster.
Within the past few months, in a case before the Arizona Court of Appeals, I successfully reversed a lower court’s decision awarding nearly a quarter million dollars in sanctions against myself and my clients. As a brief aside, congratulations to Abe Hamadeh on being elected to the United States House of Representatives, I know you will serve Arizona well! During oral argument, the Court of Appeals recognized my “creative” approach and the quality of my writing—which was characterized as “well-done.”
Additionally, I’m currently sitting first chair in a suit against the largest trade organization in the State of Arizona (the Arizona Association of REALTORS® (“AAR”)). We aim to set a precedent so that doctors, lawyers, real-estate agents, and other licensed professionals across Arizona (and elsewhere), can continue to speak freely about important social and political issues (such as whether a man can, in fact, become a woman, what bathrooms grown men should use, whether we should sexualize children and encourage them to mutilate their bodies, etc.)—without risking economic ruin. In other words, this lawsuit is about whether a private trade organization (such as AAR), which exercises a virtual monopoly on the real estate profession throughout Arizona due to its control over access to the Multiple Listing Service, can prevent real estate agents from making a living if the individual states, on his or her private social media pages, that cutting the balls off of male dog doesn’t mean that the dog, in fact, becomes a female (and suggesting that the same is true of humans). I will be writing another post in the coming weeks to further explain the details of this case and its legal value in how it relates to other professions, such as law and medicine. In the meantime, you can learn more about this case, and Chad’s amazing story, here.
I have also entered the arena in the fight to uphold children’s and parent’s rights. My firm is currently fighting to prevent bad actors within the family court system from arbitrarily ripping children away from their loving, safe parents to “reunite” them with their abusive parents in exchange for substantial contracts and income awarded by the courts. I will post more about this case (and other similar cases that I’m taking on) soon.[1]
Regarding charitable work, The Gavel Project won multiple substantive arguments this year in California. We survived a motion to dismiss in the ABC Unified School District case (involving a young, elementary-aged girl being stuck in a closet for merely being unvaccinated after coming into close contact with someone with COVID—even though the COVID jab has no impact on transmission), and we survived multiple motions to dismiss in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District case (involving elementary-aged children being stuck in an outdoor cage—for a period of four weeks—for merely refusing to wear useless masks during the COVID-mandates).
The Gavel Project continues to work on the G.W. v. Coronado Unified School District lawsuit, which is now headed to the Supreme Court of the United States. A petition for certiorari will be filed early next month. This case is perhaps the most important one in the United States of America; yet no one is talking about it. Here’s your opportunity to help change that, by sharing this brief explanation of why this case is so important.
G.W. v. CUSD concerns our client G.W. who, at the time of her injury, was a sixteen-year-old student at a special school for singing, dance, and acting. On January 31, 2022, she decided to protest the mask mandate by refusing to wear a mask as an act of expressive speech. She alleged that her protest neither disrupted the learning environment nor violated the rights of others, as she was perfectly healthy and did not have COVID-19.
In response to her protest, each day for a month and a half, educators at Coronado High School (following the directions of the administrators and board of supervisors for CUSD) forced G.W. to sit outside in the scorching heat and freezing cold, treated her poorly (i.e., making fun of her in front of her peers, alienating her from her classmates, etc.), and threatened her with police involvement and truancy charges unless she wore a mask (which she steadfastly refused to do). G.W. was made to feel anxious, humiliated, alienated, and harassed by the defendants' actions, which had a severe negative impact on her sleep and grades. Ultimately, her parents disenrolled her from school due to the ongoing trauma.
Last year, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss in the trial court under California’s anti-SLAPP statute, which allows a defendant to move to dismiss a case if the plaintiff’s alleged injury is shown by the defendant to have been caused by the defendant’s exercise of his or her free speech rights (i.e., the lawsuit alleges that the defendant engaged in free speech or petitioning activity and that such protected activity is the basis of the plaintiff’s lawsuit).
Shockingly, the trial court granted the defendants’ anti-SLAPP motions finding that—by abusing G.W. in order to silence her dissenting viewpoint and coerce her into wearing a useless face mask—the defendants (who are all government officials) were engaged in free speech protected by the First Amendment. In October, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the lower court’s ruling.
Thus, we will be filing a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court to make sure that, in the future, government officials in California (and elsewhere, as anti-SLAPP statutes are prevalent throughout the United States) cannot shut down dissenting viewpoints by abusing citizens and coercing compliance under the guise that such abuse and coercion constitutes free speech protected by the First Amendment—which exists to protect citizens from government abuses and not the other way around.
In closing, I want to thank all of those that financially support The Gavel Project—especially my lovely wife for putting up with the endless stress of this endeavor. With her blessing, I have given thousands of hours of my time, pro bono, and our money to this organization. I also want to thank the incredible California attorneys that have partnered and leaned in with us to keep this important litigation alive, we could not have done this without them.
All the successes that The Gavel Project has had over the years would not be possible without the financial assistance of our supporters. That said, we are in great need of ongoing financial support to keep the charity functioning—especially with respect to the expenses associated with filing a petition for writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court, which is very costly given all the procedural hurdles that must be satisfied (e.g., printing and mailing 40 copies of the petition to the court).
If you are able to make an end of year charitable contribution, I ask that you please consider doing so at this time (and encouraging others to do the same by sharing this post). Tax-deductible gifts can be made directly on The Gavel Project’s website.
Sincerely yours,
Ryan
P.S., I am hosting a subscriber only virtual meeting on Friday, December 27, 2024, at 2:00 PM MST. I sent out a subscriber only post regarding this meeting earlier this week. This meeting will be an interactive opportunity for subscribers to get an update on The Gavel Project, my other work, and my personal life. If you plan to attend, please come prepared with questions (although I will not be providing legal advice on this call, I am happy to discuss legal issues). If you would like to attend, please become a paid subscriber. For all those that join in the coming weeks, I will send another subscriber-only post on December 26th, 2024.
[1] Each of the cases mentioned before this footnote involve Ryan Heath’s work at Heath Law, PLLC. These cases are unrelated to The Gavel Project’s charitable work. To learn more about Heath Law, PLLC, please visit our website, here.