Civil rights groups are asking an appeals court to reinstate a case alleging Transportation Security Administration agents “frisked, handcuffed, arrested and detained” a woman for 18 hours for criticizing some agents. The Rutherford Institute says it and other groups have filed an appeal with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the case of Nadine Pellegrino.

Officials at a California high school have admitted they were wrong to reprimand two students for wearing NRA t-shirts. One girl at Lodi High School was kicked out of her history class for wearing the t-shirt. She and another girl, also wearing an NRA shirt, were then lectured by the teacher who told them guns are bad. John Whitehead, a civil liberties attorney who leads The Rutherford Institute, says he applauds the girls for refusing to remove their shirts.

The Rutherford Institute is considering representing an Albemarle County man that was arrested for purchasing and bringing prohibited items within Charlottesville’s downtown restricted zone.

VIDEO: NSA spying, TSA groping, police shooting first and asking questions later. As the grip of the police state gets ever tighter, how can we resist? Is there any hope of rolling it back? Rutherford Institute founder John Whitehead joins today's Liberty Report.

A Virginia nonprofit sued the National Forest Service on Wednesday for denying medical attention, food and water to a Mountain Valley pipeline protester. The Rutherford Institute filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, saying Forest Service agents violated Dr. Greg Gelburd’s rights to examine a 28-year-old protester who had been sitting on a 45-foot pole on the proposed path for the Mountain Valley pipeline. 

A doctor has sued the U.S. Forest Service for refusing him permission to treat a woman named Nutty. The action has been filed by the Rutherford Institute on behalf of Dr. Greg Gelburd, who contends he has a faith obligation to help a woman who has been protesting a proposed pipeline project by “tree sitting.”

A Virginia-based organization is suing the Forest Service after officials denied an anti-pipeline protester medical access. The lawsuit contends that officials violated both the religious and First Amendment rights of one of the doctors attempting to treat a woman who has been living in a tree in order to block construction of the Mountain Valley pipeline.

A group defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white supremacist organization has agreed to never return to Charlottesville, but with certain stipulations.

This past Tuesday in Charlottesville, the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group headed by John Whitehead, hosted an informal round table for local journalists. Covering the event for Bearing Drift, I asked a question — “How can we maintain a culture of civil discourse in an era of political tribalism? — that resulted in a six-minute reply from Whitehead and Nadine Strossen, now a professor at New York Law School and the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Two street preachers are targeted, confronted and eventually arrested by transit officers who insist that they stop talking about their Christian beliefs without getting the agency’s permission first, and the courts say that’s all right.

A pending decision by the U.S. Supreme Court will have big implications for Americans and their Fourth Amendment rights, says a civil liberties attorney.

John Whitehead, of The Rutherford Institute, appears on “Charlottesville Right Now with Les Sinclair” to discuss the August 12 rally in Charlottesville.

The Virginia ACLU and Albemarle County-based Rutherford Institute are representing Unite the Right rally sponsor Jason Kessler, saying a decision by Charlottesville officials to move the demonstration to McIntire Park may violate his First Amendment rights.

The Glenn Beck Program: John Whitehead and Amy’s plight