I blogged in March about the court’s rejecting the religious accommodation claim in this case, but the court (in Jama v. United States (W.D. Wash. May 17)) has now decided that the intentional infliction of emotional distress claim could go forward: This controversy stems from a July 2006 raid of Plaintiff’s apartment by federal and […]
Archive | 2010
Just What Speech Does “Hostile Environment Harassment” Law Restrict?
I’ve argued in some of the posts below that it’s a lot — including statements that by themselves don’t satisfy the criteria for liability, but that reasonable employers have to suppress in order to prevent liability. For a pretty detailed explanation (and lots of citations) as to workplace harassment law, see here. I wrote it […]
What is a zoobow?
In Massachusetts, it is illegal to sell a “zoobow.” Mass. Gen. Laws Ann ch. 269, § 12. It is also illegal to sell a manrikigusari, nunchaku, shuriken, or klackers (the children’s toy popular in the early 1970s). The Massachusetts law does appear to have prevented the klackers violent crime epidemic which now plagues the other 49 […]
The Ninth Circuit Rodriguez Opinion and Speech in Non-Academic Workplaces
By Eugene Volokh on May 20, 2010 5:01 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
I explain below why the Ninth Circuit’s Rodriguez decision applies to harassment lawsuits brought against private employers. Here I’d like to explain why and how it would apply to non-academic employers. Rodriguez does say that its First Amendment analysis, and its statement that “Without the right to stand against society’s most strongly-held convictions, the marketplace […]
The Ninth Circuit Rodriguez Opinion and Speech in Private Workplaces
By Eugene Volokh on May 20, 2010 4:37 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
The Rodriguez decision arose in a public community college, and it stressed the importance of academic freedom. But I think it would also be relevant to Title VII lawsuits based on speech in non-academic workplaces, and in private workplaces (though not to individually directed insults or sexual propositions). Here let me talk about the private […]
“Free Speech Has Been a Powerful Force for the Spread of Equality Under the Law”;
By Eugene Volokh on May 20, 2010 4:06 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
“we must not squelch that freedom because it may also be harnessed by those who promote retrograde or unattractive ways of thought.” So writes the Ninth Circuit in today’s Rodriguez opinion, in an important holding about the interaction of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. I’ve written before against arguments that First Amendment rights need to […]
Freedom of Speech vs. Workplace Harassment Law — A Big Free Speech Win in the Ninth Circuit
By Eugene Volokh on May 20, 2010 3:44 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
I’ve long written about how workplace harassment law sometimes violates the First Amendment, so I was especially pleased to see today’s Rodriguez v. Maricopa County Community College Dist. (9th Cir.) (written by Chief Judge Kozinski, and joined by retired Justice O’Connor, sitting by designation, and Judge Sandra Ikuta). The entire opinion is much worth reading, […]
Violent Misdemeanants, the Right to Bear Arms, and the Right to Vote
Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook analogized the individual right to bear arms to the individual right to vote, and reasoned that, given that states may deny misdemeanants the right to vote, they should be equally able to deny them the right to bear arms. I don’t think that analogy quite works. The right to vote, of […]
Seventh Circuit En Banc Argument in the Second Amendment / Violent Misdemeanants Case (Skoien)
The Seventh Circuit en banc in United States v. Skoien took place today, and is available online. This is the case where the panel held that 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), which bans gun possession by people convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence, might be too broad: Applying intermediate scrutiny, we ask whether the government […]
Businesses That Provide Goods or Services That Can Be Used Either Criminally or Lawfully
What should the law do about manufacturers or distributors of “dual-use” goods or services, which can be used both in harmful and legitimate ways by end users? This question arises as to guns, knives, videocassette records, alcohol, books about how to commit contract murder, chemistry textbooks, publication of the names of certain crime witnesses, and […]
Interesting Free Speech Question:
Ari David, who’s running for Congress against long-time incumbent Henry Waxman, raises an interesting and troubling free speech issue on his blog here. Apparently (taking everything he says to be factually correct) he hired some folks to create an iPhone app with text (not surprisingly) highly critical of Waxman — e.g., “HENRY WAXMAN… SUPPORTED Cap […]
State of the Net:
If you’re interested, Jerry Brito over at SurprisinglyFree.com, has been doing a series of interviews with legal thinkers and entrepreneurs focusing on a variety of tech issues, and he’s posted a podcast of an interview he did with me a couple of weeks ago on Net governance issues – it turned out pretty well, I […]
Proposed Louisiana Law Would Ban Any Online Speech Intended to “Embarrass, or Cause Emotional Distress” to an Under-17-Year-Old
The bill (HB1259) — which passed the state House of Representatives by a 78-16 vote , and has cleared the state Senate Committee on Judiciary C — would make it a misdemeanor to transmit any Internet communication or other computer communication “with the intent to coerce, abuse, torment, intimidate, harass, embarrass, or cause emotional distress […]
Ribstein Joins Truth on the Market
University of Illinois law professor Larry Ribstein is abandoning his solo blog, Ideoblog, and joining Truth on the Market. More here.
The Changing Conflict in Pakistan, and Targeted Killing
By Kenneth Anderson on May 20, 2010 12:26 am in Afghanistan, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Targeted Killing, War on Terror
Adam Entous, military affairs correspondent for Reuters, has authored, along with several colleagues, an outstanding, smart, balanced, and well-reported story on the evolution of drone warfare and targeted killing. A lot of reporting effort went into this story – this is not just an instance of a reporter being offered a little nugget of inside […]