Federal Adoption Law Leads States To Prematurely Separate Families
For 25 years, the law has been giving states kickbacks when they finalize adoptions quickly.
Civil Liberties
Submit Your Articles to the Journal of Free Speech Law, Before You Circulate Them to the Law Reviews
We'll give you an answer within 14 days, and we can publish them within several weeks, if you'd like.
Defaming Like a Rockstar? No, Said Court in Lawsuit Against DaBaby
An interesting illustration of the defamation per se / per quod distinction, recognized in some states.
Pundits Predicted a Backlash Against Criminal Justice Reform in the Midterms. What Happened?
While rising crime created headwinds for candidates who supported criminal justice reform, the apocalyptic storm never quite arrived.
Under Government Pressure, Twitter Suppressed Truthful Speech About COVID-19
The company's broad definition of "misleading information" and its deference to authority invited censorship by proxy.
Twitter Files Reveal Politicians, Officials Evading the Constitution's Restrictions
People in power lean on private businesses to impose authoritarian policies forbidden to the government.
Chinese Protesters Use Their Bodies as Weapons Against the State
Standing with blank pages in hand, the protesters' goal is to make manifest the implied violence that authoritarian states use to keep order.
N.Y. Law Banning Gun Carrying in Churches (Including When Authorized by Church) Unconstitutionally …
discriminates against religious institutions
Yet Another Senator Bungles the First Amendment To Justify Censorship
This week, a clip of Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin claiming that speech that espouses "hate" and "violence" is not protected by the First Amendment made the rounds on Twitter, sparking sharp backlash.
Cops Question Connecticut Mom Who Let 7-Year-Old Walk a Mile
"She is way too young to be walking this distance by herself," said the cops.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams Wants You to Love Big Brother
A surveillance state is no less tyrannical when the snoops really believe it's for your own protection.
Review: Why Does the CIA Need a Podcast?
The director worries that the public doesn't trust his spy agency.
Prof. Amna Khalid (Carleton) on the Hamline Muhammad Painting Controversy
"On Hamline University's shocking imposition of narrow religious orthodoxy in the classroom."
Doing Pickering Balancing Right
It is not a workplace "disruption" that co-workers objected to a MAGA hat
Court Refuses to Block California Ban on COVID "Treatment or Advice" That's "Contrary to the Standard of Care"
The law bans doctors from providing "treatment or advice" "to a patient" "related to COVID-19" when that treatment or advice includes (1) "false information" (2) "that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus" (3) "contrary to the standard of care." The law regulates only speech to patients, not to the public at large.
Teacher Can Proceed With First Amendment Lawsuit Over Threatened Punishment for Wearing MAGA Hat to Training
A defendant had argued that she could allow Black Lives Matters posters but forbid MAGA hats on the theory that, "While the Black Lives Matter poster is a symbol of cultural acceptance and inclusivity ... Mr. Dodge's MAGA hat is a symbol commonly associated with white supremacy and other anti-immigrant sentiments." No, says a Ninth Circuit panel.
Charity and Capitalism Are Better Than Government
When I was young, I assumed government would lift people out of poverty. But those policies often do more harm than good.
Top 10 Attacks on Free-Range Parenting in 2022
Overbearing CDC guidance, pointless calls to the police, and more.
Why Take Responsibility When You Can Blame Somebody Else?
The year’s highlights in buck passing feature petulant politicians, brazen bureaucrats, careless cops, loony lawyers, and junky journalists.
Ninth Circuit Judge Urges Supreme Court "Not to Give Any First Amendment Protection for Racist Hate Speech"
“[G]overnment officials ... should not be unduly constrained in their attempts to regulate hate speech for the purpose of protecting the intended targets of said speech. This may require some refining of the Supreme Court’s prior guidance in its precedents.... For example, the Court could consider modifying the Brandenburg test to require only a probable and emerging threat of violence rather than imminent lawless action as a result of speech in order to regulate it.”
Ninth Circuit Upholds Expulsions for Off-Campus Abusive Speech That Targets Particular Students
“Students ... remain free to express offensive and other unpopular viewpoints [at least outside school], but that does not include a license to disseminate severely harassing invective targeted at particular classmates in a manner that is readily and foreseeably transmissible to those students.”
Our Biggest Stories of 2022 (and What We Predict for 2023)
Plus: The editors look back on what pieces of cultural media impacted them the most this year.
Beyoncé, Lizzo, and Taylor Swift Give In To the Speech Police
"It's stories and songs and films cut apart and written over, leaving no trace and no remnant of whatever used to be," writes novelist and cultural critic Kat Rosenfield.
Illinois Appellate Court Overturns a Stop-Posting-About-Plaintiff Order
Trial court: "I understand that you have a first amendment privilege, but sometimes the first amendment privilege contravenes certain statutes that are enacted by the State ...." Appellate court: That's "a misunderstanding of the relationship between statutes and constitutions."
Stop Spazzing Out About 'Spaz'
Social media, streaming, and a new era of digital self-censorship
Hamline Student Newspaper (the Oracle) Removed Published Defense of Lecturer Who Showed Painting of Muhammad
"[T]rauma and lived experiences," the newspaper says, "are not open for debate."
5 Infuriating Ways People Got the First Amendment Wrong in 2022
As free speech becomes an increasingly important part of the culture war, people won't stop misinterpreting—and outright violating—the First Amendment.
Don't Count on Criminal Prosecution To Hold Trump Accountable for His Egregious Post-Election Behavior
The final report from the January 6 select committee falls short of proving the elements required to convict the former president.
Crime Squad 4: Weather, Tires, Furniture, & Qualified Immunity
Enforcing all the laws, all the time.
Maybe 'Marshal Law' Can Save the Republican Party?
Unfortunately, the reality is something far more sinister.
The Hidden Subtitle of the NDAA That Will Ban Basic Facts About Judges Online
No judge should have to fear for their lives as they defend the rule of law. But that doesn’t mean they can infringe on other civil liberties to protect their information.
A New Federal Press Shield Bill Falters Just Before the Finish Line in Congress
A law to protect people engaged in journalism from having to reveal sources gets blocked by Sen. Tom Cotton.
University of Idaho Murders Yield Libel Lawsuit Against "Internet Sleuth"
According to the Complaint, "Ashley Guillard promotes herself on Amazon and TikTok as an Internet sleuth that solves high-profile unsolved murders by consulting Tarot cards, and performing other readings, to obtain information about the murders."
Judge Agrees Consumers Can Sue Over Misleading Movie Trailers
The weird judge-invented "commercial speech" exception to our right to free expression breeds strange results in suit against distributors of the 2019 movie Yesterday.
Curfews and Restrictions: Peru's Regime Cracks Down
Twenty-five people have died this month amid nationwide protests.
Stanford Seeks the 'Elimination of Harmful Language' Like 'American,' 'Stupid,' and…'Karen'
Their suggested replacement for 'Karen' is far more offensive than the term itself.
Governments Worldwide Abuse COVID Surveillance Powers
Once the government has an excuse to electronically track everywhere you've been and everyone you've been near, abuses are predictable.
