Embarrassed by an illustration of a vagina in a high school science textbook, school board members in Lynchburg, Virginia refused to approve the book unless the picture was covered or cut out. Some anatomical parts, apparently, are best unseen.
The Supreme Court struck down a federal law which made cable TV systems completely scramble their signals or restrict sexually-oriented programs to late-night hours to protect minors from exposure through "signal bleed" (U.S. v. Playboy).
Student-led prayers at football games provided the latest opportunity for the Supreme Court to address religious speech and church-state issues. The case was brought by families of Catholic and Mormon students in the Santa Fe, Texas, schools.
UPDATE:Â MIT was denied the security clearance necessary to complete a full review of the situation to determine if data was in fact manipulated. Theodore Postol, Professor of Science and Technology and National Security at MIT, wrote a letter describing how the Missile Defense Agency had doctored the results of the National Missile Defense Test. Postol was then visited by Pentagon [...]
In 1996, with little discussion, a provision was added to a popular welfare reform law that established a federal entitlement program for abstinence-only-until-marriage sexuality education.
Creationism: Denial of Supreme Court review leaves standing a 5th circuit decision that a Louisiana school district's use of a "disclaimer" about evolution is unconstitutional because of its religious intent
Dr. Laura, the radio talk-show host, dishes out advice and vitriol. She's particularly acerbic in her condemnation of homosexuality, and her views are offensive to many regardless of their sexual orientation. So it's no surprise that she's the target of protests and a high-profile campaign to keep her off TV.
Free expression won out when school superintendent Gary Feenstra withdrew most of the restrictions he had imposed on the use of Harry Potter books. Following the advice of an advisory committee, Feenstra agreed to put the books back in the elementary and middle school libraries and to permit students to borrow them without restrictions. He also agreed to permit classroom readings of [...]
Is it possible, at all remotely possible, that an Arkansas institution of higher learning would bring a Russian communist to their campus and then rescind a similar invitation to an award-winning novelist? An Arkansas born and bred novelist?
Network Opposes Potter Policy The Holland Sentinel April 19, 2000 To the Editor: The undersigned organizations, members of the Free Expression Network, oppose the restrictions imposed on the use of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books by Zeeland Public Schools Superintendent Gary Feenstra on Nov. 22. These restrictions include a ban on classroom readings of the Potter books; a requirement of [...]
An art exhibit about Houston's civil rights history was removed from the windows of Foley's Department Store. The installation, Today's Special, by photographer Bill Thomas, commemorated the 1960 sit-in protests that resulted in the integration of Houston's downtown lunch-counters, including Foley's, where Thomas's mother had worked.
A ballot issue in Holland, Michigan to require the public library to filter all computers or lose city funding was roundly defeated.
Is free speech a positive good, or a necessary evil? Ask Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello, imprisoned in Cuba over a political article, or friends of Konca Kuris, a Turkish writer tortured and killed for her feminist views of Islam.
Oberlin, Ohio December 1999 Background: The mother of an 8-year-old girl is facing prosecution for “child pornography,” along with an investigation into charges of child abuse, because she took pictures of her daughter nude in the bath. To the best of our knowledge, there is no basis, other than the nude pictures (which a photography lab worker reported to the [...]
More than 138 years after its creation, the Confederate battle flag remains a potent symbol. The Confederate flag flying over the South Carolina statehouse has spurred an economic boycott by the NAACP and ignited public debate and discussion in the presidential primaries.
The Brooklyn Museum of Art settled its court case over the Sensation art exhibit at the end of March, ending an acrimonious battle with New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Holland, Michigan On February 22 the community defeated, 55 to 44, a proposal to require filters on all Herrick District Library computers. For an article in The Holland Sentinel, click here. Background (Posted January 2000): On February 22, 2000, Holland, Michigan, will vote on a proposal to force the city to withdraw funding from the Herrick District Library unless the [...]
The American Family Association, which has already targeted Holland and Hudsonville in its campaign to censor the Internet in public libraries, has now turned its sights on Midland’s Grace A. Dow Memorial Library.
In the second week of January, Spotswood High School English teacher Jeff Newton, four high school students and five groups representing libraries, booksellers and authors filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging that their First Amendment rights were violated when the school's principal ordered the removal of a list of banned books posted on Newton's classroom door. Background: Spotswood [...]
