Playing Chicken
Plus: University reckoning, climate-grief vasectomies, Chinese garlic, and more...
Free Speech
"Moral Rot": Rude Awakenings, Lessons, and Being Not Sure How to Cope
"We have had no end of a lesson: it will do us no end of good."
Social Media Political Insults of Public Employee in Election Campaign Aren't Protected by the First Amendment
So a Minnesota Court of Appeals panel concluded this Summer, over a sharp dissent.
David Lat, "Against Free-Speech Hypocrisy"
"And in (partial) defense of Harvard President Claudine Gay's controversial congressional testimony."
"This Will Not End Well": FIRE on Penn President's Backtracking on Free Speech
"Conservatives like Rep. Elise Stefanik should ask themselves: Do you honestly believe this [proposed new rule against "calls for genocide"] won't be weaponized to ban an Israeli cabinet official from speaking at Penn? An Israeli Defense Force soldier?"
FIRE's Statement on the House Hearings on Anti-Semitism
"Double standards are frustrating, but we should address them by demanding free speech be protected consistently — not by expanding the calls for censorship."
Congress Shouldn't Encourage College Presidents To Censor Even More Speech
Both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian activism has been suppressed on campuses.
Jeff Kosseff: Why False Speech Deserves First Amendment Protections
The former journalist defends misinformation in the Trump era and explains why so many journalists are against free speech.
Ivy League Double Standards
Plus: Deepfakes in porn, Randi Weingarten's amnesia, San Francisco's Chinese-name crackdown, and more...
Court Rejects Attempt to Block Media from Reporting Name of Pseudonymous Litigant
The court required the university defendants to keep plaintiff's identity confidential (common in pseudonymous Title IX cases), but refused to extend this to media, students, and others.
Help Fight Disinformation About Disinformation: Donate to Reason
Your support makes some of the "riskiest" journalism on the internet possible.
Even Hateful Protests Are Protected, Free Speech Group Reminds Congress
Respecting free speech defends individual rights and lets people show us who they are.
Texas Newspaper Virally Claims Ted Cruz Wanted To 'Limit' Preferred Pronouns. His Bill Doesn't Do That.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced a bill last month that would bar federal agencies from forcing employees to respect preferred names or pronouns.
Seattle Banned Landlords From Rejecting Tenants Based on Criminal Records. Will the Supreme Court Step in?
The political push behind the law was well-meaning. But it will backfire on many prospective renters.
Judge Halts Montana's First Amendment-Violating TikTok Ban
The ban, scheduled to take effect on January 1, is likely unconstitutional in multiple ways, the judge held.
Maintaining Online Copy of Court Opinion Isn't Libelous, Even When It's Reversed
A district court refuses to enter default judgment against caselaw publisher Leagle, concluding that the plaintiff's claims against Leagle were legally insufficient.
Getting Dartmouth to Revoke Plaintiff's Admission Wasn't Speech on Issue of Public Interest,
under California's "anti-SLAPP" statute (which allows for prompt dismissal of claims brought based on certain kinds of speech).
The Backpage Defendants Never Stood a Chance
Moral panic plus government power is an inescapably potent combination.
Irish Prison for Edgelords and Hotheads?
Plus: Repealing tobacco bans, UN pointlessness, Substack's "Nazi problem," and more…
Poised To Lose Battle Over Gun Ads, City Bans All Advertising But Its Own
Flagstaff keeps digging a hole over commercial free speech.
Prosecutors Use Lyrics, Diary Entries as Evidence in Georgia RICO Cases
In separate criminal racketeering cases, prosecutors are using rap lyrics and the personal diary of a protester shot and killed by police as evidence.
"Protecting People from Their Own Religious Communities: Jane Doe in Church and State,"
a new article of mine, is now available at the Journal of Law & Religion.
USC Censors Jewish Professor for Saying Hamas 'Should Be Killed'
The university is violating John Strauss's free speech rights.
Don't Ask a Judge to Rule for You and Then Send Him a Death Threat
"Cut your backwards ass bullshit or you will start losing family members and the President of the United States will wind up dead!"