civil rights blog

Nicholas Sandmann, the MAGA hat-wearing teen who notably donned a mocking expression while staring down a Native American veteran on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, is suing CNN for defamation, seeking $275 million in damages. The announcement arrives weeks after the 16-year-old and his team of lawyers declared that they would be suing The Washington Post for $250 million on the basis that the publication allegedly "targeted and bullied" him.The Kentucky-native and Covington Catholic High School student was at the center of the news cycle in January after he engaged in a viral face off with Nathan Phillips during the Indigenous People's March and the coinciding March for Life anti-abortion protest in Washington, D.C. The video shows Sandmann dismissively smirking at Phillips just inches away from his face, which prompted many reporters and social media users to condemn the boy's behavior as racist and insulting. He said in an interview that he was not smirking, he was just standing there because he did not know what to do. The Native American man got in this boys face and started beating his drum in the kids face. Prior to that, a group of African Americans were shouting at the group of boys calling them racial slurs. The kid has gotten death threats from all over the world. He had to move out of his house with his family, the school got bomb threats and had to close down, all because of a series of fake news reports. He says in the interview it was the native american man’s first amendment right to get in his face, and it was his first amendment right to stay in his place.