People’s First Amendment roundup: California man wins right to protest

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the right of Joseph Patrick Cuviello to use a bullhorn in front of a California amusement park to protest the treatment of animals in the park. The court found the city’s ban unnecessarily broad and the protest area a public forum. (Metropolitan News-Enterprise, December 11, 2019, by a MetNews Staff Writer)

Asheen Phansey was fired by Babson College in Massachusetts after the adjunct professor posted what he said was a joke that Iran should pick sites in the U.S. to bomb. (The New York Times, January 11, 2020, by Derrick Bryson Taylor)

The school district administration of Barberton, Ohio are supporting student-athletes who choose not to stand during the national anthem before games. (ABC5, January 11, 2020, by Camryn Justice)

The head of Seattle’s public library, Marcellus Turner Turner, is refusing to cave to pressure and announced that controversial speakers will hold an event next month at the library. The speakers are part of a group who argue against allowing transgender women entering traditionally female spaces. (The Stranger, January 13, 2020)

A joke escalated into a skirmish over a city’s sign ordinance in Bremerton, Washington. A friend of Kevin Chambers posted a Trump/Pence sign in his front yard that was soon vandalized so Chambers elevated it to 15 feet. The town said the height limit was six feet, but Chambers argued the sign doesn’t affect traffic past his house or drivers’ sight lines. Neither Chambers or his friend support Trump. (Kitsap Sun, January 5, 2010, by Christian Voisler)

Nine citizens of Weed, California won a battle with Roseburg Forest Products, which had declared its intention to block the town from its water supply and allow Crystal Geyser to ship it to Japan. Roseburg filed a lawsuit in 2007 against the citizens that the court dismissed as a SLAPP, Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. The company then appealed. (Eugene Weekly, January 2, 2020, by Taylor Peerse)

Adam Carolla, a conservative podcaster, and Dennis Prager, a conservative author, produced a documentary on free speech called “No Safe Spaces,” focusing on how conservatives voicing opinions suffer the loss of forums and even their jobs. (Metro, December 14, 2019, by A.D. Amarosi)

The Justice Department is backing J. Michael Brown, a Mississippi college student, reprimanded and hauled into the police headquarters for such activities as recruiting students for a political group, setting up a “free speech ball” for posting messages and holding up a sign asking students to speak their minds on marijuana legalization. (The Washington Times, December 13, 2019, by Valerie Richardson)

U.C. Davis professor Abigail Thompson was criticized by some of her peers for her article arguing against the use of “diversity statements” in faculty hiring, as she argued, were merely political tests for job applicants. But a petition circulated that supported her right to debate important and sensitive issues. (The College Fix, December 13, 2019, by Daniel Payne)

A federal court ruled in support of Mary Durstein, a West Virginia high school teacher, who retweeted a post by Ann Coulter with an anti-Muslim message. (Bloomberg Law, December 16, 2019, by Patrick Dorrian)