- Spirit Airlines v. DOT: “Government Can’t Silence Speech Criticizing Its Actions, Even If That Speech Is ‘Commercial'” [Ilya Shapiro/Sophie Cole, Cato]
- Virginia Supreme Court speedily rejects prior restraint against Yelp review [Paul Alan Levy, Volokh, earlier]
- Why schools crack down on speech [Hans Bader]
- “Mann v. Steyn — CEI SLAPPs Back” [Adler, earlier]
- Hellhole jurisdictions? “The seven countries where the state can execute you for being atheist” [Max Fisher, WaPo] “Egyptian court sentences Christian family to 15 years for converting from Islam” [FoxNews] Pakistan mob burns man accused of desecrating Koran alive [Reuters] And see, via Volokh, blasphemy penalties from Tunisia (seven years for posting Mohammed cartoons) and Egypt.
- “Congressman-Elect Kerry Bentivolio Sued Me For Calling Him a ‘Deadbeat Santa'” [Mike Betzold, Deadline Detroit]
- UK government agrees to rollback of law criminalizing insults [Telegraph, Independent]
Posts Tagged ‘United Kingdom’
International free speech roundup
- UK: Jack Shafer on the trouble with the Leveson press inquiry [Reuters] Journos already cowed by hostile press laws: “Even foreign dictatorships know how to frighten Fleet Street.” [Spectator] “Even people who RT’d libelous allusions to [him] on Twitter could be sued. … surreal” [BoingBoing, Popehat]
- Calling people names in Hanna, Alberta, or cheering on those who do, can now expose you to penalties under anti-bullying ordinance [Sun News]
- “Britain’s High-Tech Thought Police” [Brendan O’Neill] Related, Rowan Atkinson [Telegraph]
- Language muscle in Quebec: “After series of fire-bombings, Second Cup coffee shops added the words ‘les cafes’ to signs” [Yahoo Canada]
- Blasphemy law around the world: Vexed with their speech, Egyptian court sentences to death in absentia various persons living in US and Canada [Volokh] “Turkish TV channel fined for ‘The Simpsons’ blasphemy episode” [Telegraph] After using Facebook to criticize politico’s funeral, women in India arrested for “hurting religious sentiments” [AFP] Indonesian man jailed, attacked by mob for writing “God does not exist” on Facebook group [Andrew Stuttaford, Secular Right] “A year of blasphemy” [Popehat]
- Protesters block student access to “men’s-rights” speech at U. Toronto [Joshua Kennon via @amyalkon]
December 4 roundup
- Wendy Murphy brings her believe-the-accuser shtick to the University of Virginia [KC Johnson, Minding the Campus]
- UK: foster parents in Rotherham might want to take care not to belong to the wrong political party [Telegraph]
- “The Disappearance of Civil Trial in the United States” [John Langbein, Yale Law Journal & SSRN]
- “Liability Is ‘Wrong’ Solution for Rating Agencies” [Mark Calabria, Cato at Liberty] Mere days later: “Sixth Circuit Rejects Ohio Pension Fund Suit Against Rating Agencies” [Adler]
- “Yes, it is now illegal to be fully nude in San Francisco *unless you are in a parade*” [Lowering the Bar]
- Once lionized in press: “Former Ohio AG Loses Law License for 6 Months Over Ethics Violations While In Office” [ABA Journal, Adler]
- Facebook says it may go after some lawyers who’ve repped adversary Ceglia [Roger Parloff, Fortune]
“Britain’s crackdown on Web comments sparks free-speech debate”
“Facebook and Twitter have landed several Britons in court and even jail recently. Critics decry the trend as a worrisome overreaction.” [L.A. Times]
October 31 roundup
- Not the norm yet, fortunately: “Playgroup suspended for lack of insurance” [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids]
- Chicago pol’s idea for bullet tax may sound clever but isn’t [Steve Chapman]
- UK: “Litigation culture draining billions from hospitals and schools” [Telegraph, Independent, Spiked Online; Center for Policy Studies]
- Yielding to feds, Oakland will adopted “targeted reductions” in discipline for minority students [Bader]
- Judge: Italian businesses should sue over Costa Concordia in Italy, not here [USA Today]
- “Deep pockets files: Greensboro apartment complex murder” [Ted Frank, PoL]
- Funniest Posner parody ever? [Kyle Graham, Non Curat Lex]
Church maintenance laws in Britain
Lines that made me laugh
“This is known as the ‘Canadian girlfriend’ school of legal argumentation.” [Popehat, on the unwillingness of the British government to cite specific legal authority backing up its threats against NearlyFreeSpeech.net, a U.S.-based website]
Must avoid offense (on penalty of …)
Yet another law professor, this time Harvard’s Noah Feldman, suggests suspending First Amendment protection to placate offense [Newsday, Volokh, Greenfield] As background, in Britain, “Channel 4 has cited concerns over security as the reason for cancelling a planned screening at its headquarters this week of a documentary film questioning the origins of Islam.” [Guardian via Volokh; Michael Totten, “The Terrorists’ Veto, City Journal] Notes Ken at Popehat: “The context is one in which the decision to take offense is a political act.”
Ken has also stayed on top of this issue in other posts, noting, for example, that the Holocaust-denial laws already accepted in many Western countries pave the way for further restrictions on speech; that Greece has lately moved against mild religious satire; and that Great Britain is electing to unleash criminal-law enforcement against a broader range of Internet comment trollery.
Earlier on Eric Posner here and here; on Jeremy Waldron here, here, and here; on Peter Spiro here; Volokh on Spiro and Harold Koh here.
“French Demand Compensation for Plantagenet Murder”
The French town of Angers might be 500 or so years too late, though. It asks a bit hopefully for the British crown jewels as compensation. [Lowering the Bar]
Free speech roundup
- Libel law might paradoxically increase job security of ABC’s much-criticized Brian Ross [Mickey Kaus]
- “If you want to publicly criticize Argentina’s government, make sure all your tax filings are in order.” [NYT via Caron]
- Pentagon Papers case, Meyer v. Nebraska included: “Top ten libertarian Supreme Court decisions” [Damon Root, Reason]
- Criticizing Thai royalty? “Lèse Majesté: 16th Century Censorship Meets 21st Century Law” [Marie-Andree Weiss, Citizen Media Law]
- “Government can’t censor book promotion”: Cato files amicus brief in Trudeau diet-book case [Ilya Shapiro and Kathleen Hunker, Cato; related]
- “I was sued for libel under an unjust law” [Nature reporter Quirin Schiermeier, UK, via BoingBoing]
- Florida seen as worst of many states (even worse than Pennsylvania?) at discouraging SLAPP suits [Marc Randazza, Citizen Media Law]