'Hamstringing the Government': A Viral Narrative Distorts Ketanji Brown Jackson's Understanding of Free Speech
If partisans have one thing in common, it's confirmation bias.
Civil Liberties
Supreme Court Says Officials Who Block Critics on Social Media Might Be Violating the First Amendment
The justices established guidelines for determining whether that is true in any particular case.
Who Best Chronicles the Absurd Reality of Venezuelan Politics? A Giant Manic-Depressive Rodent
Diosdado Cabello, Nicolás Maduro's right-hand man, is threatening retribution against the satirical website.
Justice Jackson Seems to Be Charting a More Speech-Restriction-Tolerant Approach
Justice Jackson, like Justice Breyer (whom she replaced and for whom she clerked), seems to be considering an approach that is more embracing of speech restrictions that she views as especially urgent—including perhaps ones that departs from precedents such as the Pentagon Papers case.
Murthy v. Missouri and Government Urging Platforms to Restrict Speech
The government can't block viewpoints it condemns from its own property that has been opened to publicspeech. Should there be limits on government systematically and substantially encouraging private entities to block the same viewpoints from their property—which may be much more important to public debate than the government property where speech remains free?
"Black Lives Mat[t]er" + "Any Life" Drawing "Not Protected by the First Amendment" in First Grade
Such speech can be found to be "impermissible harassment," the court says, partly because "deference to schoolteachers is especially appropriate today, where, increasingly, what is harmful or innocent speech is in the eye of the beholder."
Court Should Focus on Coercion in Murthy v. Missouri
The government is entitled to try to persuade social media to take down posts, but not to coerce them to do so.
SCOTUS Ponders Whether the Biden Administration Coerced Social Media Platforms To Censor Speech
Several justices seemed concerned that an injunction would interfere with constitutionally permissible contacts.
The CCP Sucks. So Does Banning TikTok.
Plus: A listener asks about Republicans and Democrats monopolizing political power in the United States.
Law Enforcement Trainers File Scotus Amicus Brief against Maryland Rifle Ban
Citizens should be able to choose the same high-quality defensive arms that peace officers choose
The One-Man 'Cult' That Put St. Louis Under Surveillance
The story behind the city's ban on unlicensed drone businesses is even weirder than the ban itself.
Pornhub Pulls Out of Seventh State
The company leaves Texas over an “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous” age-verification law.
ACLU, Once a Defender of Free Speech, Goes After a Whistleblower
The former civil liberties group continues morphing into a progressive organization.
The New York Times Again Worries That Free Speech Endangers Democracy
The newspaper portrays the constitutional challenge to the government's social media meddling as a conspiracy by Donald Trump's supporters.
No, Imprisoning a School Shooter's Parents Isn't Justice
James Crumbley, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, may be an unsympathetic defendant. But this prosecution still made little sense.
Pano Kanelos: 'Ideology Is the Death of Ideas'
The president of the new University of Austin wants to reverse the decline of higher education in America.
Judge Orders Person to Stop Campaign of Criticizing Teenager Who Had Posted a Racial Slur When a Sophomore
The Indiana Court of Appeals, though, reverses the order, concluding the judge wasn't allowed to issue such an order on his own initiative; it doesn't decide whether such an order would violate the First Amendment.
S. Ct. Announces Test for When a Government Official's Social Media Posts Are "State Action"
This bears on when the official's comment deletion or blocking decisions may violate the First Amendment.
Study Estimates Nearly 96% of Private Property Is Open to Warrantless Searches
The Institute for Justice says its data show that a century-old Supreme Court doctrine created a huge exception to the Fourth Amendment.
Banning TikTok Would Give the Feds Way Too Much Power
"It's a disturbing gift of unprecedented authority to President Biden and the Surveillance State," said Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.).
TikTok's Opponents Want Chinese-style Censorship in America
Instead of freeing Americans from censorship, the TikTok bill would tighten the U.S. government's control over social media.
Lawsuit Against Society for Creative Anachronism Thrown Out Because It's Untimely
and also because private clubs generally have broad discretion in interpreting their internal rules.
FIRE Highlights the Blatant Hypocrisy of State Officials Who Decry Government Meddling With Social Media
Even as they attack the Biden administration's crusade against "misinformation," Missouri and Louisiana defend legal restrictions on content moderation.
Feds Enforcing Unconstitutional Reporting Law Against Most Businesses
Are you in compliance with the Corporate Transparency Act? Have you even heard of it?
Lawsuit Hobbles Utah's Plan To Mandate Age Verification Online
"Laws like this don't solve the problems they try to address but only make them worse," says a Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression attorney.
Guernica Cancels an Inconvenient Essay (UPDATED)
An "uncompromising" journal cancels an essay for failing to say the right things.
Revenge Porn Dispute Can't Be Completely Sealed
The Fifth Circuit leaves room for possible retroactive pseudonymization of the case, however, though it doesn't decide for certain whether such retroactive pseudonymization is proper.
No Constitutional Violation in Mental Health Investigation Following Professor's Claim to Police About "Electronic Device[s]" Found in Her "Private Parts"
Part of the facts in an interesting recent case, dealing with plaintiff's claims that the police retaliated against her for exercising her First Amendment rights to report crime.
Empire State Police State
Plus: Microaggression discourse, AI espionage, housing policy wins, and more...
Telling Officials "You Will Live to Regret This" Wasn't Punishable Threat or "Intimidat[ion]"
when in context the statement just expressed "an intention to file a complaint against the conduct of government officials."
Your Local DMV May Have No Sense of Humor
Censorship of 2,872 Pennsylvania license plates raises free speech questions.
Dear Government: Stop Trying To Make TikTok Bans Happen
A new bill would ban TikTok and give the president power to declare other social media apps off limits.
Nate Silver: Libertarians Are the Real Liberals
"People are not in politics for truth-seeking reasons," argues the data journalist and author of On The Edge: The Art of Risking Everything.
#TheyLied Libel Case, Stemming from Allegations of "Mental and Physical Abuse[]" by Fellow High School Student, Can Go Forward
The culture of public accusation and shaming, in high school (and stemming from a relationship that apparently happened when the accuser and accused were sophomores).
