Category Archives: Free Speech

Juan Williams on Firing from NPR, #39;Muzzled, #39; and Threats Posed to Free Speech
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Juan Williams on Firing from NPR, 'Muzzled,' and Threats Posed to Free Speech - Video

Online Hate and Free Speech: Where Do We Draw the Line?
The rapid growth of the Internet has sparked robust debate about the boundaries of free speech. Racists, cyberbullies, terrorists and hate-mongers use the Internet to recruit and incite. Should...

By: Newseum

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Online Hate and Free Speech: Where Do We Draw the Line? - Video

This is the fourth day of Free Speech Week, during which we will be celebrating freedom of speech by posting highlights from Catos recent work to support freedom of speech in its various forms, whether through legal advocacy, media appearances, or other public outreach.

Today we will take a look at the threat to free speech posed by the IRSs power over non-profit groups. As many will remember, Tea Party and small government advocacy groups were specifically targeted for harassment, audits, and delays when seeking IRS approval to operate as 501(c)(4) non-profit groups. This was one the bigger scandals of the several to hit the Obama administration in the last year or two, and for good reason. The use of executive agencies to harass and silence political enemies presents a threat to the freedom of political speech and is a smack in the face of the concept of representative government.

This kind of abuse of the IRSs power isnt really anything new, however, as the following Cato Institute video explains:

For more on the IRS scandal, check out the briefing below, featuring Catos Trevor Burrus and John Samples:

For more information on Free Speech Week and to learn how you can help celebrate free speech, check out http://www.FreeSpeechWeek.org.

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Free Speech Week — Thursday

Providence admits to violating a woman #39;s right to free speech
Providence gave about five hundred dollars to a woman whose right to free speech was violated after police removed her while she was on the street criticizing Cicilline.

By: WPRI

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Providence admits to violating a woman's right to free speech - Video

By Debra J. Saunders

San Francisco Chronicle

Published: October 24, 2013

Army veteran Robert Van Tuinen decided to celebrate U.S. Constitution Day on Sept. 17 by handing out copies of the Constitution at Modesto Junior College in California, where he is a student. If he had been at the University or California, Berkeley, or another politically correct campus, some liberal students probably would have picked an argument with him, maybe even accused him of hate speech.

But as this was Modesto Junior College, Van Tuinen didnt attract a lot of notice. Until, that is, a security guard told Van Tuinen that he couldnt hand out the Constitution. Or the Communist Manifesto, for that matter. On an edited video, Van Tuinen captured the guard explaining that passing out anything whatsoever, you have to have permission through the student development office.

An administrative aide at that office explained the schools policies for time-place-and-manner free-speech area. Students have to sign up in a binder to use a small designated space, and since two students already were protesting, Van Tuinen would have to wait his turn to speak freely and pass out literature. When Van Tuinen told her he just wanted to pass out copies of the Constitution, she asked, Umm, why?

Van Tuinen was appalled. When he served in Kuwait, he learned that the military doesnt put a high premium on free speech. Soldiers dont have the same rights as students, and the brass had little interest in his pontificating on the framers intent. Thats when I figured out the service wasnt the best place for me, he confided. But who knew that college life would be equally casual about stifling his self-expression?

Yes, Virginia, there is a California college campus where protest is not a major.

Let me confess. In this job, Ive observed campus protest at its best, that is to say, worst Berkeley students throwing incendiary objects at the chancellors home, tree-sitters camped in a campus grove for 20 interminable months and UC Davis paying a $1 million settlement to pepper-sprayed students. I cant help it, I find Van Tuinens story cute as a button.

But its not. Its not because campus personnel told a student he cannot give out copies of the U.S. Constitution. In a statement, college President Jill Stearns asserted, There is absolutely no requirement that a student register weeks in advance and hand out his literature only in a small marked area. But a security guard and staff binder suggest otherwise. The very fact that a campus has a two-person free-speech zone troubles Robert Shibley, vice president for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which has aided Van Tuinen in the free-speech lawsuit he filed against the college.

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Vet’s constitution won’t allow restriction of free speech

This is the third day of Free Speech Week, during which we will be celebrating freedom of speech by posting highlights from Catos recent work to support freedom of speech in its various forms, whether through legal advocacy, media appearances, or other public outreach.

Today we will highlight the First Amendment right of citizens to record on-duty police officers. This has been a controversial topic over the past few years, as police officers have in many instances reacted negatively, unprofessionally, or even illegally to being recorded by bystanders. While federal courts have now acknowledged the inherent First Amendment right of citizens to record public officials performing their duties, many officers still side-step the law and make arrests based on trumped up charges, like obstruction or delay of an officer.

The following Cato video featuring Radley Balko, Clark Neily, and David Rittgers gives a good overview of the importance of the right to record the police:

Also, a couple years back, I hosted a panel discussion at Cato on laws that prohibit recording the police. The video can be found here.

