The New York Daily News reports: [Derek Fenton, t]he protester who burned pages from the Koran outside a planned mosque near Ground Zero has been fired from NJTransit, sources and authorities said Tuesday…. “Mr. Fenton’s public actions violated New Jersey Transit’s code of ethics,” an agency statement said. “NJ Transit concluded that Mr. Fenton violated […]
Archive | “Hate Speech”
Queensland University Suspends Lawyer for YouTube-Distributed Blasphemy
By Eugene Volokh on September 14, 2010 2:23 pm in "Hate Speech", Atheism, Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The Brisbane Times reports that: A Queensland University of Technology lawyer[,] … Alex Stewart[,] has taken leave from his non-academic position as a QUT [Queensland University of Technology] commercial contracts lawyer after controversy erupted over a YouTube clip in which he smokes self-made cigarettes rolled in pages from the [Koran and the Bible] before rating […]
Cardozo Law Review en banc Online Symposium on Snyder v. Phelps Is Now Up
The Cardozo Law Review en banc online symposium on Snyder v. Phelps is now up here. The symposium includes articles by authors — including me — on both sides of the issue; check it out if you’re interested in the case.
Koran-Burning Minister and Council on American-Islamic Relations Spokesman Play Into Each Other’s Hands
As I mentioned last week, Terry Jones — a minister at the ironically named Dove World Outreach Center — is organizing a burning of Korans to mark September 11. That strikes me as both largely pointless, non-substantive rudeness (as opposed to fair and substantive criticism of Islam, which would be perfectly proper) and as largely […]
Outdoor Burning of Korans Unlawful, Given the City Fire Code
By Eugene Volokh on August 28, 2010 12:32 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Law
The Gainesville Sun site reports: The city of Gainesville has denied Dove World Outreach Center’s application for a burn permit to set fire to copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, but the church says it plans to burn the holy books anyway. Gene Prince, interim chief of Gainesville Fire Rescue, said Wednesday that under […]
More Punishment for Ethnically Offensive Speech in Europe
Expatica reports: A Dutch appeals court on Thursday fined an Arab organisation in the Netherlands 2,500 euros [with 1,500 euros suspended] for causing “unnecessary offence” in publishing a Holocaust-denying cartoon[, which depicts the Nazi Holocaust as a figment of Jewish imagination]…. “The suggestion that [the Holocaust] may have been contrived or exaggerated by victims is […]
Another Prosecution for Criticism of Religion
By Eugene Volokh on August 25, 2010 11:14 am in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The Daily News Egypt reports: Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud on Monday referred the publisher of Islamic books to a State Security Court on charges of contempt of the Christian religion. Publisher Ahmed Abdallah Abo-Islam, was charged for accusing Christians of fabricating the Bible and threatening social stability and security…. In [the complaint that triggered […]
Third Circuit Strikes Down Another Campus Speech Code
By Eugene Volokh on August 18, 2010 6:39 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
The case is McCauley v. University of the Virgin Islands, decided today. The court holds that the K-12 school cases — “Tinker, Fraser, Hazelwood, Morse, and other decisions involving speech in public elementary and high schools” — “cannot be taken as gospel in cases involving public universities,” and strikes down (at least when applied to […]
Ground Zero Mosque (Actually, Two-Blocks-from-Ground-Zero Mosque)
By Eugene Volokh on August 9, 2010 11:47 am in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
I don’t have anything helpful to say on the ethical, public relations, or interfaith amity questions raised by the ground zero mosque. Cathy Young takes one view, [UPDATE: Christopher Hitchens in Slate takes a somewhat different one, and this Ottawa Citizen op-ed takes yet another] and I know there are others, but I leave that […]
Russian Art Curators Convicted for Blasphemy, Fined
For more on the case, see this post from a few days ago. The conviction was for “committing acts aimed at inciting national hatred and strife,” but, as I argue in that post, this provision has essentially been interpreted as a ban on use of religious images that sufficiently offends believers, which is why I […]
Museum Curators on Trial for Blasphemy
[UPDATE, July 12, 2010: The curators have been convicted and fined.] The AP reports: [T]he two prominent Moscow art curators who put on [an art] show are facing the prospect of three years in prison … [under] the law against inciting religious hatred…. In one [painting in the show], Christ appeared to his disciples as […]
To Get Children Back, Father Must Get Counseling to “Address His Use of Sexist and Racist Language”
So holds In re G.G. (Cal. Ct. App. June 29, 2010), by a 2-1 vote. (The court order said that “Father to be in individual counseling to address issues with a male therapist regarding father‘s racist and sexist views,” but the appellate opinion seems to treat the counseling as focused solely on the father’s use […]
Freedom of Speech and the Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Tort
I have a near-final version of this article — forthcoming in a few weeks in the Cardozo Law Review de novo online supplement — available at SSRN. Here’s a short summary, from the SSRN abstract: Twenty years ago, Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell held that even outrageous, severely distressing speech is constitutionally protected, at least […]
Essay on Libertarianism and Antidiscrimination Law
I’ve written an essay for Cato Unbound, which the editors have titled “Context Matters: A Better Libertarian Approach to Antidiscrimination Law.” Over the next few days, Sheldon Richman of the Foundation for Economic Education, Jason Kuznicki of Cato, and Jeff Miron of Harvard will write comments, and then we’ll have some back and forth. Should […]
Any Connecticut Prosecutors or Defense Lawyers Willing to Chat About the Connecticut Racial/Religious Ridicule Statute?
This is the statute I blogged about a few days ago, Connecticut General Statutes § 53–37 (“Any person who, by his advertisement, ridicules or holds up to contempt any person or class of persons, on account of the creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality or race of such person or class of persons, shall be fined […]