A coalition of college and high school students has formed an S.O.S. campaign (Save Our Science, Save Our Schools) to restore evolution and scientific cosmology to science education and to prevent the teaching of creationism as science. Read more: » Free Inquiry: Students Launch Pro-Science Movement   Â
An arts controversy in Santa Cruz, California has prompted artist Lynn Zachreson to wonder if east coast arts censorship is spreading west. When Zachreson displayed her paintings of nude figures at an annual community art show, the director objected.
The new director of the Detroit Institute of Arts padlocked the doors of an art exhibit, turning a show which was planned to display controversial art into a victim of censorship instead of its antidote.
I happened to be in London last summer on the very day "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," the third book in the wildly popular series by J. K. Rowling, was published. I couldn't believe my good fortune. I rushed to the bookstore to buy a copy, knowing this simple act would put me up there with the best grandmas in the world. The book was still months away from publication in the United States, and I have an 8-year-old grandson who is a big Harry Potter fan.
The Tacoma, Washington Public Library uses filters that strip images from 'restricted' websites, leaving only text, even for adults, and requires all users to register.
Summary: This testimony will discuss the implications of the First Amendment for proposals to rate video games and other entertainment for violent content, and to restrict the sale of such materials to minors. Unlike obscenity, the Supreme Court has never carved out an exception in First Amendment analysis for violent speech and images. This is true even where minors are [...]
New York City has become ground zero in the culture wars, thanks to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s assault on the Brooklyn Museum over an art exhibit already seen by thousands in Europe. Perhaps the Mayor sees his future in Washington, the center of politics, rather than New York, a center of art and culture.
New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, facing an invasion of encephalitis-bearing mosquitos, has chosen to buzz a controversial art exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art that he considers 'sick.' The focus of his attention is a show of contemporary British art from the Charles Saatchi collection, which attracted record crowds in London and in Berlin. Now, thanks to the Mayor, it's attracting record crowds to Brooklyn.
The free expression and arts community today strongly supported the Brooklyn Museum of Art in its decision to challenge Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s threat to withdraw city financial support over a controversial art exhibit, scheduled to open this weekend.
My first thought upon hearing that the Kansas state education board had removed evolution from its mandatory curruculum was: Go ahead! Be like that! Handicap your kids for life.
The teaching of evolution has been overwhelmingly affirmed in New Mexico where the State Board of Education voted to strengthen the statewide science curriculum.
In a new twist in the battle against evolution, creationists in Kansas hope to convince the Board of Education to drop evolution from the curriculum. Since it is unconstitutional to teach religious theory in the schools, creationists argue, evolution must also go. Shades of Isaac Asimov, who punned: "I'd let them teach creationism in the schools if they let us [...]
MIT professor Henry Jenkins ... warned the Senate Commerce Committee not to succumb to a climate of moral panic and embrace misguided and ineffectual proposals to censor youthful expression or the media.
This essay is about political exploitation of the Littleton school-shooting tragedy. Rich describes proposals offered by Congress and the President as "quick fixes"--not serious treatment to prevent real-life violence:
We write to express our increasing concern over your public statements about children and the Internet, and specifically your endorsement of something called the "Parents’ Protection Page," as a "public-private partnership" to facilitate Internet censorship.
The American Psychological Association stepped into a hornets' nest when it published an article that compiled and evaluated the results of many studies on the psychological effects of child sexual abuse. Responding to complaints from conservative constituents, a Congressional resolution condemned the study.
Congress must believe that flag-burning is epidemic. Year after year, the House of Representatives votes to ban physical "desecration" of the flag. This session is no exception.
The killings in the Littleton, Colorado high school have sparked a wave of soul-searching over whether the entertainment industry is partly responsible for creating a "culture of violence." Predictably, there are also questions about the meaning of the First Amendment. Can there be too much of a good thing? Does the First Amendment really protect all the blood and gore that is splattered on our TV and movie screens?
Nassau Community College in New York won a lengthy battle over a popular human sexuality course when a federal district judge rejected efforts to eliminate the course. Several residents, represented by the American Catholic Lawyers Association, alleged that Family Living and Human Sexuality (PED 251), violates the Establishment Clause by expressing a "hostility to certain religious views" and "constitutes a deliberate disparagement of traditional Jewish and Christian and particularly Catholic, teachings on marriage, procreation and adultery" (Gheta v. Nassau Community College).
One of the artistic wonders of the world, Michaelangelo's David, according to some, is not fit for children to see.
At an NCAC panel in New York, author and critic Judith Levine, artist and writer Barbara Pollack, and clinical psychologist and professor Leonore Tiefer explored some of the tensions and contradictions in adult responses to children's sexuality and the ways in which these responses are socially constructed.
