Monday, July 16, 2018
#FREESPEECH IN THE NEWS: JULY 16, 2018
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.
Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, believes internet service providers should have first amendment rights.
Under regulation through President Obama, all internet was to be treated as equal. This means internet service providers, or, ISPs, could not give preferential treatment to content or even ban content it did not agree with. Net neutrality has already been reversed, meaning ISPs are not required to treat internet content equally. As such, Kavanaugh’s nomination is another win for proponents of net neutrality.
“According to Christopher Sprigman, a law professor at New York University who authored an amicus brief submitted to the D.C. Circuit in favor of net neutrality, Kavanaugh's argument that ISPs have a First Amendment right to determine what data they transmit implies that the data itself is speech. If that is the case, he said, then the providers could argue that selling user data to advertisers counts as “speech” also protected by the First Amendment. If that argument were accepted by the court, there would be an additional hurdle to enacting data privacy regulation.”
2.) Los Angeles Times ordered to change article about police officer linked to Mexican Mafia
The Los Angeles Times has followed an order to remove information in a published article, but still plans to challenge it.
The order was handed down from U.S. District Judge John Walter over information about former Glendale police Detective John Saro Balian. Balian was arrested in May at his home over his connections to the Mexican Mafia and organized Armenian crime. The paper published details about his plea agreement with prosecutors, information the judge says was not supposed to be public.
The paper says it should be permitted to publish the information and this has turned in a matter of free speech.
"We believe that once material is in the public record, it is proper and appropriate to publish it if it is newsworthy," Times Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine told the paper.
3.) DC Police: Author of anti-Semitic flyers won't be charged based on First Amendment
The person behind anti-Semitic literature in Washington D.C. will not be charged, according to the local police department.
The department determined the flyers are protected free speech and are not deemed a threat, so no action will be taken.
A Washington D.C. resident found the flyer with the hate speech on his doorstep on July 10. He reported finding the flyer to a local councilmember, who then reported the finding to the Anti-Defamation League and police department. The Anti-Defamation League has yet to respond to the matter.
