Stanford University held up a law student’s diploma while they investigated a complaint for creating a fake flier satirizing the Federalist Society. (Daily Beast, June 2, 2021, by Blake Montgomery; Update: After advocacy by the organization FIRE, Stanford ended the probe.)
A Virginia elementary school teacher was put on leave for expressing his belief at a school board meeting that he would violate his religious beliefs by addressing students with chosen pronouns rather than ones corresponding to their sexual identity at birth. (The Roanoke Star, May 29, 2021)
First Amendment advocates are seeking to reverse a Florida appeals court decision upholding the arrest of a woman who filmed police who summoned her after they caught her son trying to enter a movie theater without paying. (The Palm Beach Post, May 21, 2021, by Jane Musgrave)
A New York man who routinely records police to hold them accountable was arrested even though he was filming a traffic stop in Hartford County, Connecticut from the public sidewalk. The police said he was confrontational and diverting their attention. (Yahoo! News, May 10, 2021, by James Whitlow)
Oregon’s Linfield University fired a Shakespearean scholar in what some feel is a violation of his free speech rights. Daniel Pollack-Pelznder has been a critic of the school’s response to sexual harassment and has made charges of anti-Semitism. He was fired without due process for insubordination. (Inside Higher Education, May 3, 2021, by David Palumbo-Liu)
A first year law student at Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey, found himself embroiled in controversy when he quoted a line from a legal opinion containing a racial slur in discussing a case. Black student are demanding a policy on racial slurs. (The New York Times, May 3, 2021, by Tracy Tully)
A former football coach is suing University of Tennessee-Chattanooga for violating his First Amendment rights in firing him for a tweet mocking a politician and voting rights activist Stacy Abrams. (ESPN, April 28, 2021, by Adam Rittenberg)
A federal district judge is allowing a medical student to proceed with his lawsuit against the University of Virginia for suspending him for asking a question about microaggressions. (Patch, April 19, 2021, by The Associated Press)
A Massachusetts resident won the right to post a Black Lives Matter sign outside her condominium after her association fined her for violating rules against displaying political views without approval. The Hampshire County Superior Court ruled in her favor. (Free Speech Project, March 2, 2021, by Elizabeth Marcinkowski)
A Collin College history professor says she was fired for a tweet about Mike Pence’s “little demon mouth” last October. (Dallas Observer, March 1, 2021, boy Simone Carter)
A flag with the words, “F— Biden” flying on a resident’s lawn in Hammond, Indiana violates the city’s code against vulgar messages, according to the mayor. (NWI Times, April 26, 2021, by Dan Carden)