There is no First Amendment right to violence | New York Daily News

  In his farewell address to Congress, Rep. Adam Kinzinger chastised his Republican colleagues for justifying the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as “legitimate political discourse.” As the Jan. 6 Committee report made clear, while the message of Trump supporters might be protected political speech, the medium used by the insurrectionists — violent attacks on…

Read More

Commentary: Here’s what diversity is about, Justice Thomas | Albany Times Union

Dear Justice Thomas, I am a professor at Syracuse University. I teach argumentation, advocacy, and First Amendment theory. During oral arguments in the affirmative action cases brought by Students for Fair Admissions against the University of North Carolina and Harvard University you are quoted saying, “I’ve heard the word ‘diversity’ quite a few times, but…

Read More

The Anti-Abortion Movement’s Attempt to Criminalize Abortion Speech | Ms. Magazine

Censorship is a dirty word in America, and so it should be. It imposes silence upon speech, creating an empty void which instead should be filled with debate and discussion. As anti-abortion lawmakers continue to draft legislation to limit abortion access, opponents of new bans are horrified by the sweeping prohibitions lurking within—such as proposals that…

Read More

Commentary: Limiting commercial speech would be way to fight gun manufacturers | Albany Times Union

In a recent article, “Gun sellers’ message to Americans: Man up,” the New York Times wrote, “Gun companies have spent the last two decades scrutinizing their market and refocusing their message….The sales pitch — rooted in self-defense, machismo and an overarching sense of fear — has been remarkably successful.” That’s correct, but legislatures might have…

Read More

Depp v Heard: The jury’s burden | The Hill

Millions of dollars were at stake in the voyeuristic defamation case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. But if either of them believed this action was going to salvage their reputations and vindicate them, they were sadly mistaken. They were also mistaken if they believed this was going to be a cake walk for either of them.…

Read More

What many on the right get wrong about the First Amendment | Washington Post, Made by Histroy

Free speech — and the First Amendment — are major topics of debate in 2022. From former president Barack Obama labeling himself “pretty close to a First Amendment absolutist,” to debates over whether Florida’s legislature punished Disney for exercising free speech by revoking the company’s special improvement district, to conservative howls about censorship on social media, it…

Read More