The Telegraph (UK) so alleges: The Culture Secretary’s special adviser said she wanted to “flag up” the Cabinet minister’s connection to press regulation after reporters established that Mrs Miller’s parents lived in her taxpayer-funded second home…. The Telegraph has decided to disclose details of the private conversations amid widespread concern about the potential dangers of […]
Archive | Freedom of Speech
District Judges Split on Whether California Ban on Sexual Orientation Change Therapy for Minors Is Constitutional
By Eugene Volokh on December 5, 2012 10:18 am in Children's Rights, Freedom of Speech, Parental Rights
I was too swamped yesterday to blog about this, but Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause) has a characteristically excellent summary: This week, two federal district court judges in the Eastern District of California, in two separate cases, reached opposite conclusions about the constitutionality of California’s new law (effective Jan. 1, 2013) totally banning mental health […]
No First Amendment Violation in Maine Governor’s Ordering Removal of Mural from Government Building
From yesterday’s Newton v. LePage (1st Cir. Nov. 29, 2012): The question presented is whether the governor of Maine violated the First Amendment by removing a large state-owned mural, commissioned by the former administration, from its location on the walls of a small waiting room for visitors to the Maine Department of Labor (“MDOL”). The […]
Citizens United and the Fall of the Roman Republic
By Ilya Somin on November 27, 2012 7:49 pm in Election Law, Elections, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Restrictions on Campaign Contrbs. and Expenses
In a recent Slate article, Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni claim that the history of the fall of the Roman Republic strengthens the case against the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, which ruled that the First Amendment protects corporate and union political speech against restriction by government. The influence of money in politics, they […]
“Moscow Bans Protest Against Political Repressions ‘Due to Lack of Political Repressions'”
So reads a headline in The Onion RT.com today: The Moscow authorities have refused to grant permission for a rally against “political repressions” and “violations of human rights,” saying that state law does not recognize such a phenomenon in the country. The application to hold the event was rejected by the authorities on the grounds […]
Liberal vs. Conservative Attitudes on Speech by Communists, Homosexuals, and Supporters of Military Dictatorship
By Eugene Volokh on November 19, 2012 7:10 pm in Freedom of Speech, Liberal vs. Conservative Attitudes on Free Speech
I blogged yesterday about liberal/conservative divides among General Social Survey respondents on free speech questions: For anti-religious speech, speech arguing that blacks are genetically inferior, and speech by anti-American Muslim clergy, liberals were somewhat more likely than conservatives to conclude that the speech should be protected, though the gulf wasn’t great, and both liberals and […]
Liberal and Conservative American Attitudes Towards Letting Anti-American Muslim Clergy Speak
By Eugene Volokh on November 18, 2012 8:18 pm in Freedom of Speech, Liberal vs. Conservative Attitudes on Free Speech, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
Also from the General Social Survey, though this time with a question that was only asked in 2008 and 2010, yielding a total of 2500 respondents: “Now consider a Muslim clergyman who preaches hatred of the United States. If such a person wanted to make a speech in your community preaching hatred of the United […]
Are Liberal or Conservative Americans More Likely to Support Restrictions on Racist and Anti-Religious Speech?
By Eugene Volokh on November 18, 2012 7:54 pm in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Liberal vs. Conservative Attitudes on Free Speech, Religion and the Law
Here’s data from the General Social Survey, limiting the years to 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 (with nearly 8000 total responses for each question), with respondents self-identifying as liberals, moderates, and conservatives. (I have flattened out the gradations within each category — extremely liberal/conservative, plain liberal/conservative, slightly liberal/conservative — partly because otherwise some […]
Alito on Citizens United
By Jonathan H. Adler on November 17, 2012 11:12 am in Freedom of Speech, Restrictions on Campaign Contrbs. and Expenses, Supreme Court
BLT reports that Justice Samuel Alito addressed criticisms of the Supreme Court’s Citzens United decision in a speech at the Federalist Society’s annual lawyers’ convention in Washington, D.C. on Thursday night. Alito said arguments can be made for overturning Citizens United, but not the popular one that boils down to one line: Corporations shouldn’t get […]
Unconstitutional to Exclude Poet from a Public College’s “Open Mic” Poetry Reading?
That’s the issue in Bormuth v. City of Jackson, 2012 WL 5493599 (E.D. Mich. Nov. 13). The facts, as alleged by plaintiff, though largely verified by plaintiff’s e-mail exchange with the professor: JCC instructor John Yohe occasionally hosted a public poetry event, which included both a reading by a featured poet and an “open microphone” […]
Crime for Student to Post Image of Teacher (or Principal) “With Intent to … Torment”
That’s what’s provided by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-458.2, which will go into effect in North Carolina this coming Dec. 1. The law also bans discussing school employees’ sex lives online “with intent to … torment,” posting other “personal … information” about them with such an intent, and posting “an unauthorized copy of any data […]
Ricochet Podcast on Freedom of Speech
Adam Freedman put together this podcast on the freedom of speech with the Institute of Justice’s Paul Sherman and with me; check it out.
More Secular Blasphemy — Crime to Burn Poppies (or Post Pictures of Burning Poppies) in England
The Guardian (UK) reports: A teenager arrested on Remembrance Sunday on suspicion of posting a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook is being questioned by police. The 19-year-old was held after the image of a poppy being set ablaze by a lighter was reportedly posted online with the caption: “How about that you squadey […]
Secular Blasphemy
From Peta Deutschland v. Germany (Eur. Ct. Hum. Rts. Nov. 8, 2012): 6. The applicant association is the German branch of the animal rights organisation PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). It pursues, inter alia, the aims of preventing animal suffering and of encouraging the public to abstain from using animal products. 7. […]
Complaint Filed with Egyptian Prosecutor General over Anti-Islamist Speech
Ahram Online reports: A complaint was filed with the prosecutor general on Sunday by forty Egyptian lawyers, accusing renowned reform campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei of offending Islamists, of being against Islamic sharia law and of having insulted prominent Islamist preachers. According to Ahram Arabic news website, the complaint was based on statements made by the founder […]