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1st Amendment Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 15, 2017 10 Comments
I have to admit, I fell asleep at the baker's wheel. Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission was argued to the Supreme Court earlier this month and I, didn't cover it. Not out of lack of interest, but more feeling like we're chasing a swarm of daily dust ups created by (1) Trump Derangement Syndrome in all its many and varied forms, (2) Trump on Twitter, (3) media reacting to Trump on Twitter, (4) Alabama, (5) War on Women and #MeTwo, (6) Men at Work, (7) the End of the World. Plus, it was end of the semester, and things were busy. Excuses, I've had a few.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 28, 2017 48 Comments
I'm still trying to get my mind around the Vassar College campus reaction to my planned lecture on "hate speech" and free speech, which I wrote about in Safe Spaces and Safety Teams at Vassar College for My Lecture on Free Speech. Hundreds of students, faculty and staff were whipped into a frenzy by factually false accusations against me and regarding my appearance. There were many false accusations. In this post, I'll address just one aspect, that I supposedly posed a threat to campus safety.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 26, 2017 60 Comments
On October 25, 2017, I gave a speech at Vassar College on "An Examination of Hate Speech and Free Speech on College Campuses." The main sponsor was the Vassar Conservative Libertarian Union, which also sponsored my 2014 speech at Vassar. Other sponsors were Students for Liberty and the Leadership Institute. The lecture originally was advertised as "'Hate Speech' is Still Free Speech, Even After Charlottesville." The name was changed because the sponsoring student group filed for funding under another title, so we were asked to use that approved title. Regardless of title, the planned discussion of hate speech sent a portion of the campus into a vicious smear campaign against me.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 08, 2017 6 Comments
Reem's bakery in Oakland, CA, has been a center of controversy because of the full-wall mural of Rasmea Odeh. Rasmea is the former military member of the terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who was convicted in Israel in 1970 of the 1969 supermarket bombing that killed two Hebrew University students, Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner. She also was convicted of the attempted bombing of the British Consulate. Rasmea and her supporters have concocted a phony claim that Rasmea only was convicted because of a false confession extracted after 25 days of sexual torture. That claim is demonstrably false, yet the claim is repeated non-stop to this day, as I discuss in The Lies of Rasmea Odeh and Her Supporters Exposed.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 23, 2017 34 Comments
As detailed extensively in prior posts, Sarah Palin sued the NY Times for defamation based on an Editorial regarding the 2011 shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. James Bennet, Editorial Page Editor, was the primary author of the Editorial, working off a draft prepared by a news staffer. I discussed the suit and the motion to dismiss filed by The Times in a prior post, NY Times defense: Palin Crosshairs Editorial Wasn’t Actually About Sarah Palin. Please read the prior post for background and links to pleadings and motion to dismiss papers.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 18, 2017 79 Comments
We're living in a very dangerous time. Several things are coming together that pose a serious threat to the liberty of anyone who is right-of-center. While there are many factors at work, I've been focused in recent days on three: (1) Antifa becoming a part of the anti-Trump Resistance; (2) politically-motivated denial of access to the internet at the gatekeeper level; and (3) attempts to weaken free speech protections in the name of social justice.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 18, 2017 19 Comments
As detailed extensively in prior posts, Sarah Palin has sued the NY Times for defamation based on an Editorial regarding the 2011 shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Recent developments have revealed that James Bennet, Editorial Page Editor, was the primary author of the Editorial, working off a draft prepared by a news staffer. I discussed the suit and the motion to dismiss filed by The Times in a prior post, NY Times defense: Palin Crosshairs Editorial Wasn’t Actually About Sarah Palin. Please read the prior post for background and links to pleadings and motion papers.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 14, 2017 22 Comments
As detailed extensively in prior posts, Sarah Palin has sued the NY Times for defamation based on an Editorial regarding the 2011 shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. I discussed the suit and the motion to dismiss filed by The Times in a prior post, NY Times defense: Palin Crosshairs Editorial Wasn’t Actually About Sarah Palin. Please read the prior post for background and links to pleadings and motion papers. In an unexpected development, the Authors of NY Times Palin Editorial Ordered To Give Testimony In Court:

