First Amendment News

In an essay for the next issue of Daedalus, legal scholar Robert Post, SSRN, October 20, 2020 argues that the public forum, the free-flowing marketplace of ideas, is no sure remedy for the current state of speech in the U.S. “Under the spell of a free speech principle,” writes Post, “many believe that an illness of contemporary public debate can be cured by more speech. But this recommendation confuses symptoms with causes. Our public discourse

FIRE’s report on the state of free speech on university campuses revealed that numbers of students self-censor in atmospheres of intolerance and lack of support from administrations and other students. The top ranked schools are the University of Chicago, Kansas State, Purdue, Mississippi State and Oklahoma State. The lowest ratings went to University of Pennsylvania, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Georgetown and Skidmore. (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, November 4, 2022) In reference to law schools,

Despite the criticism bombarding the Department of Homeland Security in April over its new board to combat lies and its subsequent scuttling of the board, the department is still tracking false information and pressuring social media companies to remove it. (Reason, October 31, 2022, by Joe Lancaster) The Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 2, 2022, urges the Biden administration to stop the practice to end the affront to “liberty and free speech.” The

The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals blocked enforcement of a South Dakota law requiring ballot petition workers to disclose their personal identification information. Judge Steven Grasz wrote that disclosure would be “chilling” and the law a violation of the First Amendment. The law was seen as an impediment to the initiative process as a pro choice-group plans a campaign to put a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot. (Rapid City Journal, November 1, 2022,

Tech reporter Adi Robertson of The Verge, November 2, 2022, sees the First Amendment endangered with politicians attacking speech laws. The advent of the internet created new circumstances that defy easy regulation, and lawmakers and judges are gutting the First Amendment in their attempts to address the problems. “…the internet allows people to speak to each other at a scale unprecedented in human history,” says Robertson. “The shortcomings and tradeoffs of the laws governing that