University of Chicago lawprof Eric Posner was just kidding in this Slate piece, trying to make us see how craven and unworthy some of his colleagues in the legal academy are for seeking to temper our First Amendment liberties in deference to opinion abroad. Right? Right? [David Frum, Julian Sanchez on Twitter, Andrew Stuttaford, Robert Shibley] Related: Matt Welch.
Posts Tagged ‘First Amendment’
“Talk about my past lawsuits? See you in court”
Someone who’s sued a past employer might be eager to keep that fact off the search-engine record, but the First Amendment protects the right to disseminate information of that sort. [Volokh]
Free speech roundup
- Political bloggers prevail in cases where Maryland, Massachusetts judges sought to enjoin them from blogging [Hans Bader, Popehat on Maryland and Massachusetts cases, Bader and Popehat updating Berkshire case] Who might have “SWATted” Aaron Walker? [Patterico] No point asking Salon’s Alex Pareene [same]
- Supreme Court’s fractured First Amendment theories in U.S. v. Alvarez, the Stolen Valor case [Eugene Volokh] Ruling could benefit commercial speakers in cases like Nike [Richard Samp, WLF] Court got it wrong, says Richard Epstein [Hoover]
- Controversial cartoonist sends many takedown demands to critics who reproduce her work in the course of criticizing it [Rob Beschizza, BoingBoing, Popehat]
- Interview with Charles Brownstein, who directs the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund [Nick Farr, Abnormal Use]
- “Even pointing people toward that blog could constitute further defamation.” [Popehat on case of Ranaan Katz (Miami Heat), more, PoL]
- “Malaysian Arrest of Borders Clerk for Selling Allegedly Blasphemous Book” [Volokh] “Debunk a ‘Miracle’ – Go to Jail for Blasphemy In India” [Ronald Bailey]
- Careful about pouncing on The Oatmeal, you might suffer a quicksand-like fate [Greenfield, Paul Alan Levy,Popehat]
Libertarians and religious liberty
Tim Carney, the influential columnist at the D.C. Examiner, writes as if libertarians have been AWOL or worse when it comes to defending religious liberty from the incursions of the modern liberal-bureaucratic state. I try to set him straight in a new post at Cato at Liberty. More: Carney responds; Jordan Bloom, The American Conservative; Rick Esenberg.
Judge: flashing headlights to warn of speed trap is protected speech
Florida cops have made a practice of ticketing drivers who warn others about speed traps by flashing their lights, despite uncertainty as to whether state law actually does prohibit such flashing. Now a judge in Sanford, Fla. has ruled that Ryan Kintner of Lake Mary not only was within his rights under state law when he flashed his headlights, but was engaging in speech protected by the First Amendment. [More, Jalopnik, Volokh; Orlando Sentinel] (& welcome Above the Law, Reason, Cato at Liberty, Amy Alkon readers)
“‘People’s Rights Amendment’ Would Knock Out People’s Rights”
George Will gets to the essence of this grotesque assault on civil liberties, fed by demagoguery over the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision:
McGovern [Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.] stresses that his amendment decrees that “all corporate entities — for-profit and nonprofit alike” — have no constitutional rights. So Congress — and state legislatures and local governments — could regulate to the point of proscription political speech, or any other speech, by the Sierra Club, the National Rifle Association, NARAL Pro-Choice America or any of the other tens of thousands of nonprofit corporate advocacy groups, including political parties and campaign committees.
Newspapers, magazines, broadcasting entities, online journalism operations — and most religious institutions — are corporate entities. McGovern’s amendment would strip them of all constitutional rights.
Incredibly, versions of this radical rights-stripping measure has been endorsed through resolutions by the state legislatures of Vermont, Hawaii, and New Mexico, with backing from groups like Public Citizen. [Ilya Shapiro and Kathleen Hunker, Cato; Hans Bader, CEI; earlier] More: Professor Bainbridge (“utterly moronic”)] Among sponsors of this extraordinary measure: Reps. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), David Cicilline (R.I.), Steve Cohen (Tenn.), John Conyers, Jr. (Mich.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), Peter DeFazio (Ore.), Eliot Engel (N.Y.), Sam Farr (Calif.), Bob Filner (Calif.), Gene Green (Tex.), Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), Janice Hahn (Calif.), Martin Heinrich (N.M.), Maurice Hinchey (N.Y.), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (Ill.), Walter B. Jones, Jr. (N.C.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Jim McDermott (Wash.), Christopher Murphy (Ct.), Richard Neal (Mass.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.), John Olver (Mass.), Chellie Pingree (Maine), Louise McIntosh Slaughter (N.Y.), Adam Smith (Wash.), John Tierney (Mass.), and Peter Welch (Vt.). Murphy is running for an open U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut.
Marc Randazza
Marc Randazza is a prominent First Amendment lawyer who has been a friend to this site and many others. Popehat, Eric Turkewitz, Amy Alkon and back-in-commission Scott Greenfield are all posting well-merited appreciations.
“Cyberbullying: ‘We know it when we see it'”
Prof. Lyrissa Lidsky at Prawfsblawg, in contrast to some other academics, agrees that the First Amendment needs to be taken seriously in considering proposals for “criminalizing ‘adolescent cruelty.'” Scott Greenfield is not reassured.
Constitutional law roundup
- High court tees up case on ObamaCare constitutionality, potentially one of the most significant in decades [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
- “Andrew Sullivan Is Wrong About the Supreme Court and Guns” [Damon Root]
- Trade groups’ advocacy: judge quashes Tillery subpoena as chilling to free association [Madison County Record]
- Takings: “California’s Kafkaesque Rent Control Laws” [Richard Epstein] Things may be worse in China, though: “more than one attendee described Beijing as Kelo-on-steroids” [same]
- No, the federal government can’t find authority to overstep its otherwise delimited powers by entering into treaties calling for it to do so [Shapiro]
- Authors: U.S. Constitution is becoming less influential as model to foreign nations [Law/Versteeg via Zick, ConcurOp]
- Fight between strip-search lawyers leaves little to imagination [Kerr]
Speech criticizing lawsuit = “retaliation”
Brushing off First Amendment objections, a federal court has ruled that a union can be sued for “retaliation” after it defended itself in print against a lawsuit by two of its members. [Eugene Volokh]