Current Cases
Case Status: Pending
Castro v. Doe
August 14th 2023The Center for Individual Rights is defending an anonymous Wikipedia editor’s free speech rights against a baseless $180 million defamation lawsuit brought by a Texas political figure. CIR is fighting to strengthen existing constitutional protections for anonymous commentary on such political figures and matters of public concern. Anonymous political speech is a core First Amendment […]
Case Status: Victory. Settled on Favorable Terms
Mattson v. Guyette, et al.
March 20th 2023Daniel Mattson worked as a performer and adjunct professor at the Western Michigan University School of Music for more than twenty years. In 2017, Mattson wrote an autobiographical book describing his return to Catholicism after having spent most of his adulthood in a homosexual lifestyle. In 2021, an activist colleague at the university discovered Mattson’s […]
Case Status: Pending
Riotte v. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
March 8th 2023Kate Riotte had worked for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (“Museum”) for six years when she was summarily fired for asking the wrong questions about an equity policy that the museum was developing. In February 2021, she volunteered to serve on a cross-level Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Working Group, which was formed to […]
Past Cases
Case Status: Pending
Riotte v. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art: Who are the Lawyers?
March 8th 2023Dennis Carnelli Dennis M. Carnelli is an experienced civil litigation attorney who represents people and businesses in private disputes, civil rights actions, and matters implicating their constitutional rights. He received his J.D., cum laude, from Western New England University School of Law, where he was a Note Editor for the Western New England Law Review […]
Case Status: Pending
Riotte v. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art: Who is Kate Riotte?
March 8th 2023Kate Riotte served the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut for six years before she was abruptly fired in 2021 because she asked questions about the museum’s proposed racial equity policy. Riotte earned a degree in museum studies and art history from Juniata College. After graduating, she hoped to start a career in […]