First Amendment News

Local reporters say they have encountered backlash in covering the surge. Many don’t want to hear the numbers are up and make their feelings known. (CNN Business, August 2, 2021) Local news outlets are giving play to the opinions of notorious purveyors of Covid-19 information, most prominent Dr. Joseph Mercola, who peddles the falsehood that the vaccines are like gene therapy and useless. Scores of local newspapers and TV and radio stations have provide platforms

Emeritus English and history professor Harvey J. Graff, Inside Higher Education, August 2, 2021, casts the conservative attack on critical race theory as racist, based on falsehoods and a threat to free speech rights of students and teachers. Contrary to their claims, there is no evidence that current teaching about race teaches white youth to hate America and see themselves as racist. “A firm grounding in an accurate and complete American history,” writes Graff, “is

In receiving her silver medal in the shot-put, Raven Saunders of the U.S. brought to focus the disparity in the rules of the international committee and the U.S. Olympic leaders when she crossed her arms above her head, she said, in solidarity with oppressed people. The U.S. allows gestures so long as they are not hateful. The international committee bars all political demonstrations at the Games. (The New York Times, August 1, 2021, by Matthew

Roselle Park, New Jersey made the right call in abandoning their fight to force a town resident to move signs with words, F— Biden from her mother’s fence, writes the Star Ledger Editorial Board, NJ.com, July 28, 2021. Their editorial cite the U.S. Supreme Court 1971 ruling that supported the use of the F-word in political banners. An Oxnard citizen Aaron Starr filed a federal lawsuit charging that the state law AB 5 classified campaign

The Biden administration unsuccessfully pressured Facebook to share information about how it is combating lies on the vaccines then lit into the social media for not removing the lies quickly enough thus contributing to loss of life. (Ars Technica, July 19, 2021, by Tim De Chant) Law professor Eugene Volokh of the Volokh Conspiracy, writes that it is constitutional for Biden administration officials to pressure the social media so long as they don’t coerce with