Free Speech
New Zealand Joins the International Crackdown on COVID Mandate Protests
Disagreement over pandemic policy accelerates the slide toward authoritarianism in another country.
"Suggestion of Sexual Conduct Alone Cannot Constitute Obscenity,"
whether as to anime, "great literature," "soap operas," or "internet memes."
Say Opera Houses Announce They "No Longer Engage With Artists That Support Israel,"
given what the opera houses view as Israel's improper control over the West Bank.
Libel Lawsuit Against Black Lives Matter Sacramento Can Go Forward
BLM posted racist e-mails that purported to have come from plaintiff, and added that plaintiff's "INFORMATION HAS BEEN VERIFIED"; but the e-mails had apparently come from an ex-tenant who was impersonating her.
Vivek Murthy's Demand for Data on COVID 'Misinformation' Is Part of a Creepy Crusade to Suppress Dissent
The surgeon general's definition of misinformation includes statements that are arguably or verifiably true.
University of Milano-Bicocca Suspends Dostoevsky Class, Then Backtracks
Putin's crime, Dostoevsky's punishment. Well, he's dead, maybe the students' and teacher's punishment.
Motivational Speaker Loses Copyright Lawsuit Against High School
And has to pay $10K in attorney fees to the high school as well.
Protests Outside People's Homes (Residential Picketing) and the First Amendment
They can be banned, so long as the ban is content-neutral, and so long as people remain free to generally march through the neighborhood (as opposed to protesting right outside the target's home).
Exposing Donations to Political Causes Can Chill Free Speech
Two lessons from the Canadian truckers' protest
Why Hate Speech Laws Backfire
A new history of free speech argues the best way to defeat hate speech is by openly confronting it in the public square.
Interesting Public Records vs. Academic Freedom Case Related to Animal Research
UPDATE: As predicted, PETA has moved to intervene. FURTHER UPDATE: The court has indeed allowed PETA to intervene.
College Basketball Star Wayne Arnold (Concordia) Sues for Libel, Discrimination, Etc.
It all started with a stolen PlayStation 5.
Michigan Witness-Retaliation-by-Threats Law Requires Intent to Threaten Physical Injury (or Crime)
One judge would have held that threats to injure reputation are criminalized by the law, but the other two disagreed.
Libel Plaintiff Cites "Cancel Culture" in Seeking Protective Order for Identities of Witnesses
The case stems from defendant's claims that plaintiff, a comic book writer, said racist things to her at a comic-book-business social function.
The Verdict Against Ahmaud Arbery's Killers Highlights the Problems With Federal Hate Crime Statutes
Such laws, which allow redundant prosecutions based on defendants' bigoted beliefs, supposedly are authorized by the amendment that banned slavery.
Can a Web Designer Be Forced To Make Gay Wedding Pages? The Supreme Court Will Decide
Will this follow-up to the famous wedding cake case finally decide if this is mandated speech violating the First Amendment?
Arizona House Committee Approves Bill To Criminalize Filming Cops on the Job
"You'll have a bunch of people who plead to avoid trial or go broke trying to vindicate their rights."
Libel Case Based on Allegations that Plaintiff Had Made Specific Racist Statements Can Go Forward
The plaintiff, Frank Gogol, and the defendant, Malissa White, are both comic book writers.
Licensing of Speaking Professions Doesn't Violate First Amendment
So holds the Eleventh Circuit, as to dieticians, viewing itself as bound by an earlier decision involving interior designers.
Conviction for Surreptitiously Recording Conversation with Police Chief in His Office Reversed;
on remand, jury must be instructed that it has to determine (among other things) whether the defendant “reasonably believed the conversation was not confidential.”
No Sealing of Police Body-Cam Video in Lawsuit Over Confrontation With Police,
even though the video includes a brief appearance by a minor (a friend of plaintiff's).
Court in Civil Case Holds Trump's Jan. 6 Speech Could Be Constitutionally Unprotected Incitement
But the claims against Donald J. Trump, Jr. and Rudy Giuliani are dismissed.