A review of: Aaron Caplan's "Public School Discipline for Creating Uncensored Anonymous Internet Forums," Williamette Law Review, Winter 2003, v39, n1. Facilitating the anonymous speech of others has always been a hazardous endeavor. In the 18th century, publisher John Peter Zenger sat in prison for eight months for printing and disseminating some unsigned articles that attacked an unpopular governor [...]
Follow-up Letter to the State Education Department March 12, 2003 James A. Kadamus, Deputy Commissioner Office for Elementary, Middle, Secondary & Continuing Education State Education Dept. Room 875 EBA University of the State of New York Albany, NY 12234 Dear Mr. Kadamus: We are in receipt of your letter in defense of the construction of the June 2002 [...]
Resources Abstinence-Only Education Federal support for abstinence-only education is being debated in Congress, with crucial votes on appropriations for the program expected in the Fall. NCAC and other organizations endorsing the Joint Statement Against Abstinence Education are renewing their efforts to educate lawmakers and the public about the First Amendment issues raised by this form of censorship of sex education [...]
NCAC has lost two dear friends who cared deeply for the First Amendment.
NCAC welcomes five prominent advocates for free expression to its Board of Directors.
The State of the First Amendment annual survey, conducted by the First Amendment Center, shows further erosion in support of First Amendment rights.
Aristophanes' plays were banned in the 5th century B.C. because of obscenity and anti-war themes; Confucius's writings were incinerated around 250 B.C. after a change of dynasty made them politically incorrect.
Last week, the Middle East Forum launched "Campus Watch" to condemn what it calls academic bias on the Middle East; a professor identified on the site was barraged with threatening e-mails.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson was drowned out by protestors at the recent international AIDS conference in Barcelona. This is ironic, given the Administration's track record of suppressing speech about sexuality and sexual health.
NCAC mourns the loss of two long-time Board members, Samuel Rabinove and Nanette Roberts.
Many thanks to Shelley and Donald Rubin for inviting NCAC supporters to a private viewing of their outstanding collection of Himalayan art on May 30th.
NCAC will hold a special preview and private tour of the Shelley and Donald Rubin collection of Himalayan art on May 30th in New York City.
In a profile in the New York Times Magazine last year, Jo List was quoted saying "I just do what matters to me." NCAC's work defending free expression was something that really mattered to Jo.
School vouchers. Many free speech advocates follow school voucher controversies, not just because of their church-state implications, but because of concern that government-funded education in religious settings may inhibit both secular and religious speech.
In honor of her 90th birthday, friends and colleagues of Lora Hays have contributed to a student internship at NCAC to help with our work to protect freedom of expression and to teach students all about First Amendment principles.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York will show Tell It Like It Is!, NCAC's new video on censorship of children's books, produced by Lora Hays and Chris Pelzer.
Best-selling author Judy Blume has joined the Board of Directors. Other members recently elected to the Board are Victor A. Bolden, former Assistant Counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.; Chris Finan, President of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; attorney Jerry Goldfeder; author and attorney Marjorie Heins; and ZD Net senior editor Josh Taylor.
Great news from Congress: In a tremendous victory for free speech, the proposed constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration was defeated, ending the perennial cliffhanger when Senators Robert Byrd, West Virgina, and Richard Bryan, Nevada, switched and voted against it.
For those who care about free expression, it's been a pretty good century. I was recently reminded of this by NCAC Board member, Chris Finan, president of American Booksellers for Free Expression.
NCAC celebrated 25 years of activism for free speech, artistic freedom, and the First Amendment with a gala party at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York City on November 29th.
Judy Blume Draws Crowds, Crowds, and Then Some!Popular author Judy Blume drew record crowds to NCAC’s booth at New York Is Book Country, an outdoor fair held each September in New York City to commemorate Banned Books Week.
A decision from a federal appeals court in September sharply limits the First Amendment rights of university journalists in the Sixth Circuit. The decision has stunned advocates for student media and free expression.
Schools and libraries receiving federal discounts for Internet service will be required to install censoring software on their computers if the Children's Internet Protection Act, S. 97, is passed.
Other News from the Courts -- Not So Go
The Supreme Court has declined to hear teacher Cissy Lacks' appeal.
The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 which bans sexual depictions of anyone who "appears to be" younger than 18, was upheld by the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston--overturning a lower court's ruling that the law is unconstitutionally vague and could prohibit legal adult pornography.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Virginia law that restricts state employees from accessing sexually related materials online.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that non-obscene speech is protected online, as it is in print (ACLU v. Reno). To circumvent the ruling, in October Congress enacted the "Child Online Protection Act."
