Neighbors and public elected officers are calling for a Sacramento homeowner to remove displays of swastikas on his house. The state senator representing the area expressed support for the First Amendment but said the display was repugnant, invoking memories of the atrocities of the Holocaust. (Sacramento Bee, February 27, 2015, by Bill Lindelof)
Bruce Maiman, the Sacramento Bee, March 3, 2015, wrote that it is important to respect the homeowner’s First Amendment rights to display the swastika. “Free speech is easy to defend when it’s speech we like. The real test of our fidelity to that inalienable right is in the face of inconvenient, annoying and even hateful speech. Freedom of speech is meaningless unless it protects the freedom of those who think differently, offensively and even appallingly,” wrote Maiman.
Cal State Fullerton made the list of “10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech” for punishing a campus sorority for conducting a recruiting event they called “Taco Tuesday” featuring some members in gang attire or sarapes and sombreros. The annual list is published by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, advocates for campus free speech rights. (Orange County Register, March 3, 2015, by Lou Ponsi)
An Arcata organization is contesting a police department denial of their request to hold a “free speech event” in Redwood Park on April 20. The police told the Humboldt Center for Constitutional Rights they have reserved every April 20 for training purposes. The date is a counterculture holiday for celebrating and smoking marijuana. (Lost Coast Outpost, March 3, 2015, by Hank Sims)