News & Opinion

Seeing that societal norms for keeping lies in check are in sad decline, legal scholars are reassessing freedom of speech. One British scholar asserts that receiving valid information is crucial to making decisions affecting personal welfare so as well as a right to free speech, people have a right to not be lied to. At present, the First Amendment protects lies except in commercial speech and defamation, perjury and fraud. Some scholars believe it would

Starting in 2020, citizens with guns are attending rallies and protests in greater frequency. The Times found that of over 700 demonstrations, at about 77 percent of them, the gun totters were right-wing, showing up to intimidate those for such stances as LGBTQ rights, abortion access, and racial justice. Openly carrying guns at public events when it is obvious there is no need for self-defense can have a lethal effect on public discourse. (The New

A sheriff captain feared a coverup and supplied information to the district attorney and FBI and was fired for his efforts. John Ford sued for violation of his free speech rights claiming that the report to the outside agencies was not official speech as described in Garcetti v. Ceballos. A federal district judge ruled that the lawsuit could proceed as Ford supplied evidence he was fired for his speech to outside agencies, and it was

The Reporters’ Lab at Duke University found that 29 states lacked fact-checkers who could verify the accuracy in statements by political candidates. New Hampshire, Kansas, Ohio and Oregon were among sates lacking fact-checking projects with Texas, Iowa, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin benefiting from strong projects. (Poynter, November 16, 2022, by Mark Stencel, Erica Ryan and Belen Bricchi) For related FAC coverage, click here, here and here.

A little-noticed Justice Department report of the warrants and subpoenas against journalists shows a slowdown of actions involving journalists in 2021 but also ramped up actions against reporters during the regime of former President Donald Trump. Reporters were investigated for various crimes, including financial crimes, stalking and child exploitation raising the possibility that the investigations were in retaliation for their reporting. (Yahoo! News, November 16, 2022, by Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone) For related FAC