hate speech

Whining college students need lessons in tolerance and free speech

BY PETER SCHEER—There’s nothing like the massacre of 129 Parisian civilians at the hands of jihadi sociopaths, utterly convinced that their barbarism manifests the will of God, to provide some perspective on the recent whinings of students at a number of America’s most elite colleges and universities. For the past few weeks, students across the country—at Yale University in Connecticut, Amherst College in Massachusetts, New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College, the University of Missouri, and southern California

Read More »

French president’s proposal threatens Internet freedom

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is proposing that anyone regularly visiting websites supporting terrorism or advocating hate or violence will be arrested. First Amendment Center President Ken Paulson notes that allowing despicable viewpoints is basic to American democracy and that the proposed French law on hate websites would not survive in U.S. federal courts. -db From a commentary for the First Amendment Center, March 22, 2012, by Ken Paulson. Full story  

Read More »

Opinion: Free speech losing out to religious rights even sometimes in the United States

Western nations are caving in to pressure from religious interests as more and more countries are passing laws banning hate speech, blasphemy and discriminatory language, writes Jonathan Turley in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. The laws curtailing free speech are passed in the interest of promoting tolerance and multi-cultural societies. -db From a commentary in the Los Angeles Times, March 9, 2012, by Jonathan Turley. Full story  

Read More »

Lies, bigoted rants and snuff videos: Why defense of free speech often entails defense of seriously unsavory characters.

BY PETER SCHEER—Why is it that the First Amendment Coalition, like other organizations that defend freedom of speech, is so often aligned in support of seriously unsavory characters? Just last week FAC filed an amicus brief in the US Supreme Court in support of a local politician and serial liar (no redundancy intended) who claimed to have served in the Marines (a lie) and to have been awarded the nation’s highest military honor for heroism

Read More »

Opinion: First Amendment victory in case of UCLA student’s YouTube rant

Administrators at the University of California, Los Angeles said they had dropped their investigation into a student’s YouTube video in which she mocked Asian students. President of the Foundaton for Individual Rights In Education, Greg Lukianoff, praised the university’s action but said there were deep concerns about reported threats against the student. Lukianoff said, “We are pleased that UCLA will not attempt to punish Alexandra Wallace for her constitutionally protected speech. The cure for ‘bad’

Read More »