"The Danger of Social Media": "It Allows People to Publish Their Internal Monologues"
"Can civilization survive now that we have been made witness to the interior lives of others?"
Civil Liberties
Immigration Agents Held a U.S. Citizen—and Veteran—for 3 Days Without Checking His ID
George Retes was denied access to an attorney, wasn’t allowed to make a phone call, was not presented to a judge, and was put in an isolation cell before being released with no charges.
Charlie Kirk and America's History With Political Violence
Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch discuss the murder of Charlie Kirk and how political violence is reshaping the national climate.
California Public Charter Schools' Independent Study Programs Can Insist on Secular Curricular Materials
"The Supreme Court has recently confirmed that the Free Exercise Clause does not prohibit a state from providing 'a strictly secular education in its public schools'"—and, the court held, that extends to California charter schools and their parental "home-based direct instruction approved by the school and coordinated, evaluated, and supervised by state-certified teachers."
GOP Rep Proposes Canceling People Over Mean Posts About Charlie Kirk
Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins, who once opposed government jawboning, now says people should be banned from both social media and public life over their posts.
The Killing of Charlie Kirk: 5 Idiotic Responses on Social Media
We should welcome renunciations of violence from those who disagree with Kirk, and dispute nonsense across the political spectrum.
Florida's Ban on Openly Carrying Guns Is Unconstitutional, State Appeals Court Rules
A unanimous three-judge panel concluded that "no historical tradition supports" the 1987 law.
Teacher Disciplined for Saying "Privilege" Training Involved "White-Bashing BS" Can Go Forward with First Amendment Claim
"[T]he only evidence of disruption pointed to by Defendants is the fact that a teacher felt uncomfortable at a session designed with the expectation that participants would feel uncomfortable."
Trump Calls His Drone Strike on an Alleged Drug Boat 'Self-Defense.' It Looks More Like Murder.
Equating drug trafficking with armed aggression, the president asserts the authority to kill anyone he perceives as a threat to "our most vital national interests."
Kavanaugh Flouts the Fourth Amendment and Blesses Trump's Racial Profiling
The justice’s stance on immigration enforcement is undermined by the facts of the case before him.
How We Criminalized Childhood
Journalist and activist Lenore Skenazy explains how fear and over-parenting left kids more anxious and less independent, and and how a movement to restore that independence is gaining ground.
The Trump Administration's Half-Baked Plan To Disarm Transgender People Is Legally Bankrupt
Such a gun ban is not authorized by statute or allowed by the Second Amendment.
Judge Dismisses RICO Charges Against All 'Cop City' Defendants
Two years after the state attorney general charged dozens of protesters with racketeering, a judge found the case unconvincing.
Oklahoma AG on the First Amendment and Drag Shows
Such drag shows are protected unless they fit within the (fairly narrow) category of obscenity, which is limited to certain material that depicts sexual conduct (not just cross-dressing).
Even If Trump's Birthday Letter to Jeffrey Epstein Is 'Fake,' How Is It Defamatory?
The president claims The Wall Street Journal inflicted "billions of dollars" in reputational damage by confirming a well-established relationship.
How Weed Surveillance Drones Destroyed the Lives of These Californians
California tried to use drones to find illegal marijuana operations, but they found building code violations instead.
Free Speech Unmuted: A Conversation with FIRE's Greg Lukianoff
FIRE is one of the leading free speech advocacy and litigation groups in the country, and Greg is not only its long-time head but also coauthor of several books, including Coddling of the American Mind (with psychologist Jonathan Haidt) and War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail (with law professor and former ACLU President Nadine Strossen).
Prison Guards Forcibly Cut a Rastafarian Inmate's Dreadlocks. SCOTUS Will Decide If They Can Be Sued Over It.
The Supreme Court will hear Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety this fall.
MAGA Is Wrong About AI. Trump Is Right.
Plus: a weak jobs report and Trump’s economic record, New College of Florida weighing privatization after its clash with DeSantis, and the DOJ pushes to block transgender Americans from gun ownership
What Is ICE Doing With This Israeli Spyware Firm?
The Department of Homeland Security restored a $2 million contract with Paragon, maker of the surveillance tool Graphite, despite earlier civil liberties concerns.
Woman Repeatedly Badmouthed Ex-Lover, Ordered Not to Say Anything Online About Him, Lost Gun Rights
She had admitted that some (though not all) of the speech was false, but the injunction (entered in a restraining order case, not following a full defamation trial) extends to all speech, not just falsehoods: "Even speech otherwise protected by the First Amendment may be enjoined if it disturbs the petitioning party's peace."
"Authoritarians in the Academy": The Free Speech Recession
When universities are global institutions, the global speech environment matters.
College Students Across the Political Spectrum Support Shouting Down Opponents
Once a left-wing fetish, the heckler’s veto has gained conservative adherents.
Perils of the Pentagon's Plan to Use Military Lawyers to Adjudicate Immigration Cases
The plan is illegal for multiple reasons, is likely to lead to poor decisions, and could undermine military readiness.
Trump Forcibly Returns Russian Dissenters who Fled Putin
It's a new low in US refugee/asylum policy; simultaneouly unjust and counterproductive.
Major Gun-Rights Groups Oppose the Trump Administration's Idea To Ban Trans People From Owning Guns
The NRA says it won't support "any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process."
I'm a Gamer. The NO FAKES Act Could Get Me in Trouble.
A bill meant to fight AI deepfakes could devastate creativity in games like Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim, and Minecraft, where mods keep old titles alive.
Walz's Gun Plan Wouldn't Stop Shootings, but It Might Shred Civil Liberties
Minnesota's proposed firearm restrictions raise serious constitutional questions—and offer little in return.
Florida Deputies Jailed Her for 3 Days Even Though She Was Obviously Not the Suspect Described in a Warrant
A federal judge cleared the way for Jennifer Heath Box's lawsuit against the cops who misidentified her as a fugitive, despite a "mountain of evidence" that they had the wrong woman.
Donald Trump's Antitrust Enforcers Continue Their Harassment Campaign Against Google
There is no hard evidence of Gmail discriminating against Republican campaign emails, but that’s no matter to the FTC Chairman.
The Anti-Lockdown Imposters of the New Right
Today’s MAGA intellectuals rail against COVID restrictions, but in 2020 many cheered them on—or demanded even harsher crackdowns.
Donald Trump, Constitutionalism, and the Third Face of Power
How to speak a new constitution into being
The Proposed Ban on Gun Possession by Transgender People Would Be Neither Legal Nor Constitutional
The Justice Department reportedly is considering a regulation aimed at disarming "mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria."
California County's Restriction on Being a Spectator at a Car "Sideshow" Violates First Amendment as Applied to Reporter
The ruling would apply, I think, to anyone gathering information about the sideshow for publication, whether or not he's a professional journalist.
Graham Linehan's Speech Must Be Defended
The Irish comedian's arrest by British authorities is an outrage.
