Hi there, everyone. Happy Friday. It's 4 o'clock in New York. A new chapter today in what is a test case for the Trump administration and its multi-front assault on activities long protected by our First Amendment.

Journalist Don Lemon pleaded not guilty in court to two counts. They include

conspiracy against right of religious freedom. He was charged after covering a protest at a church in

St. Paul, Minnesota last month. Here's what he had to say after his arraignment today.

The power and protection of the First Amendment has been the underpinning of my work.

The First Amendment, the freedom of the press, the bedrock of our democracy.

The events before my arrest and what's happened since so that people are finally realizing what this administration is all about.

The process is the punishment with them. And like all of you here in Minnesota, the great people of

Minnesota, I will not be intimidated. I will not back down. I will fight these baseless charges.

And I will not be silenced.

Don Lemon faces, in effect, a civil rights case and one so flimsy that many attorneys who used to work at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division believe it will ultimately be dismissed.

Legal experts telling CBS News this, quote, the indictment against journalist Don Lemon and eight others will likely be dismissed because it hinges on a charge that is viewed as so constitutionally flawed

that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has never attempted to use it to prosecute interference in a House of Worship.

That novel theory of the law comes on top of a set of alternative facts presented in the actual indictment by the Justice Department.

On that, the Washington Post reports this, quote, the January 29th indictment calls the nine

defendants agitators and says they, quote, entered the church in a coordinated takeover-style

attack. In multiple instances, it describes the alleged conduct of the two journalists and the protesters

collectively. Experts said that if Lemon was operating as a journalist during the January 8th protest

at City's Church in St. Paul, rather than as a participant, that could undermine accusations

that he was part of a conspiracy conspiracy or that he intended to interfere with

protected rights. During the approximately 45 minutes that Lemon live streamed at the church,

he conducted interviews and repeatedly identified himself as a reporter while also voicing

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