Daily Archives: March 2, 2024

Something is wrong.

Suffield First Selectman Colin Moll wants to exempt the Town Green from First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly.

Moll has proposed extensive rules to regulate activity on the towns centuries old public Green. Moll told the Courant in a statement on Jan. 19, At no point does this policy infringe on any First Amendment rights. Moll must not have read his own revolting proposal, let alone the amendment that is the cornerstone of our democracy.

The policy is designed to better protect the Town and its assets, Moll continued. Anybody can use the Town Green. A policy would simply give guidelines for use. Our First Amendment rights are first for a reason. They are the rights from which all others flow. Moll has proposed requirements, not guidelines.

Molls notion of freedom to assemble includes obtaining permits from his office 30 days before an event and securing $1 million in liability insurance to cover the event. A permit will not be automatically granted. Oh no, there are rules the first selectman will apply in his discretion. The proposed activity event, and/or display will not unreasonably interfere with or detract from the promotion of public health, welfare, safety and recreation. It must not incite violence or crime or disorderly conduct. Maybe it would allow silent vigils, but not if they disrupted traffic, another Moll burden on Constitutional rights.

The Suffield War Memorial lists 257 local residents who served in the Revolutionary War, from David, Joel and John Adams Jr. to Justus, Phineas and Reuben Woolworth. They fought for freedom. They did not leave whatever rudimentary comforts they knew to risk or give their lives in that glorious cause so that nearly 250 years later the towns selectmen could enact rules to silence speech and ban the assembly of citizens.

The War Memorial inspires from its honored place on the Town Green.

Moll is making a name for himself as more than a tiresome crank. He tried out his heavy hand last year on Suffields Kent Memorial Library. Two directors resigned in a year. Other employees quit. Moll wanted to know who was reserving rooms for meetings at the library. He had a beef with a library kindness display that included a childrens book on pronouns.

Moll and his fellow Republicans refused to reappoint four Democrats to the library board. The Suffield Republicans are not only unmindful of freedom of speech rights, they are jaw-dropping ignoramuses. Last fall, one Republican selectman candidate made the nonsensical argument that the kindness display violated the publics First Amendment rights. And now they have widened their war with Molls blitzkrieg against free speech on the Town Green.

Last month Molls proposal came to the attention of the sentinels of freedom at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). It describes itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit [organization] dedicated to defending freedom of speech. In a Feb. 15 letter to Moll and his colleagues, Aaron Terr, FIREs Director of Public Advocacy, explained in six pages why Suffield would be violating the Constitution if it continued on its path of silencing residents and others.

As other organizations go wobbly on the paramount importance of free speech, FIRE has become its preeminent defender. It began as an advocate for free speech on college campuses and has broadened its mission to places like suffocating Suffield.

Suffields proposed regulations, according to FIREs Terr, could restrict activity from an acoustic guitarist to a book club meeting, from a 10-person protest to a lone pamphleteer. The Suffield Town Green has long been a place, as the Supreme Court describes them, for assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions.

Molls 30-day application requirement is an exercise in eliminating spontaneous speech. If next week, Hamas was destroyed and Palestinians in Gaza were liberated from its brutal rule or the Houthis were defeated and the children it forces to become soldiers were freed, it would be cause for celebration across much of the world. People in Suffield might want to gather immediately to rejoice. Under Molls rules, they could not assemble on the Town Green.

Unpopular speech requires protection from the mob, and our Constitution provides it. Molls bombardment of free speech and assembly is especially dangerous for speech that is out of favor. He provides the dreaded hecklers veto to those expressing hostility to some points of view. Loudmouthed locals intent on disrupting a protest on the Town Green would become an excuse for the selectman to ban a gathering. The selectman would be on the wrong side.

Free market capitalism has been very good indeed to tony Suffield. Moll would ban, Terr points out, activities, events, and displays designed to be held for private profit. This would ban, for example, someone being paid to speak and the sale of books, pamphlets and newspapers at an event.

One day Suffield selectmen may require you to show your papers in order to enter the town with leaders who hate our freedom. If they do, remember that it started in the library and on the Town Green.

You can reach Kevin Rennie atkfrennie@yahoo.com.

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Kevin Rennie: Jaw-dropping attack on free speech and assembly in a CT town. It hurts us all. - Hartford Courant

Bentley recently hosted Harvey Silverglate, free speech advocate and co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, for a conversation on academic freedom and freedom of speech. Sponsored by the Jeanne and Dan Valente Center for Arts and Sciences and the History Department, the discussion tackled the ongoing debate over what constitutes free speech on college campuses.

