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Want to know what is on our minds? Find blog posts written here, by the City Club staff, members, and partners. Every week you can find a new edition of #FreeSpeech in the News — a collection of related stories, commentary, and opinions on free speech in the 21st century that’s making the news. You’ll also find takes on current events, past forums, and issues surrounding Northeast Ohio. Read on for all things City Club.

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Tuesday, January 17, 2017

#FreeSpeech in the News: Jan. 17, 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 - this week.

“The Slants aren’t exactly a household name when it comes to music, but the Asian American rack band has certainly made its mark in the legal world.

The Oregon-based group has spent years locked in a First Amendment battle with the government, which refuses to register a trademark for the band’s name because it’s considered offensive to Asians.”

Justices to Hear Free Speech Clash Over Offensive Trademarks, ABC News

“Whether or not fake news cost Clinton the presidency, it plainly could cause a candidate to lose an election and upset international relations. It is also contrary to one of the fundamental premises on which democracy rests: that voters can make informed choices between contending candidates.”

The line between free speech and fake news, The Japan Times

“Mann’s suit shouldn’t be a close call. The courts have consistently held that the answer to uncongenial speech is more speech.”

Are fierce polemics free speech?, Los Angeles Times

“’I get very, very alarmed with folks who don’t treat [freedom of speech] for the treasure that it is,’ he said. The university is a place for reasoned debate, he said, not ‘one group screaming at another.’”

How the UC system is bracing for an escalation of political clashed ahead of Trump, Los Angeles Times

“Mr. Maher has a unique perspective. He resides at the most treacherous intersection where free speech meets government power and political passion, dodging traffic from left and right.”

Bill Maher Isn’t High on Trump: The State of Free Speech in a New Era, The New York Times

“This case is about whether the state may criminalize truthful speech that merchants believe is their most effective way of communicating the hidden cost of credit cards to their customers.”

Supreme Court Considers Role of Free Speech in Explaining Credit Card Fees, The New York Times

“It has a dampening effect on the depth of discourse, it can lead to this online mobbing and trolling where someone who says something controversial is then targeted, ridiculed. So this is not about the government silencing speech, but it’s about speech silencing other speech.”

Free Speech Advocates, Publishers Wrestle With Questions of Censorship, NPR

“But the prospect that Yiannopoulos stands to profit from a boycott should trouble his opponents less than the chilling effect of consumer book boycotts on speech.”

Milo Isn’t Dangerous, But Censorship Is, Spiked

“Silberberg called limiting the numbers of speakers a ‘draconian, arbitrary… anti-democratic’ attempt to limit free speech.”

In Alexandria, a dispute over free speech.  At council meetings., The Washington Post

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