Being able to record the police is important because of the much needed accountability that it provides. Many of the stories and accounts Ive written about on Catos National Police Misconduct Reporting Project have only come to light because concerned citizens have stood up against police misconduct by recording itsometimes resulting in further abuse to themselves or their family. The ability to record and then speak out when something wrong happens goes to the heart of the First Amendment, which makes the fight over recording the police a good topic to remember on Free Speech Week.

For more information on Free Speech Week and to learn how you can help celebrate free speech, check out http://www.FreeSpeechWeek.org.

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Free Speech Week — Wednesday

Obama signs Executive Order - FREE SPEECH ILLEGAL
Another Executive Order HR 347. The attack is against the First Amendment and free speech. This new law make #39;No Free Speech" Zones *wherever the Secret Serv...

By: Shieena Living Waters

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Obama signs Executive Order - FREE SPEECH ILLEGAL - Video

It is not surprising that The University of Kansas faculty supported the right of their fellow professor, David Guth, to say he hopes the children of NRA members will be murdered. Its free speech, after all. Does anyone else notice how liberals come out of the woodwork to support the speech of one of their own, while striving to silence voices of conservatives?

Just this summer, a rodeo clown in Missouri was threatened with federal prosecution for his temerity to don an Obama mask. In typical fashion, the NAACP wanted him charged with a hate crime. He was banned from Missouri rodeos for life, and other rodeo clowns were forced to attend sensitivity classes reminiscent of communist Chinas re-education camps. No one cared when past clowns lampooned Reagan or the Bushes.

If professors truly esteem free speech, then why do the majority of universities have speech codes, specifically aimed to silence conservatives and Christians? There is no academic freedom when students at some universities have been expelled for their refusal to endorse homosexuality. Why have some universities, like the University of South Carolina, allowed meeting space to every group and club, except to Christian groups? Why are terrorists like Kathy Boudin, Howard Machtinger and President Barack Obamas friends Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn given professorships and allowed to enjoy their freedom of speech and academic freedom yet conservative and Christian students have no such freedoms on campuses throughout America?

We need to see universities for what they are liberal breeding grounds, full of 1960s elitists who generally despise conservatives and seek to weed out those who profess Christ. As liberals, they are the only ones truly deserving of free speech. Wake up, America this is who is educating and indoctrinating our children.

DIANE SMITH, Topeka

Read more:
Letter: Universities should value free speech, not just for liberals

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/21/2013 10:09:29 AM The National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the Motion Picture Association of America are celebrating Free Speech Week, which kicks off Monday, by co-hosting a discussion with iconic First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams Oct. 22, moderated by Barbara Cochran, Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Policy Journalism at the University of Missouri's School of Journalism.

MPAA Chair Chris Dodd is chairman of the Free Speech Weed Advisory council and NCTA president Michael Powell is a member of the council.

Abrams is a partner in Cahill Gordon & Reindel and has argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court, represented the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case, and has represented ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Time Magazine, and others in trials and appeals.

Free Speech Week, always the third week in October, was founded by The Media Institute and provides a forum for discussion/celebration of First Amendment freedoms. This year's partners, in addition to NCTA and MPAA, include the National Association of Broadcasters, USTelecom, the Consumer Electronics Association, The Newspaper Association of America, Clear Channel, NPR, and various colleges and Universities.

Organizers encourage participants--schools, PTAs, companies--to display their support for First Amendment rights by exercising them, from displaying a bumper sticker or yard sign, to blogging, tweeting, debating or writing their legislator.

For more ideas on celebrating Free Speech week, check outhttp://www.freespeechweek.org/.

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NCTA, MPAA Help Launch Free Speech Week

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/21/2013 10:09:29 AM The National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the Motion Picture Association of America are celebrating Free Speech Week, which kicks off Monday, by co-hosting a discussion with iconic First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams Oct. 22, moderated by Barbara Cochran, Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Policy Journalism at the University of Missouri's School of Journalism.

MPAA Chair Chris Dodd is chairman of the Free Speech Weed Advisory council and NCTA president Michael Powell is a member of the council.

Abrams is a partner in Cahill Gordon & Reindel and has argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court, represented the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case, and has represented ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Time Magazine, and others in trials and appeals.

Free Speech Week, always the third week in October, was founded by The Media Institute and provides a forum for discussion/celebration of First Amendment freedoms. This year's partners, in addition to NCTA and MPAA, include the National Association of Broadcasters, USTelecom, the Consumer Electronics Association, The Newspaper Association of America, Clear Channel, NPR, and various colleges and Universities.

Organizers encourage participants--schools, PTAs, companies--to display their support for First Amendment rights by exercising them, from displaying a bumper sticker or yard sign, to blogging, tweeting, debating or writing their legislator.

For more ideas on celebrating Free Speech week, check outhttp://www.freespeechweek.org/.

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NCTA, MPAA Help Celebraate Free Speech Week