Free speech in the United States, Silverglate said, essentially distinguishes this country from virtually every other country, noting that while other countries have free speech, they also have strict anti-defamation laws. Emphasizing the consensus of both liberal and conservative views to protect free speech, he said, Its not a partisan issue anymore. This is a great victory that we have achieved.

Silverglate a criminal defense and civil liberties litigator who has argued free speech cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court and is the author of books including The Shadow University and The Betrayal of Liberty on Americas Campuses called himself an absolutist when it comes to free speech. The right to express both hate and love speech, he said, should be fully protected in accordance with the law. He noted the particular importance for free speech on liberal arts college campuses meant to encourage conversations from different points of view. Academic freedom is a subset of free speech; and in theory at least, academic freedom should be even more absolute ... But campuses today are actually roiling in debates on this fundamental issue of free speech.

He called for more universities to adopt the Chicago Principles, a model free speech policy statement affirming their commitment to free expression, developed by the University of Chicago.

Universities should be a forum for people to express their views without a stifling atmosphere of censorship, Silverglate said.

Following Silverglates presentation, a question-and-answer session moderated by Valente Center Director Johannes (Hans) Eijmberts provided a forum for debate on issues such as the balance between allowing free speech and prioritizing an institutions values and campus safety, the governments role to protect free speech on college campuses and censorship by social media platforms.

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Bentley Hosts Forum on Free Speech on College Campuses with Legal Expert Harvey Silverglate - Bentley University

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 27, 2024 More than two-thirds of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track when it comes to freedom of speech, according to new survey results from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and thePolarization Research Lab at Dartmouth College.

When asked about whether people are able to freely express their views, 69% of respondents said things in America are heading in the wrong direction, compared to only 31% who believe that things are heading in the right direction.

The poll also shows that only a quarter of Americans believe the right to freedom of speech is very or completely secure, and almost a third (29%) say it is not at all secure.

The average American already thinks that free speech in America is in dire straits. Most worryingly, they think it will get worse, said FIRE Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens. These findings should be a wake-up call for the nation to recommit to a vibrant free speech culture before its too late.

Thenew poll, conducted from January 12-19, is the first installment in the National Speech Index, a new quarterly survey designed by FIRE and PRL to measure support for the First Amendment and track how Americans think about the state of free speech in the country over time.

Polarization not only divides Americans on policy, but it fractures our assessments of the stability of the bedrock features of our democracy, said PRL Director Sean Westwood. Nearly half of Democrats think free speech rights are headed in the right direction, compared to only 26 percent of Republicans. And more than a third of Republicans think the right to free speech is not secure, compared to only 17 percent of Democrats.

One alarmingly common belief that crosses partisan lines is that idea that the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees. Around a third of Republicans and a third of Democrats completely or mostly agree with that statement.

To gauge public acceptance of protecting even unpopular beliefs, the survey also presented a list of statements that were controversial, but protected by the First Amendment. Respondents were asked which belief they found most offensive, then asked if they supported several forms of censorship targeting that belief. The most disliked belief varied by race and party, but the most frequent selections were All whites are racist oppressors, America got what it deserved on 9/11, and January 6th was a peaceful protest.

Roughly half of respondents (52%) said their community should not allow a public speech that espouses the belief they selected as the most offensive. A supermajority, 69%, said their local college should not allow a professor who espoused that belief to teach classes.

Those results were disappointing, but not exactly surprising, said Stevens. Here at FIRE, weve long observed that many people who say theyre concerned about free speech waver when it comes to beliefs they personally find offensive. But the best way to protect your speech in the future is to defend the right to controversial and offensive speech today.

Other forms of censorship are less popular. Americans do not support removing books from public libraries that espouse the belief they found most offensive, with roughly three-fifths (59%) opposed to such actions. And almost three-quarters (72%) believe people who voice the belief they found most offensive should not be fired from their jobs.

The National Speech Index is a new quarterly component of Americas Political Pulse, an ongoing weekly survey conducted by the Polarization Research Lab, which will allow researchers to track shifting free speech sentiment in America over time. Each week, a sample of 1,000 individual YouGov panelists is surveyed on partisan animosity in the United States. All data and results presented are weighted to nationally representative demographic targets. The raw data file is availablehere.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought the most essential qualities of liberty. FIRE educates Americans about the importance of these inalienable rights, promotes a culture of respect for these rights, and provides the means to preserve them.

The Polarization Research Lab (PRL) is a nonpartisan collaboration between faculty at Dartmouth College, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania. Its mission is to monitor and understand the causes and consequences of partisan animosity, support for democratic norm violations, and support for partisan violence in the American Public. With open and transparent data, it provides an objective assessment of the health of American democracy.

