Sacramento, Calif. – On Dec. 4, 2025, civil rights leaders will host a press conference outside the Robert T. Matsui U.S. Courthouse in advance of a hearing in King v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) for unconstitutional restrictions against freedom of speech and assembly that disproportionately impact Black and Brown people.
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) and the Law Offices of Richard Tan are representing Minister King X, a community organizer with California Prison Focus and All of Us or None (AOUON), in a lawsuit first filed in 2023 against CDCR officials and the State of California. The lawsuit challenges Minister King’s unlawful arrest on Aug. 9, 2021, by plainclothes officers for violating Penal Code (PC) section 4571, which criminalizes people with felony convictions for standing near California prisons and jails.
Though the charges were dropped without a hearing, the arrest report describes him and others as “Black Identity Extremists” and “Black Supremacist Extremists” for his participation in a protest weeks before. The lawsuit seeks to prevent CDCR from using PC §4571 to target activists and political prisoners for allegedly being, in essence, terrorists, and claims that the arrest was an act of retaliation for Minister King’s activism and a violation of his First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit highlights the constitutional issues associated with PC §4571, which prohibits an individual who has previously been convicted of a felony and incarcerated in a California state prison from being present on the grounds surrounding a prison or jail, or anywhere adjacent to those grounds, without the consent of the warden or sheriff. The code additionally prohibits such individuals from being anywhere other individuals in state custody may be, and anywhere adjacent to those in-custody individuals, without prior consent.
This statute violates the First Amendment rights of formerly incarcerated individuals and is overly broad and vague. The CDCR’s use of this statute, as seen in King’s arrest report, perpetuates and sanctions the use of racist terms that have been used in the recent past to vilify groups such as Black Lives Matter as terrorist organizations. It also disproportionately impacts those already incarcerated at an excessive rate—Black and Brown people, to start—and prioritizes recriminalization over rehabilitation.
The hearing, if plaintiffs are successful, will advance the lawsuit towards the discovery process, which LSPC hopes will shed light on the government’s tactics to repress free speech and community organizing. Gov. Gavin Newsom was dismissed from the list of defendants last winter, but named defendants include several CDCR employees, including the CDCR Secretary, as well as the Sheriff of San Mateo County.
“In the depths of Pelican Bay State Prison and other correctional facilities across the United States, a forgotten population of elderly incarcerated individuals awaits redemption. They are not the ‘worst of the worst,’ violent predators, or Black Identity Extremists. Rather, they are a unique class of individuals who possess the wisdom, experience and desire to promote peace and reconciliation,” says Minister King X. “I am advocating for and on behalf of these elders and the rights of all other prisoners.”
For more information, contact the plaintiff, Minister King X, at kageuniversal11@gmail.com, 510-213-4008;
Richard Tan, Law Offices of Richard Tan, richard@richardtanlaw.com, 510-345-3246; or LSPC Staff Attorney Eric Sapp, eric@prisonerswithchildren.org, 703-254-3651. For additional questions or media inquiries, contact Gillian Henry at gillian@prisonerswithchildren.org or 415-255-7036.
