Civil Rights Organizations File Appeal on Behalf of Durham Activist Silenced with No-Contact Order

Contact: Keisha Williams, [email protected]; Jen Nessel, [email protected]; Sarah Duggan, [email protected]

DURHAM, N.C. – Movement for Family Power, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the ACLU of North Carolina today filed an appeal on behalf of Amanda Wallace, a Durham activist protesting family separation who was silenced with a no-contact order issued under the North Carolina Workplace Violence Prevention Act (WVPA).

The appeal argues that the no-contact order violates the First Amendment in two ways. First, by restricting Ms. Wallace’s freedom of movement and speech in response to protected criticism of a public official. And second, by imposing unconstitutional restrictions on her political advocacy, including restrictions on the words she can use. It also argues that the WVPA cannot be leveraged to punish non-violent protest.

The WVPA was originally passed in 2004 to protect survivors of intimate partner violence from harassment at work. But instead of its intended purpose, it is now being used to suppress speech that is protected by the First Amendment. Durham County’s attempt to silence Ms. Wallace is not an isolated incident. In 2025, amid protests by Amazon workers and labor activists, North Carolina passed a law expanding the WVPA to allow employers to seek restraining orders against “mass picketing.”

Ms. Wallace leads Operation Stop CPS, a grassroots campaign that educates the community about the harms of the “child welfare system,” which many activists refer to as the “family policing system.” This advocacy is informed by ten years Ms. Wallace spent working as a child welfare investigator in North Carolina. Since June 2022, she has engaged in regular public protests against the Durham County Department of Social Services’ (DSS) disproportionate targeting and separation of Black and low-income families.

Nationally, one in ten Black children is removed from their parents by this system. Black children are similarly overrepresented in North Carolina’s foster system–and in Durham, where Ms. Wallace organizes, every single parent whose parental rights were permanently terminated in 2021-22 was Black, except one.

In response to Ms. Wallace’s protests, Durham County petitioned for a civil no-contact order on behalf of DSS Director Maggie Clapp under the WVPA, alleging that Ms. Wallace’s behavior constituted harassment. At the hearing on the petition, over 50 activists from across the nation packed the courthouse in support of Ms. Wallace, but the district court judge issued the order despite their concerns.

The appeal asks the North Carolina Court of Appeals to vacate the no-contact order, affirm that Ms. Wallace's advocacy is protected by the First Amendment, and affirm that the WVPA cannot be used to suppress protected political speech.

“The mission of Operation Stop CPS is to abolish the family policing system because it is working exactly as it was designed,” said Amanda Wallace, who is seeking to appeal her no-contact order. “When you challenge powerful institutions, those institutions often try to silence you—so Durham’s tactics are not a surprise. I won’t stop speaking out, because the families harmed by this system can’t afford for people to be silent. No matter how many legal obstacles are put in front of me, I’ll continue exposing the harms of family policing and advocating for its abolition.”

“North Carolina’s unlawful silencing of Amanda Wallace is part of a broader effort to chill speech that exposes the violence and scale of forced family separation in the United States. As ICE and the police separate families in plain view, community organizers like Amanda are exposing how the family policing (‘child welfare’) system quietly does the same thing to families every day across the county—most especially to Black families,” said Miriam Mack, Campaigns & Advocacy Director and Senior Legal Counsel at Movement for Family Power. “The state’s targeting of Black families is not an unfortunate outcome of the system, it is by design.”

“At its core, this case is about whether public officials can weaponize a statute intended to protect survivors of intimate partner violence at their workplace against their constituents, in order to silence speech they find uncomfortable and suppress a movement they dislike,” said Adina Marx-Arpadi, attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights. “They cannot.”

“The freedom to criticize the government and public officials is central to the First Amendment,” said Jacqueline Landry, legal fellow for the ACLU of North Carolina. “If we allow state agents to use no-contact orders to stifle political dissent, we silence the free exchange of ideas that underlies our system of democratic governance.”

The legal brief in support of Ms. Wallace’s appeal can be found below.

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Movement for Family Power is an abolitionist hub and incubator, cultivating and harnessing community power to end family policing and build a world where all families can thrive. Learn more at movementforfamilypower.org, on Instagram (@movementforfamilypower), on BlueSky (@movfamilypower.bsky.social), and on Facebook.

The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, CCR has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Follow the Center for Constitutional Rights on Facebook, @theCCR on Twitter/X, and @ccrjustice on Instagram, and @ccrjustice.org on BlueSky.

The ACLU of North Carolina is a nonprofit nonpartisan organization that seeks to protect and advance civil rights and liberties for all North Carolinians. Learn more at acluofnc.org; Instagram, Tiktok and Threads @aclu_nc; and Facebook, Linkedin and Bluesky @aclunc.