CONTACT:

Alex Griswold, Communications Campaign Manager, FIRE: 215-717-3473; media@thefire.org

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POLL: 69% of Americans believe country on wrong track on free speech - Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

On today's free speech news roundup, we discuss the recent NetChoice oral argument, Taylor Swift, doxxing, October 7 fallout on campus, and Satan in Iowa.

Joining us on the show are Alex Morey, FIRE director of Campus Rights Advocacy; Aaron Terr, director of Public Advocacy; and Ronnie London, our general counsel.

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

0:44 NetChoice oral arguments

19:39 Taylor Swift cease and desist letter

29:20 Publishing unlawfully obtained information

39:28 Harvard and doxxing

47:44 Princeton no contact orders

55:52 Columbia law denies recognition to Law Students Against Antisemitism

1:02:38 Columbia adopts Kalven Report

1:06:06 Indiana University art exhibit canceled, professor suspended

1:14:55 Satan in Iowa

1:21:59 Outro

Show Notes

"So to Speak" 2023-24 Supreme Court Preview (contains discussion of NetChoice cases)

Correspondence between Taylor Swift and Jack Sweeney's attorneys

Bartnicki v. Vopper (2001)

Princeton no contact order

Columbia university grants recognition to Law Students Against Antisemitism

IHRA definition of anti-Semitism

List of universities that have adopted the Kalven Report

Indiana University art exhibit story

Indiana University professor suspended for improper reservation

Iowa Satanism bill

Shurtleff v. Boston (2022)

"So to Speak": Substack

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So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast | Free speech news: NetChoice, Taylor Swift, October 7, and Satan - Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

The most important First Amendment cases of the internet era, to be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday, may turn on a single question: Do platforms like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X most closely resemble newspapers or shopping centers or phone companies?

The two cases arrive at the court garbed in politics, as they concern laws in Florida and Texas aimed at protecting conservative speech by forbidding leading social media sites from removing posts based on the views they express.

But the outsize question the cases present transcends ideology. It is whether tech platforms have free speech rights to make editorial judgments. Picking the apt analogy from the courts precedents could decide the matter, but none of the available ones is a perfect fit.

If the platforms are like newspapers, they may publish what they want without government interference. If they are like private shopping centers open to the public, they may be required to let visitors say what they like. And if they are like phone companies, they must transmit everyones speech.

It is not at all obvious how our existing precedents, which predate the age of the internet, should apply to large social media companies, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote in a 2022 dissent when one of the cases briefly reached the Supreme Court.

Supporters of the state laws say they foster free speech, giving the public access to all points of view. Opponents say the laws trample on the platforms own First Amendment rights and would turn them into cesspools of filth, hate and lies. One contrarian brief, from liberal professors, urged the justices to uphold the key provision of the Texas law despite the harm they said it would cause.

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Supreme Court to Decide How the First Amendment Applies to Social Media - The New York Times

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribunes daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

For nearly four hours on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a pair of cases that challenge how far states can go to limit the content social media companies allow on their platforms.

The lawsuits, which were brought by two tech trade groups, challenge whether Texas and Florida can legally prohibit large social media companies from banning certain political posts or users. Both states passed laws in 2021 to stop what Republican state leaders considered censorship of conservative viewpoints.

The laws came on the heels of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which led Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to suspend former president Donald Trumps social media accounts because his posts were thought to glorify violence.

The Florida and Texas laws are similar in that they both limit social media companies content moderation. But they differ in their details. Texas law is broader in that it prohibits companies from removing content based on their authors viewpoint, whereas Floridas law bars companies from removing politicians from their site.

NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association brought lawsuits in which they argued both laws are unconstitutional because they conflict with the First Amendment, which protects against government infringement of speech.

On Monday, attorneys for NetChoice argued that social media companies should be treated the same as newspapers or bookstores, which are free to choose what to publish or which books to sell without government interference. Paul Clemente, arguing on behalf of NetChoice, said social media companies are not censoring certain users but are exercising editorial discretion.

Texas Solicitor General Aaron Nielson meanwhile argued that internet platforms should be considered common carriers like telecommunications companies or mail services that are required to transmit everyones messages.

The Supreme Court Justices appeared conflicted. Most justices noted that the laws posed free speech challenges, but they seemed hesitant to strike down the laws entirely. They questioned both sides on whether the laws may be legal in some respects but unconstitutional in others. For example, some large social media companies, including Facebook, offer direct messaging. The justices indicated that the laws applications on direct messaging would not implicate free speech and therefore should not be struck down.

At one point, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said her inclination would be to remand the case back to the lower courts for more discussion, a view that several justices appeared to favor. The Court is expected to issue a decision by the end of June.

