When Edward Martin Jr., the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, chose to publish a letter criticizing the medical journal CHEST it raised a number of concerns. For free speech advocates, the most pressing concern was why a federal prosecutor would target the protected speech of an independent entity. Speaking to Law360, Professor Lena Shapiro, director of the First Amendment Clinic, said, “letter reads squarely as an attempt to engage in viewpoint discrimination against the journal, which is presumptively unconstitutional.”
