Posts Tagged ‘First amendment’
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 MoreIncitement to Violence and The Big Lie | Medium
The work of the January 6 committee serves as a masterclass on the power, potency, and purpose of the First Amendment: to subject all ideas, bad and good, to review and debate as an exercise in discovering the truth. But as some of us watch the televised hearings, we might wonder if the First Amendment…
Read MoreAnother Win for the First Amendment | Medium
In a working democracy, the people retain rights and the government exercises power. The government is often called upon to assert its power when individual rights clash: my right to speak, even to speak hatefully, vs your right to live a life in the pursuit of happiness; or my right to own a gun vs…
Read MoreWhat 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 MoreThe Right to Be Free of Discrimination vs the Right to Free Speech | Medium
Let’s be clear, it is wrong to discriminate against other human beings for any reason. It is ugly; it is unfair; it is dishonorable. But it is also wrong, unfair, and dishonorable to force a person to testify against their interests; to force a person to pray to a god they don’t believe in; to…
Read MoreAmerica Has a Free Speech Problem — Response to New York Times Editorial | Medium
Suzanne Nossel, chief executive of PEN America, hit the nail on the head when she described the free speech problem in America: “There’s a crisis around the freedom of speech now because many people don’t understand it, they weren’t taught what it means and why it matters.” As a professor at Syracuse University who…
Read MoreViolent Politics and Social Media: A First Amendment Conundrum | Medium
Many are justifiably angry at the January 6, 2021 insurrectionists who defiled the US Capitol. Their message, their anger at the perceived unfairness of the election, is not being debated here. Their right to peacefully protest and to express their views, whether those views were based on facts or falsehoods, was undeniably protected by the…
Read MoreCensorship of the News in the News | Medium
Project Veritas has largely won the first two rounds in a lawsuit against the New York Times that goes to the very heart of our First Amendment freedoms of speech and press. Project Veritas promotes itself as a “non-profit journalism enterprise …[that] investigates and exposes corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private…
Read MoreBear Spray and Speech | Medium
Certainly, those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, had something to say. The exact content of their messages might have differed: some wanted to express their (mistaken) belief that the presidential election was fraudulent, others were simply angry that Donald Trump lost the election, and some were opportunists who used the false flag…
Read MoreThe Politics of Defamation | Medium
Families tyrannized by Alex Jones, far-right radio show host and founder of Infowars, recently won a libel suit against him. The families are seeking monetary compensation for Jones’ false claims that the massacre of children and staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012 was a hoax. (Jones has asserted his intent to appeal the…
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