An anti-Islam group bought these ads on Miami-Dade Transit buses: The Miami Herald reported last week that Miami-Dade Transit was removing the ads, because of objections from Muslims, including the South Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. But when I called Miami-Dade Transit to ask for a copy of their advertising policy (they […]
Archive | Freedom of Speech
Nonrecognition of Foreign Libel Judgments
A California legal development from last year that I missed, in Cal. Code Civil Proc. §§ 1716-1717, amending California’s version of the Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgments Recognition Act: 1716. … (c) A court of this state is not required to recognize a foreign-country judgment if … (9) The judgment includes recovery for a claim of […]
Judge Suing Newspaper for Breach of Web Privacy Agreement Over Being Outed as Author of Anonymous Comments
[UPDATE: Note the change in the legal analysis below.] The Complaint is available here; it claims that the newspaper’s identifying Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold as the supposed author of items posted under the “lawmiss” account breached the newspaper’s Privacy Policy. A bit of background, from a WKYC story: A comment by an Internet poster identified […]
UK Advertising Standards Authority Censoring Supposedly Incorrect International Law Claims in Advertisements
From ASA Adjudication on Israeli Government Tourist Office: A press ad, for holidays in Israel, stated “YOU CAN TRAVEL THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF ISRAEL IN 6 HOURS Imagine what you can experience in 4 days … DAY 1 TEL AVIV & JAFFA DAY 2 JERUSALEM … VISIT … NOW FOR MORE ITINERARIES IN ISRAEL”. Each […]
NY Times Room for Debate Forum on the Use of Offensive Language
To my surprise, the New York Times Room for Debate blog recently asked me to take part in a forum on the public use of allegedly offensive language. The forum is available here. Since I lack the linguistic expertise of co-blogger Eugene Volokh, I tried to focus my contribution on those aspects of the issue […]
Court Strikes Down Military Base’s Ban on Anti-Islam Car Decals
The case is Nieto v. Flatau (E.D.N.C.), decided a week ago. Camp Lejeune policy banned the display of “extremist, indecent, sexist or racist” messages on cars. Mr. Nieto had been required to remove from his car an “Islam = Terrorism” decal, a “Disgrace My Countries [sic] Flag and I will SHIT On Your Quran” decal, […]
Anonymous Comments and Modern Tort Law and Antidiscrimination Law
There’s been a lot of debate about anonymous comments. Some journalists are calling on newspapers to not allow anonymous comments, and I understand the sentiment — anonymity sometimes does encourage rudeness and worse. At the same time, modern tort law and antidiscrimination law can potentially make it very dangerous for people to comment under their […]
A Sad Victory for Thuggery in Texas
By Eugene Volokh on March 29, 2010 4:57 pm in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports: A student performance of an excerpt from Corpus Christi, a play positing Jesus Christ as a gay man, was canceled this past Friday at Tarleton State University (TSU) in Texas amid controversy and calls for censorship. The performance of the excerpt, which was to be directed by […]
D.C. Circuit Strikes Down Caps on Contributions to Independent Expenditure Committees
The case is SpeechNow.org v. FEC (en banc) (unanimous): The contribution limits of 2 U.S.C. § 441a(a)(1)(C) and 441a(a)(3) violate the First Amendment by preventing plaintiffs from donating to SpeechNow in excess of the limits and by prohibiting SpeechNow from accepting donations in excess of the limits. We should be clear, however, that we only […]
Stringent Constitutional Limits on Anger Management Classes, Anti-Drug/Alcohol-Abuse Classes, or Even Traffic School as Alternatives to Prosecution?
I blogged Wednesday about the Third Circuit’s “sexting” decision, mostly to summarize the reasoning. Now that I’ve had a day to think some more about it, let me now follow up with a brief discussion of the implications First, recall the court’s reasoning: (1) Requiring the girls who were suspected of illegal sexting to go […]
Court Throws Out Defamation Lawsuit Against Police Officer Who Noted License Plate That Was on a Terrorist Watch List
An interesting case, Syed v. Hamady (filed Mar. 12, 2010). Note that the plaintiffs’ lawyer apparently failed to timely file a response to the motion for summary judgment, and failed to promptly remedy that failure, so as a result the court decided the case without considering any such response: This Court has reviewed Defendants’ Statement […]
Third Circuit Upholds Injunction of Threatened “Sexting” Prosecution
The case is Miller v. Mitchell, just handed down today, and it’s important but complicated. Please bear with me. [UPDATE: For more on this case, and how it could impose stringent constitutional limits on anger management classes, anti-drug/alcohol-abuse classes, or even traffic school offered as alternatives to prosecution, see this follow-up post.] Here are the […]
The Chief Beneficiaries of Citizens United?
A CNN article by Jeffrey Toobin asserts, among other things, that The political effect of, if not motivation for, the [Citizens United] decision was clear: Citizens United looks to be a big win for Republicans, who are the likely beneficiaries of the newly lubricated corporate largesse. But is that really so? In California, one of […]
Interesting Libel Decision Arising from the Vaccine / Autism Debate
From Arthur v. Offit (E.D. Va. Mar. 10, 2010) (some paragraph breaks added): This action arises out of a brief passage in a lengthy magazine article profiling Defendant Paul Offit, M.D., a Philadelphia pediatrician and infectious disease specialist. Plaintiff Barbara Loe Arthur (also known as Barbara Loe Fisher) is the co-founder and acting president of […]
Insult-to-Religion Prosecution in Poland
By Eugene Volokh on March 10, 2010 4:27 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Religion and the Law
From Gazeta Prawna, with many thanks to my father Vladimir and brother Sasha for the translation from Polish: The Gdynia district prosecutor’s office has accused Adam Darski, the leader of the death metal band Behemoth, of defamation of religious sensibilities…. The decision to accuse the musician was announced … Monday by Gdynia District Prosecutor’s Office […]