Three rulings this year have ominous implications nationwide for academic freedom, creative teaching, and learning. High school teacher Cissy Lacks was fired by a St. Louis suburban school district in 1995, allegedly for violating the student code prohibiting profanity, by allowing her students' writing to reflect their own experiences and concerns in drama and poetry classes.
The House of Representatives has approved, and the Senate is perilously near approving, an amendment to the United States Constitution to prohibit "desecration" of the flag.
NCAC Censorship News Issue #68: Winter 1997 Reason Prevails... ...in the Levittown, New York public schools where Robert Lypsyte's novel, One Fat Summer, was restored after representatives of NCAC, the Nassau County Chapter of NY Civil Liberties Union, and the Long Island Coalition Against Censorship met with school officials. The book had been removed as required reading after a [...]
NCAC Censorship News Issue #68: Winter 1997 Student Press A federal district court in Kentucky ruled that the censorship of student press by high school officials, which was permitted by the Kuhlmeier v. Hazelwood Supreme Court decision in 1988, allows for censorship of college and university press as well. At issue was the confiscation of yearbooks at Kentucky State [...]
NCAC Censorship News Issue #68: Winter 1997 The most significant First Amendment decision in recent history was the Supreme Court ruling in Reno v. ACLU---which held that communications over the Internet deserve the highest level of constitutional protection. In overturning the Communications Decency Act, the Court ruled that attempts to regulate the Internet to prevent children's access to "indecent" or [...]
NCAC Censorship News Issue #66: NCAC Announces a New Executive Director and President of the Board Summer 1997 The Board of Directors of the National Coalition Against Censorship has selected Joan E. Bertin as its new Executive Director. She succeeds Leanne Katz, who died in March. The Board also elected Wendy Kaminer as its President. Joan E. Bertin, a lawyer, [...]
NCAC Censorship News Issue #66: Summer 1997 In an effort to thwart two Supreme Court rulings that flag burning is symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment, the House of Representatives passed a bill to amend the Constitution, giving Congress "the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." The 3-to-1 vote mirrored the 1995 [...]
NCAC Censorship News Issue #65: We Will Miss Tom Stoddard, Humanist Spring 1997 Thomas B. Stoddard, a member of NCAC's Advisory Council and former head of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, died in February. A trailblazer for human rights for lesbians and gays and for people with AIDS, his commitment and leadership was unsurpassed. Tom leaves a hole in [...]
NCAC Censorship News Issue #65: Oklahoma University Bans Sex on the 'Net Spring 1997 The fight to protect free speech on the Internet was set back in January when a federal district court judge ruled that Oklahoma University's newsgroup is not a public forum. The case was brought by journalism professor Bill Loving when the University blocked access to almost [...]
NCAC Censorship News Issue #65: OF MICE AND MEN "Inappropriate" in Illinois Spring 1997 Another attempt to keep students from reading books selected by their teacher has happened in Peru, Illinois where eighth-grade teacher, Dan Brooks, has been told to stop teaching Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. After 13 years of using the book, Brooks was told it was "inappropriate" [...]
NCAC Censorship News Issue #65: Spring 1997 As a tribute to her passionate commitment to the First Amendment and to her remarkable leadership, NCAC has established The Leanne Katz Fund for Free Expression (The LK Fund). With Judy Blume as its sponsor, the LK Fund will provide special support to carry forward NCAC's work into the millennium and build the [...]
The Communications Decency Act, the provision of the 1996 Telecommunications Act designed to restrict the flow of information over the Internet, has now been struck down twice by federal court judges.
School officials cannot ignore their own policies, an editorial in Wisconsin's The Star News observes, confirming NCAC's constant advice to those fighting school censorship. In commenting on Dishnow v. Rib Lake School District in the May 15th newspaper, Associate Editor Laurie Meyer ascribed the origins of the costly court battle to evasion of Rib Lake's review and reconsideration procedures when administrators removed Judy Blume's Forever from the library.
NCAC Censorship News Issue #60: Art Censorship : Female Nudity, Not in Our Community December 1995 After the Raleigh (North Carolina) City Council decided to "preview" some art works that had been booked for exhibit in a city-owned building, the gallery yielded to pressure and booted the artist and her erotic works from the show. The gallery committee had wrestled [...]