The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is not backing down on Taylor Swift's move to sue the blogger who had criticized the 27-year-old singer in an article from September.
In a letter from Oct. 25, the camp of the "Shake It Off" singer had slammed the blogger for her accusations against Swift. The singer's lawyers denounced the article and claimed that it was defamatory; they further threatened to sue the writer if she did not take the post down.
The article, titled "Swiftly to the alt-right: Taylor subtly gets the lower case kkk in formation," was published on Sept. 25 and was written by Meghan Herning. It attacked the pop star and her songs, like "Look What You Made Me Do," and even laid down interpretations for these. She also accused Swift of being a white supremacist in secret since Swift's silence on white supremacy had to mean that she was one.
Swift's lawyer, William Briggs, claimed that the article was "provably false and defamatory" and concluded that the story was a "malicious attack" that misrepresented the "Style" singer. This was all mentioned in a letter addressed to Herning, the executive editor for PopFront where the article was posted.
But, the move by the "Blank Space" singer's lawyer had earned the ire of ACLU, which claimed that the threats were a suppression of the basic rights of the writer. "This is a completely unsupported attempt to suppress constitutionally protected speech," said attorney Michael Risher of the ACLU of Northern California.
Herning had reached out for the support of the organization after receiving the letter. ACLU also maintained that the post was guarded by the First Amendment. "These scare tactics may have worked for Taylor in the past, but I am not backing down," said Herning.
