Monday, January 08, 2018
#FREESPEECH IN THE NEWS: JANUARY 8, 2017
As the Citadel of Free Speech here in Cleveland, we work to protect and promote the basis of our democracy by sharing related stories, commentary, and opinions on free speech in the 21st century. Here's what's making the news – and what you should know about – in the past week.
“The Jan. 31 Senate hearing will attempt to evaluate ‘any restrictions on Freedom of Speech rights that Texas students face in expressing their views on campus along with freedoms of the press, religion, and assembly’ and ‘recommend policy changes that protect First Amendment rights and enhance the free speech environment on campus.’”
Free speech squelched on college campuses? Texas Senate panel to talk rules, ramifications, San Antonio Express-News
“Students and college officials have often justified their actions to silence speakers by claiming that they are simply preventing speech that could lead to violence or contains words that are inherently injurious. That justification, however, won’t hold up.”
The 'Right' To Disrupt Free Speech On Campus -- It Doesn't Exist, Forbes
"Facebook and Twitter have fitted their German websites with additional features for flagging up controversial content, and spent months hiring and training moderators to cope with the Network Enforcement Act, which came into full effect on 1 January 2018."
Tough new German law puts tech firms and free speech in spotlight, The Guardian
“Just as a new Steven Spielberg film, "The Post," is celebrating the vindication of that principle in the Pentagon Papers case, President Donald Trump's lawyers have formally demanded that a publisher cease publication of a new book.”
Trump's Assault On The First Amendment, Hartford Courant
“A 2015 California law, the Reproductive FACT Act, requires faith-based ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ that don’t offer abortions to post notices about state family planning and pregnancy-related services. In National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, these centers argue that the rule violates their First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech.”
Abortion freedom of speech battle heading to the Supreme Court, San Francisco Chronicle
“Here in America, the right to free speech is extensive and largely inviolate - and properly so. The same goes for the right to property. But neither free-speech rights nor property rights grant blanket immunity against any legal consequences for any type of behavior.”
Editorial: There's no First Amendment right to make violent threats, Richmond Times-Dispatch