News & Opinion

Citizens turning out in support of a rancher’s refusal to pay 20-year’s worth of grazing fees to the federal government were incensed to find that they were restricted to a free speech zone. They and free speech advocates consider the zones “an inappropriate infringement of free speech.” (Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 17, 2014, by Sean Whaley) The Bureau of Land Management soon backed down as the protesters set up outside the designated free speech zone. 

The Washington, D.C. U.S. Circuit ruled that the government could not force firms to reveal on their websites if they were using “conflict minerals” from the Congo. Militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have financed rape and plunder by selling gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten. The ruling upheld the regulations requiring reporting on the minerals but said the posting of the results on websites constituted unconstitutionally compelled speech. (Courthouse News Service, April 16,

A federal judge in Oregon was the most recent judge to rule that flashing your lights on a freeway to warn other motorists of a speed trap was protected speech under the First Amendment. The traffic court judge held that the sheriff’s deputy had acted improperly in arresting the driver for “expressive conduct” protected under the First Amendment. (Portland Press Herald, April 11, 2014, by Jeff Barnard, The Associated Press) A federal judge in Missouri

A media coalition is bolstering efforts to challenge the National Security Agency’s National Security Letters program, particularly the non-disclosure provision that they claim constitutes prior restraint of journalists reporting about the program. The FBI routinely issues the letters to phone companies and Internet service providers with non-disclosure orders gagging them from discussing the letters. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, April 9, 2014, press release) Slightly over a year ago, Google filed a petition