The Supreme Courts review of the laws represents the first major examination of if and how free-speech laws apply to social media companies. Legal experts say that the high courts decision could have significant implications for statehouses across the country as they begin writing laws to address misinformation online.

The stakes for free speech online are potentially enormous, said Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The court here is being presented with diametrically opposed interpretations of the law, and what the court does could, on the one hand, allow the government free rein to regulate social media platforms, or, on the other, prohibit the government from regulating them at all.

The free speech provisions included in the First Amendment do not mean that private companies are forced to allow certain speech. Instead, the Constitution states that the government cannot compel or prohibit speech from private actors.

Willkens said he believes the Court should take a middle ground and rule that while the platforms have a right to make editorial judgements, states can still regulate the platforms in ways that would promote democracy. For example, he said the platforms should be required to disclose how they curate their content.

That is a view that Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Biden administration, took on Monday. She sided with tech industry groups and argued that the laws should be struck down. But she emphasized that the government could still regulate social media companies by other legal means, such as through antitrust, consumer protection or privacy laws.

I want to be very clear that we are not suggesting that governments are powerless, Prelogar said. One natural place to go is disclosure, to ensure that if you think a platform has Orwellian policies, you at least make sure users have information about how they are acting, what their policies are.

Texas social media law, referred to as House Bill 20, would mandate that tech companies publicly disclose how they curate their content. The Supreme Court is not considering the legality of that portion of the law. They are focusing on other provisions of law, including its prohibition on social media companies with more than 50 million active monthly users from banning users based on their viewpoints. The Court will also consider the laws requirement that platforms produce regular reports of removed content and create a complaint system to allow users to raise flags about removed content.

The laws also have political implications. President Joe Bidens administration has backed the tech companies legal challenge while former President Donald Trump filed an amicus brief in support of Florida and Texas.

Tech companies argue that giving the government any control over their content opens the door to a flood of misinformation that would be harmful to users.

What could end up happening is that websites are flooded with lawful but awful content, Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel at NetChoice, said prior to oral arguments in an interview with The Texas Tribune. That renders our ability to access the information we want and not see the information we dont want, impossible.

Szabo said social media companies remove billions of pieces of content from their platforms each month, including sexually explicit material, spam, or other content that violates their terms of services.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who made the bill a priority during a special legislative session in 2021, said after the law was passed that it was intended to protect individuals freedom of speech.

Allowing biased social media companies to cancel conservative speech erodes America's free speech foundations, Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott, said in a statement to The Texas Tribune. Social media websites are a modern-day public square. They are a place for healthy debate where information should be able to flow freely but there is a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas.

Disclosure: Facebook has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

We cant wait to welcome you to downtown Austin Sept. 5-7 for the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival! Join us at Texas breakout politics and policy event as we dig into the 2024 elections, state and national politics, the state of democracy, and so much more. When tickets go on sale this spring, Tribune members will save big. Donate to join or renew today.

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U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on Texas social media law - The Texas Tribune

COLUMBIA Using lawsuits to silence public criticism would be more difficult under a bill advancing in the South Carolina House.

Legislation sponsored by House Judiciary Chairman Weston Newton would allow people slapped with a lawsuit in an attempt to shut them up to file a motion within 60 days asking the court to dismiss it.

This protects the little guy the guy who wants to speak out and then is going to be completely silenced by some entity or some cause, this protects the little guys First Amendment rights, Newton, R-Bluffton, told the SC Daily Gazette.

He and other supporters pointed to cases where lawsuits alleging defamation were filed in South Carolina to tie up critics in litigation and mounting legal fees, even when the case was unlikely to succeed.

Nationwide, 33 states already have laws making these so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP, cases more difficult. New Jersey was the latest state, with a law taking effect in October, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Newton told a House panel Thursday he learned about the issue when Kevin Hennelly of Beaufort County was sued for defamation after making critical comments about a developer working on the Hilton Head National Golf Course. The case was eventually dismissed but not before Hennelly racked up over $75,000 in legal fees, Newton said.

Under his bill, if a lawsuit is legitimate, the person suing must prove it, Newton said.

And if its not a legitimate lawsuit and they cant demonstrate it, then theres also a provision where the defendant can recover their attorney fees, he said.

Thursdays vote sent the bill to the full Judiciary Committee. Since its the chairmans bill, its almost certain to advance to the House floor.

Nobody spoke against the bill to the subcommittee.

Taylor Smith, an attorney who represents the S.C. Press Association, was among those who testified in favor of it, citing some of his own clients who have faced these lawsuits.

Its the South Carolinians, not necessarily the press, who are bearing the burden of the cost associated with defending these suits, he said.

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Bill aimed at protecting free speech rights advancing in SC House - News From The States