The Hound | Mar. 16

Hi there,

It’s Monday. Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon is meddling in the independence of Stars and Stripes, a publication for members of the US military that’s been running with a large degree of freedom since World War II. A Trump DHS official overseeing the security of federal elections wants to ban voting machines. And in court last week, a federal jury handed prosecutors a mixed victory in the trial of nine protesters that could serve as a bellwether for Donald Trump’s attempts to criminalize left-wing groups.

A recent court decision tied to the Prairieland ICE detention center protest in Texas has enormous implications for the First Amendment. Federal prosecutors used terrorism-related charges against protesters allegedly linked to “antifa,” marking the first time such charges have been applied in this context. While one individual was convicted of shooting a police officer, several others faced sweeping charges tied to association, protest activity, or alleged coordination—raising alarms among civil liberties advocates about the precedent it could set for criminalizing dissent. When media coverage focuses only on the confrontation outside the detention center, it misses the much larger issue: whether the government is creating a new legal pathway to treat protest movements as terrorist conspiracies.

🖊️ Add your name to call on major news organizations to cover this case clearly as a potential threat to the right to protest. Journalists must examine how terrorism statutes are being applied, what precedent this decision could create, and whether peaceful activists could be swept up in future prosecutions.

The public deserves reporting that explains the constitutional stakes—because when protest can be labeled terrorism, the right to dissent itself is at risk.

Read about this, and more, with today’s stories:

Anti-ICE Protesters Convicted on Terrorism Charges for Wearing All Black (The Intercept)

Republican rebukes FCC chair’s threats to revoke broadcast licenses over Iran war (The Guardian)

Hegseth’s Pentagon Is Trying to Turn a Newspaper for Troops into Propaganda (Mother Jones)

Trump Has Brought American Paramilitary Violence Home (The New Republic)

This DHS Official Oversees the Security of Federal Elections. He Wants to Ban Voting Machines. (ProPublica)

'We never asked for a ceasefire,' says Iran's foreign minister, as war keeps raging (NPR)

Brian Schatz’s Signals of Comfort With Big Money (The American Prospect)

A successful USDA program that has supported more than 533,000 affordable rental homes in rural America is being phased out (PBS)

For many Black women, the Target boycott is not over. It may never be. (The 19th News)

A media-rating company says a Trump agency is threatening its livelihood (AP News)

How Hospitals Helped Erode Reproductive Rights (The Marshall Project)

Until next time,

Harry from The Hound

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