On February 10, 2006, the FBI executed a search warrant on the apartment of Liliana Laboy, a pro-independence activist in Puerto Rico. As the search wound down and agents exited the condominium building, reporters approached them for comment. The FBI agents responded by beating the journalists and pepper spraying them. On November 5, 2007, the ACLU filed its opening brief in the 3rd Circuit in Puerto Rico Journalists' Association v. Mueller. The journalists assert that the FBI agents violated their First Amendment right to gather the news and their Fourth Amendment right to be free of excessive force. After losing in the district court, the journalists, represented by the ACLU, have taken their case to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral argument is scheduled to take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico on March 5, 2008.
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