From the Civil Liberties Defense Center:
On November 17, 2009, Scott DeMuth was jailed for contempt of court, since he refused to answer questions posed to him by a federal grand jury in Davenport, Iowa. They were interested in questioning him about his knowledge of an unsolved Animal Liberation Front action in 2004 at the University of Iowa. At the time, Scott was only 17 years old and was a resident of the Twin Cities (Minnesota). Scott is a University of Minnesota graduate student and Dakota language student whose research focuses on liberation struggles and social movements in the U.S. and globally. In his work, he has researched and/or interviewed numerous activists from Native American struggles for sovereignty and land, and environmental and animal liberation movements in the U.S. The grand jury was interested in asking him to divulge the names of activists (his interviewees), which would violate the confidentiality agreements that he made with his research participants.
- Scott took a principled stand against the grand jury, and decided to go to jail rather than be party to what many attorneys and the American Bar Association (ABA) view as a dangerous practice that deprives people of basic constitutional freedoms. But it gets worse. Two days later (November 19, 2009) Scott was charged with conspiracy under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) of 2006. This indictment came just one day before the statute of limitations was to expire and was rushed through to freeze the statute of limitations, with the intent of buying the state time to issue additional future indictments. These legal maneuvers are indicative of an investigation that has gone nowhere, and prosecutors who are desperate to locate members of the Animal Liberation Front, no matter what legal acrobatics are required.
REGARDING SCHOLARLY RIGHTS:
The American Sociological Association’s Code of Ethics states:
- Section 11.01:
“Sociologists have an obligation to protect confidential information and not allow information gained in confidence from being used in ways that would unfairly compromise research participants, students, employees, clients, or others.”
Section 11.06:
“Sociologists do not disclose confidential, personally identifiable information concerning their research participants, other recipients of their service which is obtained during the course of their work.”
This scholar-research participant confidentiality is the bedrock of academic research and without it the public would lose trust in scholars seeking important information (concerning, for example, social histories or institutional discrimination practices), leading to the incalculable loss of invaluable data for community preservation, public policy, and university teaching purposes. Scott is being charged with conspiracy for invoking his constitutional rights and heeding professional codes of conduct.
Sign a petition supporting Scott:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/freescottdemuth/
It will also prompt you to donate money if you would like, and that is by no means necessary – signing the petition will be a start. Or you can contact your representative or senator and make sure they are aware of Scott’s case.
Excerpted from http://phdadventure.wordpress.com/2009
