Lawmakers Reintroduce RAP Act to Ban Lyrics as Court Evidence

Two Congressmen, Hank Johnson (GA-04) and Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (NY-16), have reintroduced the Restoring Inventive Safety Act (RAP Act) to guard artists from being persecuted and prosecuted for his or her lyrics in legal and civil court docket instances.

Initially offered within the 117th Congress, this invoice would be the first to be launched on the federal stage. The RAP Act would make it such that the Federal Guidelines of Proof would restrict the submission of proof from an artist’s work that constitutes their inventive or creative expression in opposition to that artist in court docket.

Since 2020, prosecutors in additional than 500 legal instances have used artists’ lyrics as proof in opposition to the accused.

“This laws is lengthy overdue,” mentioned Congressman Johnson in a written assertion. “For too lengthy, artists – significantly younger Black artists – have been unfairly focused by prosecutors who use their lyrics as proof of guilt, though there isn’t a proof that the lyrics are something greater than inventive expression. If you permit music and creativity to be silenced, you’re opening the door for different realms of free speech to be curtailed as nicely. The federal government shouldn’t be in a position to silence artists just because they write, draw, sing, or rap about controversial or taboo topics. The Restoring Inventive Safety Act (RAP Act) would shield artists’ First Modification rights by limiting the admissibility of their lyrics as proof in legal and civil proceedings.”

The First Modification ensures the precise to freedom of expression on this nation. But, that freedom of expression is stifled when creative expressions from recording artists are wrongfully used as proof in opposition to the artist. 

The RAP Act places these safeguards in place to make sure that First Modification safety is a actuality for all artists in America.

The case in opposition to rapper Younger Thug is only one instance of prosecutors using tune lyrics in opposition to artists.