In efforts to liven up her graduation ceremony, Springstead High School Valedictorian Jem Lugo planned on giving a speech that would poke fun at traditional graduation messages while perhaps giving her fellow students some thoughts to remember: I’m not gonna get up here and start spouting these crazy incomprehensible seven syllable words I probably can’t even pronounce. Why would I [...]
Mary Reilly-Kliss is a retired reading/language arts teacher, having spent 33 years working with young adults in grades 7-12. She was on the West Bend library board for 3 years. For the past year she served as co-secretary on the board. Mary also works at Fireside Books and Gifts, once part of the Little Professor chain, Fireside is an independent bookstore proudly serving West Bend for over 25 years.
The censorship of Gabriel Villa's mural in Chicago. The political message of Villa’s mural gives it the highest constitutional protection. Its destruction is, therefore, much more significant “mistake” than Mayor Daley would have it, it is a violation of one of our most deeply cherished rights – the right to express an opinion without being silenced by a public official.
6/1/2009 On Sotomayor and censorship: First the bad news… 6/2/2009 Student speech under fire under Sotomayor? 6/3/2009 The Good News: Sotomayor’s decision in U.S. v. Quattrone, gagging gag orders 6/4/2009 What about Souter? A closer look at the Supreme Court’s outgoing Associate Justice 6/5/2009 Courts favor “Douchebags”; Doninger redux, and the problem of school censorship when it comes to off campus Internet expression 6/5/2009 Sotomayor [...]
Sonia Sotormayor’s joining Judge Debra Ann Livingston’s decision in the matter of Doninger v. Niehoff doesn’t provide information about her views relating to free expression. The Doninger decision was made in the context of nuanced civil procedure, and law governing student free speech rights previously mangled and misconstrued by other courts. If anything, the Doninger decision says more about the [...]
Our analysis of Sotomayor’s free speech record wouldn’t be complete without a mention of her dissent in Pappas v. Giuliani. The case reached the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002 and concerned the firing of Thomas Pappas from the NYPD. The department had found that he had anonymously circulated racist and anti-semitic literature through the mail from his home. [...]
During this year I became alarmed at how complacent my peers were about their responsibilities as new voters. Some didn't plan to vote while others felt their votes didn't really count. I chose the topic to show how important it was for the students everywhere to stand up and be counted, that their votes really mattered and their opinions would [...]
Click on the photo to see more photo's from last night's Conversation with Toni Morrison, launching NCAC's Free Speech Leadership Council.
The West Bend, Wisconsin public library battle finally ended Tuesday with the best decision possible. The Library Board voted unanimously to keep the challenged books on the shelves, “without removing, relocating, labeling, or otherwise restricting access,” according to the West Bend Daily News. An inspiring demonstration of support for free speech among West Bend community members influenced the decision. Last [...]
With all the focus on and furor over the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, it is easy to lose sight of the Justice she is replacing—indeed, he likes it that way. But any discussion of how Sotomayor will influence the Court’s freedom of expression jurisprudence is incomplete without some reflection on the Justice whose robes she will fill, David Hackett [...]
Even though a jury has now determined that Ward Churchill, a tenured professor at the University of Colorado, was fired as a result of his controversial views and in violation of his constitutional rights, his case remains controversial.
Did Bill O’Reilly’s speech about Dr. George Tiller violate the law? Probably not. It is despicable? Certainly. Should it be condemned? Absolutely. Following news of Dr. George Tiller’s murder, journalists quickly began looking at the organizations and individuals who’ve taken radical positions against abortion providers. The most mainstream is Bill O’Reilly, whose show on the Fox network has frequently mentioned [...]
Evaluating where Sonia Sotomayor stands relative to the principles espoused by the First Amendment is frustrating task for two reasons. First, Sotomayor has not authored that many opinions on free expression issues. More importantly, those opinions she has drafted have been fact specific and have narrowly applied existing laws. Her judicial style prohibits straying into “big picture” territory. That being [...]
For the inauguration of the Free Speech Leadership Council, Toni Morrison and Fran Lebowitz discuss Burn This Book. This is the first in a series of unique opportunities open to members of the Council to engage in intimate discussions with prominent people speaking on intellectual and artistic freedom.
Did Bill O’Reilly’s speech about Dr. George Tiller violate the law? Probably not. It is despicable? Certainly. Should it be condemned? Absolutely.
This Wednesday, June 3, National Coalition Against Censorship’s launches the Free Speech Leadership Council with A Conversation with Toni Morrison. Talking with Fran Lebowitz, Morrison will talk about her new book Burn This Book and her experiences with censorship. Just recently, Morrison's Song of Solomon was pulled - and then returned - in AP classes in Shelby, MI. This book, [...]
Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s record of First Amendment cases has been under scrutiny since President Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court last week. Let’s start with the bad news: In Doninger v. Niehoff (2008)*, Sotomayor was part of a panel of judges who decided that a high school student’s blog posts, made from a home computer, were not protected speech. [...]
