freespeech
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry last week signed a law that criminalizes approaching police officers within 25 feet, provided that the officer tells any would-be approachers to stand back, effectively creating a legal force field that law enforcement can activate at their discretion. "No person shall knowingly or intentionally approach within twenty-five feet of a peace officer%20%C2%A0%22Peace%20officer,and%20parole%20officers.) who is lawfully engaged in the execution of his official duties after the peace officer has ordered the person to stop approaching or to retreat," the law states. Offender...
Reason
For nearly a decade, the transit authority in Washington, D.C., has faced controversy over restrictive guidelines governing advertisements in the city's subways and busses. Now, it might have to scrap some of them. The controversial rules prohibit any ad that is "issues-oriented" or "intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions." The guidelines also single out religious ads, prohibiting "advertisements that promote or oppose any religion, religious practice or belief." Last month, a D.C. district court ruled in favor of a Christian group se...
Reason
Among those who think the United States is an unseemly cesspool of unrestrained opinions voiced by those people, Europe is often touted as an alternative for speech regulation. European Union law, following in the footsteps of national legislation, imposes enforceable duties on private platforms to purge "hate speech" and "disinformation"—or else. But free speech advocates warn that these laws are clumsy and dangerous tools that threaten to muzzle expression far beyond the bounds of their nominal targets. They're right, and they now have receipts. Europe's Intrusive Speech RegulationsIn a new ...
Reason
On Monday, Harvard officials announced that the university would no longer require diversity, inclusion, and belonging statements as part of its hiring process for open positions in the faculty of arts and sciences. According to The Harvard Crimson, Harvard's previous policy required candidates to submit a statement detailing their "efforts to encourage diversity, inclusion, and belonging, including past, current, and anticipated future contributions in these areas." Under the new rules, finalists for a position will be required to submit two statements, one about their "efforts to strengthen ...
Reason
Columbia University had its class reunion this weekend. And along with alumni like me trying to relive their college years, pro-Palestinian protesters came back to campus. While some students picketed outside, urging alumni not to donate to the university, another group inside the campus gates set up an "encampment-style installation" titled "Revolt for Rafah: Installation I." Protesters unfurled a banner that stated "we're back, bitches." Later, they erected a scale model of a Mark 84 bomb, an American-made 2,000-pound weapon used by the Israeli military, next to a map of upper Manhattan show...
Reason
It's been over 80 years since the Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that schoolchildren can't be forced to say the Pledge of Allegiance. One Maryland elementary school, however, has yet to get the memo. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment nonprofit, Twin Ridge Elementary School officials sent an email on April 26 informing staff that state law requires "all students and teachers are required 'to stand and face the flag and while standing give an approved salute and recite in unison the pledge of allegiance....
Reason
In April, Texas state police tangled with University of Texas at Austin student protesters, pushing them off the campus and sending some into the streets. The protest began when students walked out of class with demands that the university divest from manufacturers supplying weapons to Israel in the ongoing war in Gaza. Gov. Greg Abbott posted on X, "Arrests being made right now & will continue until the crowd disperses. These protesters belong in jail. Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period," teeing up challenges about whether the move complied with the First Amendment. The post ...
Reason
A gray-haired Dartmouth professor was tackled, zip-tied, and detained on May 1 along with about 90 other protesters. "I've been teaching here for 34 years," Annelise Orleck told The New York Times after video of the arrest went viral. "There have been many protests, but I've never, ever seen riot police called to the green." Much of the debate about the campus protests sparked by the Israel-Hamas war has centered—quite reasonably—on questions around free speech, civil disobedience, and violence. When do chants become threats? When does blocking access to a building become the use of force? Les...
Reason
What do the National Rifle Association (NRA), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and nine U.S. Supreme Court justices from five presidential administrations all have in common? That list is likely relatively small. But at least one area of overlap was made evident Thursday when the Court published a unanimous ruling that a New York government official allegedly violated the First Amendment by pressuring insurers and banks to sever business ties with the NRA, which the ACLU is representing. The decision resuscitates the gun advocacy group's lawsuit against Maria Vullo, the former head o...
Reason
Sylvia Gonzalez, a former Castle Hills, Texas, city council member, plausibly alleges that she was arrested on a trumped-up charge in retaliation for conduct protected by the First Amendment. So does Priscilla Villarreal, an independent journalist in Laredo, Texas. But in backing up that claim, Gonzalez, whose case will soon be decided by the Supreme Court, faces a problem that Villarreal does not: It is hard to say how often people engage in the conduct that police cited to justify her arrest, which involved putting a petition in her personal folder during a city council meeting. Villarreal, ...
Reason
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