First Amendment News

Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times, October 15, 2017, writes that after the revelation that Facebook was running Russia ads designed to tilt the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump, the social media giants Twitter, Facebook and Google have pledged allegiance to transparency but have often failed to live up to their pledge. The social media companies also face a conundrum over whether to allow all speech including hate speech or even dissenting

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Kansas on behalf of Esther Koontz, a high school math teacher, who refused to sign a form saying she was not participating in a boycott of Israel thus disqualifying herself for a job training other math teachers. Koontz said, “The state should not be telling people what causes they can or can’t support. You don’t need to share my beliefs or agree with my decisions to understand that

In his latest attack on the press, President Donald Trump threatened to cancel NBC’s broadcasting license after a NBC report about a national security meeting in July during which Trump called for an almost tenfold increase in the nuclear arsenal. While his dig at NBC is hardly a creditable threat, it marked an uptick in the intensity of his attacks on the press. (Politico, October 11, 2017, by Louis Nelson and Margaret Harding McGill) Trump’s

University of Wisconsin regents passed new guidelines that would suspend students for a second instant of  “violent or other disorderly misconduct that materially and substantially disrupted the free expression of others.” Critics of the policy think that some students may view the policy as prohibiting protests. Wisconsin president Ray cross said that while violent protests have always been against the law, the new policy keeps speeches free of disruption and encourages students to learn how to

A Texas student filed a federal lawsuit against her school district and principal for expelling her for sitting during the pledge of allegiance. The student had sat through the pledge some 200 times before her expulsion. When summoned to the principal’s office on October 2, she was told it was not the NFL and that she could stand for the pledge like other Blacks in her class. (Courthouse News Service, October 9, 2017, by Cameron