The so-called Twitter Files, written by a group of independent journalists given access to internal company documents, offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the federal government shaped the flow of information on one of the world’s largest social media platforms. Some tech pundits say that the Twitter Files contain no secrets: they knew about the […]
Occupational licensing is a phony guardian of public safety that hikes prices, protects existing practitioners from competition, and raises barriers to work and mobility. As if that wasn’t bad enough, licensing is now used as a weapon to enforce conformity, with permission to make a living dependent on adherence to the party line. Developments in […]
From In re Murphy, decided yesterday by the Fifth Circuit (Judges Edith Brown Clement, Leslie Southwick, and Stephen Higginson): In May 2022, the States of Missouri and Louisiana, along with five individuals, sued various federal officials and departments in federal district court in Louisiana. The suit alleges the defendants are infringing the First Amendment by […]
From Mumma v. Pathway Vet Alliance, LLC, decided Wednesday by Magistrate Judge Thomas Farrish (D. Conn.); for more on the employee free speech protection statutes such as the one in this case, see this article and this one: On the evening of June 9, 2020, Ms. Mumma posted a meme to her personal Facebook page. […]
From Lathus v. City of Huntington Beach, decided today by the Ninth Circuit (Judge Andrew Hurwitz, joined by Judge Paul Watford and District Judge Eric Vitaliano (E.D.N.Y.): [T]he First Amendment [does not] protect[] a volunteer member of a municipal advisory board from dismissal by the city councilperson who appointed her and is authorized under a […]
In December, Hamline University spurred outrage after the college fired an art history professor for showing a 14th-century painting of the prophet Muhammad in an Islamic art class. While the school was roundly criticized for its swift silencing of faculty academic freedom, the college is private, and thus largely protected from legal consequences. However, one free […]
From FIRE’s letter sent yesterday to the Higher Learning Commission (which is Hamline’s accrediting agency, “a regional accreditation agency that accredits degree granting institutions of higher education that are based in the 19-state North Central region of the United States”): To the Higher Learning Commission: As a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to defending freedom of speech […]
Teenage basketball star Enes Kanter was shocked when his teammate criticized President Barack Obama on Facebook. “Dude, what are you doing?” he exclaimed. He feared his teammate would be jailed. Kanter is from Turkey, where, as Kanter explains in my new video, people who criticize the president do go to jail. His teammates laughed at […]
From today’s Eighth Circuit decision in Brown v. Linder, written by Judge Raymond Gruender and joined by Judges James Loken and Steven Grasz: James Brown and Marc Linder both work for the State of Iowa. Brown is a urologist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics; Linder is a professor at the University of […]
A very interesting L.A. Times op-ed from a couple of weeks ago; an excerpt: In November, the European Union’s Digital Services Act took effect, with enforcement beginning for some businesses during the next year and for the rest in January 2024. The stated purpose of the law is to end the supposed “Wild West” of the internet and […]