First Amendment News

Attorney General William Barr suggested that communities not respecting authority by protesting police actions could lose the protection of law enforcement. Barr has long criticized district attorneys in cities like Philadelphia in St. Louis for holding police to account. He has also said there should be “zero tolerance for resisting police.” (The Washington Post, December 4, 2019, by Tim Elfrink) Barr failed to note that many of the protests were sparked by police shootings of

The news media and social media industries are rising to the challenge of the tsunami of lies and distortions. “…newsrooms like BuzzFeed have successfully turned investigating misinformation on social platforms into a potent media beat. New techniques and technologies employed by enterprising investigative journalists everywhere from the New York Times to Bellingcat, an independent site, have challenged conflicting reports on subjects as diverse as the shooting down of Malaysian airliner MH17 and the killing of

FIRE’s study of college speech codes for 2018 revealed an estimated 6.4 million students do not enjoy full free speech rights on campus. They found that 89 percent of colleges retain policies that restriction student expression. FIRE’s Laura Beltz said, “Many college administrators are scrubbing the most egregious policies from the books, but they’re increasingly crafting subtler policies that still limit student expression.” (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, December 4, 2019, press release) While

The Trump presidential campaign announced that it is denying Bloomberg News access to its events after the news agency said it would not investigate Democratic candidates in the 2020 election With Mike Bloomberg in the presidential race, the agency will continue to investigate the Trump presidency and campaign. (Axios, December 2, 2019, by Jonathan Swan) Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said the Bloomberg decision revealed its bias against Trump, hence the ban. (Reuters, December 2,