Tracking the modern progress of the First Amendment
Posted in Freedom of Speech on Mar 9th, 2008
The website Stop the ACLU posted an interesting video this week of a 1986 “Crossfire” segment in which rock musician Frank Zappa takes issue with the practice of censoring explicit song lyrics.
In the clip, Zappa is under attack from all sides—especially from Washington Times reporter John Lofton and conservative pundit Robert Novak—in defending his notion […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech on Mar 3rd, 2008
In a rather odd case that has snaked its way through the courts for more than two years, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld charges against a man charged with violating a Virginia state law against sending unsolicited commercial “spam” emails.
The statute prescribes felony charges for anyone who:
“Uses a computer or computer network with the […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech, Speech in Education on Mar 3rd, 2008
A student at Valdosta State University in Georgia, expelled last year for posting activist flyers on Facebook, says he still doesn’t understand why the administration took such extreme action against him.
The student, Hayden Barnes, was attempting to raise awareness about a new parking garage development being built on campus when he posted the flyer in […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech, freedom of assembly on Mar 3rd, 2008
The Huffington Post reports that despite city officials’ initial insinuations that the entire “City of St. Paul” would be fully open to demonstrators during the Republican National Convention this fall, new city plans say otherwise:
“The guidelines include a primary event area… a secondary event area (a wider perimeter, the boundaries of which are yet […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press on Mar 3rd, 2008
Another update of a previous story: A federal judge ruled Friday that the leaked-documents website WikiLeaks would be allowed to re-open after initially being shut down for posting confidential bank documents.
The unusual case involved internal documents from the Cayman Islands branch of Swiss bank Julius Baer, purported to include highly damaging information regarding money laundering […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech on Feb 24th, 2008
The campus gossip website JuicyCampus.com is attracting some negative attention from people who have been offended by the site’s racy content.
JuicyCampus, which has been banned on several college campuses, is a message board that enables users to anonymously post malicious comments about other students – one enlightening post asks, “What sorority houses do the […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech on Feb 24th, 2008
WikiLeaks, a website devoted to publishing leaked government and corporate documents, is challenging a U.S. District Court decision upholding the right of site’s hosting company to shut the site down.
The site recently released paperwork allegedly implicating the Cayman Islands branch of a Swiss bank, Julius Baer Bank and Trust, in a conspiracy to conceal […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech on Feb 24th, 2008
A Massachusetts man accused of causing disturbances in a public library has decided to sue for $10 million after library workers filed a police complaint against him.
Ross Tobia, who says he suffers from epilepsy and bipolar disorder, was asked to leave the library after staffers determined him to be excessively loud, crude and disruptive. Tobia […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press on Feb 24th, 2008
The editorial staff of an online student newspaper at the University of Colorado at Boulder has been ordered to undergo diversity training after the paper published a column containing anti-Asian remarks.
The column, which was initially defended as a satirical piece, advocated that students “hunt” for Asian students at the school, “hog-tie” them, and force them to participate in demeaning activities until “the Asian spirit has been broken.”
The university chancellor apologized Wednesday on behalf of the Campus Press and columnist Max Karsen, adding that “while his column is unquestionably protected under the First Amendment, the sentiments he has expressed are wounding and damaging to a community we hold dear.”
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Posted in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Speech in Education on Feb 18th, 2008
Friday afternoon I had the privilege of talking with Gene Policinski, executive director of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. We discussed a range of issues relating to free speech on college campuses - from the power of the student press to the limits imposed by campus speech codes.
Mr. Policinski recently wrote a column […]
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