The Hip-Hop Summit is moving their fight from the rally outside of City Hall last month to inside a courtroom. Russell Simmons and Benjamin Chavis have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan yesterday against the Lobbying Commission alleging they are violating their free speech rights.
Simmons and Chavis argue that after the rally on June 4th for a change in the Rockefeller-era drug laws, which drew such supporters as Jay-Z, P.Diddy, 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes, the Commission has began an investigation into the Summit Action Network. The commission has issued subpoenas to network members, detailed accounts of how $300,000 in funds were spent and why the group was participating in lobbying without making the proper filing in paperwork. In a conference outside the courthouse Russell Simmons said, “The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network will speak out every time we see an injustice”.
As for him having to file as a lobbyist, Simmons said he had been invited to discuss the issue of the Rockefeller laws in a private meeting last month in Gov. George Pataki’s office (that was documented in a current hip-hop magazine on stands now), that included the governor and other state legislators. Donna Lieberman of the NY Civil Liberties Union told NY Newsday, “It violates the core values of free speech and association … when the commission claims the authority to monitor every march, every demonstration, every rally and radio broadcast”.
