Blaine Coleman wanted to buy this exterior ad on Ann Arbor buses: The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority said “no,” citing the violation of two policies — a requirement that “[a]ll advertising must be … considered in good taste and shall uphold the aesthetic standards as determined by AATA,” and a ban on ads that “hold […]
Archive | Freedom of Speech
Ukrainian Bill Banning “Promotion of Homosexuality” Passes First Reading, with 289 Votes (out of 350 Present)
So report RIA Novosti, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Kyiv Post, and Lenta.ru (in Russian). From the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty story: The draft, approved by lawmakers on October 2, would make what it calls “promotion of homosexuality” — defined as taking action to create a positive portrayal of gays — a crime. Supporters of […]
Brazilian Judges Orders Arrest of Google Brazil President, 24-Hour Suspension of Google and YouTube
So reports the AP: [Judge Flavio Peren of Mato Grosso do Sul state] has ordered the arrest of the president of Google’s operations in Brazil for failure to remove … two videos containing disparaging remarks against Alcides Bernal who is running for mayor of the city of Campo Grande…. [Judge Peren] also ordered a statewide, […]
Political Parties’ Right to Endorse Candidates for Judicial Office
A Ninth Circuit panel has just struck down the Montana ban on political parties’ endorsing candidates for judicial office. Sanders County Republican Central Committee v. Bullock (9th Cir. Sept. 17, 2012); one judge dissented. This strikes me as quite right: If a state has an election, it can’t suppress speech about the election, whether by […]
City Councilman Seeks Criminal Charges Against Critic Who Threatened to Recall Him
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Your Name In Lights
Or in soybean-based ink. George Will’s column today discusses the Elane Photography case that Eugene has been blogging (and participating in as amicus curiae). The case involves a First Amendment Free Exercise Clause/New Mexico Religious Freedom Restoration Act defense to penalties the New Mexico Human Rights Commission assessed against Christian photographers who refused for religious reasons […]
Administration Seeks to Have “Innocence of Muslims” Removed from YouTube
By Jonathan H. Adler on September 14, 2012 2:38 pm in "Hate Speech", Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech Restricted by Thugs
The LA Times reports: Administration officials have asked YouTube to review a controversial video that many blame for spurring a wave of anti-American violence in the Middle East. The administration flagged the 14-minute “Innocence of Muslims” video and asked that YouTube evaluate it to determine whether it violates the site’s terms of service, officials said […]
Prof. Peter Spiro on Why “Hate Speech” Should Be “Ban[ned]” in the U.S. — and on How It Might Be Done, Using International Law
By Eugene Volokh on September 13, 2012 11:27 am in "Hate Speech", Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech Restricted by Thugs
From yesterday’s Opinion Juris post by Prof. Peter Spiro, one of the leading international law scholars in the country: The deplorable killing of Chris Stevens in Libya suggests a foreign relations law rationale for banning hate speech. Remember, the Benghazi protests were prompted by this film depicting the prophet Mohammed in not very flattering terms. […]
Maryland Legislator Calls on Private Employer to Order Employee to Stop Talking About Same-Sex Marriage
See this letter from Del. Emmett C. Burns to the owner of the Baltimore Ravens. The letter is on Maryland House of Delegates stationery, begins with “As a Delegate to the Maryland General Assembly and a Baltimore Ravens Football fan,” and then closes with this: I am requesting that you take the necessary action, as […]
New Pro Bono Cert Petition — Butt v. Utah
My sense is that our readers like to hear about our actual lawyering — rare as it is — so I thought I’d mention a new pro bono cert petition I just filed today, in Butt v. Utah [UPDATE: corrected upload glitch, petition is now readable]. The petition seeks review of the Utah Supreme Court […]
“Current Laws on All Forms of Pornography and Obscenity Need to Be Vigorously Enforced”
So says the Republican Party Platform, and this leads me to questions I asked in 2004, when the Bush Administration called for a pornography crackdown. As we know, there’s lots of porn of all varieties out there on the Internet, including porn that might well be seen as offensive to “community standards” in at least […]
No Free Speech Here — This Is Bourbon Street
New Orleans Code of Ordinances § 54-419(c)(4) provides, It shall be prohibited for any person or group of persons to loiter or congregate on Bourbon Street for the purpose of disseminating any social, political or religious message between the hours of sunset and sunrise. The New Orleans police are apparently prosecuting several street preachers for […]
How Not to Label Biotech Foods
By Jonathan H. Adler on August 31, 2012 8:15 am in Food and Drink, Freedom of Speech, Junk Science and Quackspertise, Politicizing Science
In November, Californians will vote on Proposition 37, a ballot initiative to impose a mandatory labeling requirement on all foods produced with or from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). For reasons I discuss in this New Atlantis article, this requirement is unnecessary, unwise and potentially unconstitutional. The effort has been endorsed by numerous progressive organizations and […]
Mann v. Steyn
Penn State climatologist Michael Mann, he of the infamous “Hockey stick” graph, is threatening to sue Mark Steyn and National Review for a blog post on NRO in which Steyn (quoting Rand Simberg) compared Penn State’s investigation of scientific misconduct allegations against Mann with the same university’s initial investigation of Jerry Sandusky and the Penn […]
Blackmail
Some commenters have recently brought up the perennial question of when speech becomes constitutionally unprotected blackmail. As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of the thorniest conceptual questions in all of jurisprudence. (Our own Jim Lindgren has written oft-cited articles on it, and blogged on it as well.) It’s sometimes called the Blackmail Paradox, and […]