First Amendment News

Texas politicians are pressuring public school librarians to remove books from their libraries, in the words of Republican lawmaker Matt Krause, books that would cause “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of [a student’s] race or sex.” Eight hundred and fifty books were on his list. In response a San Antonio school district banned 414 books from its libraries. (The Atlantic, December 8, 2021, by Emma Sarappo) Krause’s list features

A Texas federal judge ruled that a law restricting social media platform regulation of user content violated their First Amendment rights. (Ars Technica, December 2, 2021, by Jon Brodkin) Texas legislators passed the law to keep Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from censoring conservative content. They were especially motivated by the suspension of former President Donald Trump in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol. (USA Today, December 2, 2021, by Jessica Guynn)

Arrests of journalists around the world reached a new high of 293 in 202, up from 280 in 2020. Writes Arlene Getz of Committee to Protect Journalists, December 9, 2021, “Emboldened autocrats are increasingly ignoring due process and flouting international norms to keep themselves in power. In a world preoccupied with COVID-19 and trying to prioritize issues like climate change, repressive governments are clearly aware that public outrage at human rights abuses is blunted and

A Christian ministry is asking the U.S Supreme Court to hear its case against the South Poverty Law Center for designating the ministry as a “hate group.” The ministry claims that Times v. Sullivan enables “reputational terrorism” while escaping the responsibilities under defamation law. (Fox News, December 1, 2021, by Tyler O’Neil) Justice Neil Gorsuch recently expressed his opinion in a dissent that Times v. Sullivan’s actual malice standard was less appropriate today given the