The First Amendment doesn't end "at the schoolhouse gates." But students should know their schools' policies when it comes to organizing protests. This is NCAC's quick guide for student protesters.
Sunset Park High School in Brooklyn, NY removed a work of student art last week after complaints that its message was offensive. NCAC opposes allowing a "hecker's veto" to chill this student's right to free expression.
Following a widespread tide of denouncements of anti-BDS legislation, objections to the state laws have now moved into the purview of federal courts. The ACLU recently filed separate First Amendment challenges against bills in Kansas and Arizona, alleging that they prohibit political expression and association and engage in speaker-based discrimination.
Deyshia Hargrave was inappropriately removed from a school board meeting in Louisiana. The First Amendment guarantees all Americans a right to speak, inquire and petition the government.
NCAC has urged an Oklahoma board of education to rescind its policy of disciplining students who do not stand during the national anthem as students have the right to peaceful and non-disruptive political speech, which includes the right to protest.
By banning or discouraging students from participating in protests against racial discrimination, police brutality and other important issues, schools not only violate their First Amendment rights but deny them the opportunity to join a national debate that can contribute to their civic education.
In the letter to the Attorney General, the groups condemned the Department’s overbroad reach and expressed alarm over DOJ investigative tactics that offend the rights of all individuals to political dissent and free assembly.
Howard J. Kopel’s interpretation of the Nassau anti-BDS legislation seeks to punish an individual purely for expressing First Amendment-protected views.
The organizations express grave concern that the Executive Order will have a broad and far-reaching impact on artists’ freedom of movement and, as a result, will seriously inhibit creative freedom, collaboration, and the free flow of ideas.
When a seven-year-old student from Terre Haute, Indiana opted to sit silently during his school’s daily Pledge of Allegiance, the First Amendment stood up for his decision. But his teacher didn’t.
NCAC speaks with Miranda Taylor, a student at Richmond Early College in North Carolina, whose school canceled this year's yearbook, in part, because of her senior quote: "Build That Wall."
The petition focuses on the legal rights of whistle blowers, demanding adequate protections to ensure they receive a fair trial in any subsequent court action taken against them.
Even when not enforced or non-binding, anti-BDS bills potentially chill protected expression by singling out the expression of unpopular or controversial views. Such bills seriously and impermissibly undermine core First Amendment rights.
The message government is communicating appears to be that young people's opinions concerning such issues are not respected and don't matter.
The violent protesters of Charles Murray need to understand a basic principle: the right to speech exists for all, or for none.
Efforts to undermine the legitimacy or independence of the press, the statement reads, “betray the country’s most cherished values and undercut one of its most significant strengths.”
NCAC is urging a Maryland school district to allow its teachers to display a series of posters promoting diversity and inclusion in America after administrators ordered their removal over concerns of political bias.
The posters were deemed to break the school's policy that forbids classroom materials that attempt to sway the political opinions of students.
An exhibition of artworks celebrating Black History Month was removed from display in a San Jose School district building after complaints calling the works offensive.
“Blanket orders from the Trump Administration preventing the staffs and experts of federal agencies from communicating with the public send a chilling message that every governmental communication, no matter how routine or technical, will now be subject to a political litmus test."
The University have justified the decision based on the group’s “political goals” and support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, which they say are contrary to Fordham’s “mission and values.”
Rep. Clay, in a statement issued by his office in St. Louis, said the painting's removal has “sent a chilling message to young Americans that their voices are not respected, their views are not valued, and their freedom of expression is no longer protected in the U.S. Capitol.”
Representative Clay has stood in support of artistic free expression in the face of criticisms that the painting contains an anti-police message.
The letter to U.S Department of Justice praises the policy but pushes back against certain justifications for rule exemptions.
The Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania chose to move works with a clear anti-Trump message to a separate gallery nearby.
While private corporations have the legal right to set conditions on their rentals, artists and small alternative art venues such as 50/50 need to push back against their total control of public space.
NCAC's Director of Programs reflects on what we do now, to promote speech across political lines, in post-election America.
Their decision to defund the University over the protest would amount to the government engaging in viewpoint discrimination.
The Times received pages of Trump's tax returns from an anonymous source. Did they have the legal right to publish them?
NCAC has written to a Florida school protesting a rule requiring parental permission prior to student protest on the grounds it infringes student free expression.
NCAC has been monitoring three school districts’ responses to students who protest governmental actions by declining to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance or national anthem.
Citizen journalism has never been more prevalent. But are the consequences of the prominence of this sort of viral video footage more good than bad?
@illmagore : "Make America Great Again" On Saturday, in the latest fallout over artist Illma Gore's controversial nude portrait of Donald Trump, Gore was physically assaulted by a Trump supporter not far from her home in LA. After punching the diminutive artist in the face, her attacker shouted "Trump 2016" and jumped into a waiting vehicle. Gore posted the story [...]
Students in the Bronx wanted to protest a visit by Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. But their school pulled the plug.
The widely publicized cancellation of the controversial documentary is likely to backfire for those concerned that the ideas in the film are fraudulent and wrong.
Does art that offends belong in a government building? That's the debate unfolding in Denver, after a student's painting that likens police to the Ku Klux Klan was displayed in the city's Webb Building.
