New York
Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump advertises firm on patches worn by US Open tennis players
NEW YORK (AP) — Prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump is advertising on players’ outfits at the U.S. Open Grand Slam tennis tournament this week, placing his firm’s name on sponsor patches worn during matches.
“Ben Crump Law” appeared on the left sleeve of the blue shirt worn by the Czech Republic’s Tomas Machac on Thursday while he was eliminating 16th-seeded American Sebastian Korda in the second round. Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic wore the same type of patch mentioning Crump’s law practice during a loss to 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev on Tuesday.
Crump is a Florida-based attorney who has been the voice for the families of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and Michael Brown — Black people whose deaths at the hands of police and vigilantes sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.
His role in some of the most consequential cases of police brutality over the past decade and a half prompted the Rev. Al Sharpton to call Crump “Black America’s attorney general.”
Representatives of less-prominent players at major tennis tournaments often will strike last-minute deals for sponsorship patches.
In a phone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Crump said the legacy of Arthur Ashe, both on and off the tennis court, aligns with his work on cases involving police misconduct and exploitation of historically marginalized people.
“The reason we decided to do a sponsorship package in this way was in part because I am still inspired by (Ashe’s) legacy,” said Crump, who plans to attend the U.S. Open this weekend.
“We are sponsoring the underdog in up to 10 of the matches, which also appeals to me, because I always fight for the underdog,” he said. “The sponsorship helps the underdog players who obviously don’t have name-brand sponsors but deserve just as much of a chance to display their talents and compete against the best in the world, to have a chance at being champions.”
Crump said the primary purpose of the patches was not about generating business for his firm.
“It’s about us supporting diversity and inclusion, where every person, no mater their economic status, will be able to display their talents and compete on as equal a playing field as possible,” he said. “Hopefully when (fans) see the ‘Ben Crump’ patch on the jerseys of the players, they will think about how social justice is important in all aspects of society, in courtrooms and sports arenas.”
Connecticut
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will teach a course on running for office at Yale
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Former New Jersey governor and unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie will teach a course on running for office at Yale University this semester.
The weekly seminar taught by Christie is titled “How to Run a Political Campaign” and is open to undergraduates as well as graduate students at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs.
The course description says it will examine issues such as communications, fundraising “and the most important question of all: If I do win, what do I want to accomplish and what kind of leader do I want to be?”
Christie, 61, served as governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018 and was the U.S. attorney for New Jersey from 2002 to 2008.
He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 but dropped out of the race and endorsed Donald Trump.
Christie helped Trump with debate preparations in 2020 but later broke with Trump and refused to support his claims of a stolen election.
Christie campaigned for the presidential nomination once more in 2024 but dropped out in January just before the Iowa caucuses.
Pennsylvania
Jewish family can have anti-hate yard signs after neighbor used slur, court says
A Jewish family had the free-speech right to blanket their yard with signs decrying hate and racism after their next-door neighbor hurled an antisemitic slur at them during a property dispute 10 years ago, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled.
The court decided Simon and Toby Galapo were exercising their rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution when they erected protest signs on their property and pointed them squarely at the neighbor’s house in the Philadelphia suburbs — a total of 23 signs over a span of years — with messages such as “Hitler Eichmann Racists,” “No Place 4 Racism” and “Woe to the Racists. Woe to the Neighbors.”
“All homeowners at one point or another are forced to gaze upon signs they may not like on their neighbors’ property — be it ones that champion a political candidate, advocate for a cause, or simply express support or disagreement with some issue,” Justice Kevin Dougherty wrote for the court’s 4-2 majority. He said suppressing such speech would “mark the end to residential expression.”
In a dissent, Justice Kevin Brobson said judges have the authority to “enjoin residential speech ... that rises to the level of a private nuisance and disrupts the quiet enjoyment of a neighbor’s home.”
The neighbors’ ongoing feud over a property boundary and “landscaping issues” came to a head in November 2014 when a member of the Oberholtzer family directed an antisemitic slur at Simon Galapo, according to court documents. By the following June, the Galapo family had put up what would be the first of numerous signs directed at the Oberholtzer property.
The Oberholtzers filed suit, seeking an order to prohibit their neighbors from erecting signs “containing false, incendiary words, content, innuendo and slander.” They alleged the protest signs were defamatory, placed the family in a false light and constituted a nuisance. One member of the family, Frederick Oberholtzer Jr., testified that all he could see were signs out his back windows.
Simon Galapo testified that he wanted to make a statement about antisemitism and racism, teach his children to fight it, and change his neighbors’ behavior.
The case went through appeals after a Montgomery County judge decided the Galapo family could keep their signs, but ordered them to be turned away from the Oberholtzer home.
The high court’s majority said that was an impermissible suppression of free speech. The decision noted the state constitution’s expansive characterization of free speech as an “invaluable right” to speak freely on any subject. While “we do not take lightly the concerns ... about the right to quiet enjoyment of one’s property,” Dougherty wrote, the Galapo family’s right to free speech was paramount.
Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump advertises firm on patches worn by US Open tennis players
NEW YORK (AP) — Prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump is advertising on players’ outfits at the U.S. Open Grand Slam tennis tournament this week, placing his firm’s name on sponsor patches worn during matches.
“Ben Crump Law” appeared on the left sleeve of the blue shirt worn by the Czech Republic’s Tomas Machac on Thursday while he was eliminating 16th-seeded American Sebastian Korda in the second round. Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic wore the same type of patch mentioning Crump’s law practice during a loss to 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev on Tuesday.
Crump is a Florida-based attorney who has been the voice for the families of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and Michael Brown — Black people whose deaths at the hands of police and vigilantes sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.
His role in some of the most consequential cases of police brutality over the past decade and a half prompted the Rev. Al Sharpton to call Crump “Black America’s attorney general.”
Representatives of less-prominent players at major tennis tournaments often will strike last-minute deals for sponsorship patches.
In a phone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Crump said the legacy of Arthur Ashe, both on and off the tennis court, aligns with his work on cases involving police misconduct and exploitation of historically marginalized people.
“The reason we decided to do a sponsorship package in this way was in part because I am still inspired by (Ashe’s) legacy,” said Crump, who plans to attend the U.S. Open this weekend.
“We are sponsoring the underdog in up to 10 of the matches, which also appeals to me, because I always fight for the underdog,” he said. “The sponsorship helps the underdog players who obviously don’t have name-brand sponsors but deserve just as much of a chance to display their talents and compete against the best in the world, to have a chance at being champions.”
Crump said the primary purpose of the patches was not about generating business for his firm.
“It’s about us supporting diversity and inclusion, where every person, no mater their economic status, will be able to display their talents and compete on as equal a playing field as possible,” he said. “Hopefully when (fans) see the ‘Ben Crump’ patch on the jerseys of the players, they will think about how social justice is important in all aspects of society, in courtrooms and sports arenas.”
Connecticut
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will teach a course on running for office at Yale
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Former New Jersey governor and unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie will teach a course on running for office at Yale University this semester.
The weekly seminar taught by Christie is titled “How to Run a Political Campaign” and is open to undergraduates as well as graduate students at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs.
The course description says it will examine issues such as communications, fundraising “and the most important question of all: If I do win, what do I want to accomplish and what kind of leader do I want to be?”
Christie, 61, served as governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018 and was the U.S. attorney for New Jersey from 2002 to 2008.
He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 but dropped out of the race and endorsed Donald Trump.
Christie helped Trump with debate preparations in 2020 but later broke with Trump and refused to support his claims of a stolen election.
Christie campaigned for the presidential nomination once more in 2024 but dropped out in January just before the Iowa caucuses.
Pennsylvania
Jewish family can have anti-hate yard signs after neighbor used slur, court says
A Jewish family had the free-speech right to blanket their yard with signs decrying hate and racism after their next-door neighbor hurled an antisemitic slur at them during a property dispute 10 years ago, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled.
The court decided Simon and Toby Galapo were exercising their rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution when they erected protest signs on their property and pointed them squarely at the neighbor’s house in the Philadelphia suburbs — a total of 23 signs over a span of years — with messages such as “Hitler Eichmann Racists,” “No Place 4 Racism” and “Woe to the Racists. Woe to the Neighbors.”
“All homeowners at one point or another are forced to gaze upon signs they may not like on their neighbors’ property — be it ones that champion a political candidate, advocate for a cause, or simply express support or disagreement with some issue,” Justice Kevin Dougherty wrote for the court’s 4-2 majority. He said suppressing such speech would “mark the end to residential expression.”
In a dissent, Justice Kevin Brobson said judges have the authority to “enjoin residential speech ... that rises to the level of a private nuisance and disrupts the quiet enjoyment of a neighbor’s home.”
The neighbors’ ongoing feud over a property boundary and “landscaping issues” came to a head in November 2014 when a member of the Oberholtzer family directed an antisemitic slur at Simon Galapo, according to court documents. By the following June, the Galapo family had put up what would be the first of numerous signs directed at the Oberholtzer property.
The Oberholtzers filed suit, seeking an order to prohibit their neighbors from erecting signs “containing false, incendiary words, content, innuendo and slander.” They alleged the protest signs were defamatory, placed the family in a false light and constituted a nuisance. One member of the family, Frederick Oberholtzer Jr., testified that all he could see were signs out his back windows.
Simon Galapo testified that he wanted to make a statement about antisemitism and racism, teach his children to fight it, and change his neighbors’ behavior.
The case went through appeals after a Montgomery County judge decided the Galapo family could keep their signs, but ordered them to be turned away from the Oberholtzer home.
The high court’s majority said that was an impermissible suppression of free speech. The decision noted the state constitution’s expansive characterization of free speech as an “invaluable right” to speak freely on any subject. While “we do not take lightly the concerns ... about the right to quiet enjoyment of one’s property,” Dougherty wrote, the Galapo family’s right to free speech was paramount.