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 01, 2017 40 Comments
U.S. District Judge James Cacheris in Alexandria, VA, ruled that politicians who block followers on social media violates free speech. From The Wall Street Journal:
A federal court in Virginia ruled that a local politician violated the free-speech rights of a constituent she banned from her Facebook page, in a case the judge said raises “important questions” about the constitutional restrictions that apply to social media accounts of elected officials.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 24, 2017 10 Comments
We have written several times about lawsuits commenced in Maryland federal court by Brett Kimberlin against numerous conservative bloggers, including our Editor Emeritus Mandy Nagy ("Liberty Chick") based on her writing about Kimberlin when she was at Breitbart. Our most recent update on Mandy's condition, from a little over a year ago, is here. I think about her often, and hope to have another update by the end of the summer.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 22, 2017 31 Comments
One of the fondest dreams of the radical (and not-so radical) left is to undermine the First Amendment and ultimately to control speech.  Democrats have advocated the DOJ's investigation and even prosecution of climate "skeptics," condemned "hate" speech formally in the House, supported the criminalization and ban of "hate" speech, and as we see play out on college campuses across the nation, resorted to violence as a response to speech with which they disagree. This assault on one of our nation's most cherished foundational principles is ongoing and has most recently manifested in a tweet by former governor and former Democrat presidential candidate Howard Dean.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 05, 2016 30 Comments
In case you missed it, the liberal media is really upset that the people they have been pissing on for years are pissing back. But it shouldn't be a surprise. There are countless stories of liberal media enemies-of-the-week, innocent citizens who make one errant comment or tweet and are the subject of a swarm of media bees. Remember how just recently the liberal media built up Ken Bone, who asked a question at a presidential town hall, because he said he had been for Trump but was considering Hillary after the event? It was a useful narrative, so Ken Bone became media hero. But when Bone appeared to go back to Trump support and commented that the Trayvon Martin verdict was correct, the media singled him out and took him down as quickly as they built him up, Ken Bone told the truth about Trayvon Martin, and for that media must destroy him.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 19, 2016 9 Comments
I have been following the antics of 17 state attorney generals who formed (AGs United for Clean Power), which intends to promote the progressive climate change agenda by targeting the fossil fuel industry using racketeering statutes. Recently, thirteen Republican members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee Republicans sent letters to 17 state attorneys general and eight environmental groups requesting documents related to the groups’ coordinated efforts to deprive companies, nonprofit organizations, scientists and scholars of their First Amendment rights and their ability to fund and conduct scientific research free from intimidation and threats of prosecution. Now, a coalition of Republican AGs, headed up by Alabama's top cop, Luther Strange, issued a letter promising retaliation in kind, directed at "AGs for Clean Power. Call this rebuke fighting fire with fire!

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 24, 2016 29 Comments
Breitbart author/media personality Milo appeared at DePaul University tonight, and was met with a stage takeover and threats of violence. Breitbart News has the details:
Milo Yiannopoulos’ event at DePaul University had to be cut short Tuesday night after protesters stormed the stage, blew whistles, grabbed the microphone out of the interviewer’s hand, and threatened to punch Yiannopoulos in the face.
Our friend Rebel Pundit (aka Jeremy Segal), who is the husband of Legal Insurrection author Anne Sorock, was outside filming protesters.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on March 23, 2016 33 Comments
Walt Disney and Marvel, a Disney subsidiary, are threatening to boycott Georgia if Governor Nathan Deal signs into law a religious freedom bill that recently passed the Georgia state legislature. The bill, HB 575, had already undergone significant revisions in response to pressure from SJWs.  The bill was initially designed to protect businesses and non-profits whose owners had religious objections to providing services for and participating in gay "marriages"; however, the new version is less accommodating to religious freedom. The Washington Times reports:
The bill initially would have allowed Georgians to decline service for same-sex weddings if doing so violated their religious beliefs. But, sensing the coming storm, Mr. Deal urged lawmakers to make substantial changes to the legislation before passing it.
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