Category Archives: Free Speech

The First Amendment Does Not Protect Against the Consequences of Your Speech
Arizona internet attorney Ruth Carter discusses the First Amendment. It protects your right to free speech; however, it does not shield you from all the cons...

By: Carter Law Firm

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The First Amendment Does Not Protect Against the Consequences of Your Speech - Video

Segment from Free Speech TV: The War on Whistleblowers
In this segment on Free Speech TV #39;s "Ring of Fire" program, Howard L. Nations, a nationally renowned trial lawyer, discusses the Obama administration #39;s war o...

By: HowardNations

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Segment from Free Speech TV: The War on Whistleblowers - Video

Free Speech Solidarity
Dear Listeners of Harmonized News and Seekers of Truth from Heart : Listen ! Be my Valentine ! I LOVE CAN tell my heart honestly to you my beloved, because...

By: MyTBWe2B

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Free Speech Solidarity - Video

No free speech in India?
Left, Right Centre: The debate over free speech is back to haunt us, as Penguin India agrees to withdraw a controversial book on Hinduism and even destroy ...

By: NDTV

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No free speech in India? - Video

Darwin Week 2014: Activism Day - Afternoon Talks
Faculty at the University of Northern Iowa will present on subjects related to activism: feminism and the women #39;s suffrage movement, free speech and the Tink...

By: UNIFreethought

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Darwin Week 2014: Activism Day - Afternoon Talks - Video

Robert Bertsche, executive committee member of the New England First Amendment Coalition, presenting Darien mother Kit Savage with the Antonia Orfield Citizenship Award for her efforts to help children with disabilities.

Kit Savage was one of the first parents to recognize problems in Dariens special education program. And now, her efforts to improve transparency and access to education have been recognized, as the New England First Amendment Coalition recently honored her with the inaugural Antonia Orfield Citizenship Award.

I am the parent of two children with disabilities, Savage told a room full of hundreds of journalists, lawyers and free speech advocates in Boston on Friday, Feb. 7. I am honored to sit with the close family and friends of Dr. Orfield and hear how she helped children overcome their vision issues to learn to read.

The award is named after Dr. Antonia Orfield, a mother and optometrist who worked to improve the schools in Chicago. Orfield used non-surgical vision therapy methods to help children with vision-related learning disabilities. She published her findings in her 2007 book, Eyes for Learning.

Presenting the award to Savage was Robert Bertsche, a First Amendment lawyer and member of the coalitions executive committee.

It is very fitting that Kit Savage receives this award in the first year since it has been renamed in memory of the late Dr. Antonia Orfield, Bertsche said. Like Kit Savage, her advocacy had a tie to children and learning differences.

Rosanna Cavanagh, executive director of the first amendment coalition, said her group recognizes that citizens play a crucial role in guaranteeing government accountability.

Savage was one of the original 25 parents to sign the complaint with the state Department of Education, alleging systemic violations to federal special education law. Those allegations were confirmed in a two-part state investigation, and further detailed in an independent probe.

In the early years, most of us are jumping hurdle after hurdle to identify and treat whatever challenges we can that are impacting our child, Savage said. Generally speaking we take on this all-consuming job quietly and in the privacy of our homes.

Top 10 of 2013: No. 1 Special education

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Free speech group honors Darien mother with citizenship award

The IRS Bans Free Speech! Dick Morris TV: Lunch ALERT!
Dick explains.

By: dickmorrisreports

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The IRS Bans Free Speech! Dick Morris TV: Lunch ALERT! - Video

Washington, DC (PRWEB) February 12, 2014

Mary Beth Tinker, a plaintiff in the landmark 1969 students rights case Tinker v Des Moines, launched a crowdsource campaign (http://www.startsomegood.com/tinkertourwest) today to finish her national civics education tour, the Tinker Tour, with visits to at least 12 western states this spring.

This fall, Tinker and student rights attorney Mike Hiestand traveled 16,000 miles across the Eastern half of the country -- from Massachusetts to Michigan to Mississippi -- stopping at nearly 60 schools, colleges, libraries, courts, a student detention facility and several national conventions. Tinker shared her story with more than 20,000 students and teachers while also talking with them about free press, free speech and civics education. More information about the tour is available on the Tinker Tour Web site (http://www.tinkertourusa.org).

The Tinker Tour, which began on Constitution Day in Philadelphia, coincides with the 50th anniversary of a number of major civil rights anniversaries such as the Birmingham Childrens March and Mississippis Freedom Summer, events that Tinker says had a huge effect on her, and even on the Tinker ruling by the Supreme Court.

I was a child growing up during a time much like today, when there was great inequality as well as war. I was only thirteen years old, but I wanted to speak up. When I saw the Birmingham Children on TV in 1963, that helped inspire me.

Then, when three civil rights workers, Chaney, Schwarner and Goodman, were killed in Mississippi in the summer of 1964, Tinkers parents went to Mississippi to volunteer with Freedom Summer. Tinker said that their bravery, as well as the stories her parents brought back about the civil rights workers, like Fannie Lou Hamer, also motivated her.

Tinker learned recently that Freedom Summer influenced her case even more than she realized. In the Tinker ruling, the Supreme Court cited a 1967 Appeals Court ruling that high school students in Mississippi should not have been suspended for wearing buttons to school to protest the killings there in 1964.

This year is huge in civil rights history, said Tinker. And, its so important to pass along these stories that inspire young people, just like they were passed along to me.

In 1965, Tinker, along with her brother, John, and Chris Eckhardt, the other plaintiff, wore black armbands to school to mourn the dead in Vietnam. When they were suspended, the case was argued by the ACLU at the Supreme Court, which ruled that neither students or teachers leave their Constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.

Now, the ruling is cited by liberals and conservatives alike. In November, it was featured by the Liberty Institute at a Supreme Court Historical Society event.

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Free Speech Icon Mary Beth Tinker Launches Crowdsourcing Campaign to Complete Nationwide Civics Education Bus Trip to ...

DELHI: American scholar Wendy Doniger said she was angry and disappointed that all copies of her latest book on Hinduism will be pulped in India after a legal row that has ignited fears about free speech. Her publisher Penguin agreed on Monday to withdraw the 2009 book The Hindus: An Alternative History to settle a court battle with an activist group which took offense to the depiction of the religion. I was of course angry and disappointed to see this happen and I am deeply troubled by what it foretells for free speech in India in the present, and steadily worsening, political climate, she wrote in an e-mail statement sent to AFP on Tuesday. Doniger, 74, wrote in her statement that as a publishers daughter, I particularly wince at the knowledge that the existing books (unless they are bought out quickly by people intrigued by all the brouhaha) will be pulped. The Shiksha Bachao Andolan Committee, a group of Hindu academics, filed civil and criminal suits in a New Delhi court claiming the book contained factual errors and parts of it misrepresented Hindu mythology. Other writers and champions of free speech have widely criticized Penguins decision to cave into pressure and reach a settlement, rather than fight the case and seek to challenge any lower court ruling on appeal. The agreement by the publisher to withdraw it is like putting a contract out on free expression, wrote commentator Pratap Bhanu Mehta in an opinion piece in The Indian Express newspaper. Penguin India has not responded to repeated requests for comment, but Doninger sprang to the defense of the publisher, which is part of the publishing giant Penguin Random House. Penguin India took this book on knowing that it would stir anger in the Hindutva ranks, and they defended it in the courts for four years, both as a civil and as a criminal suit, she wrote. The mutual agreement between the publisher and the activist group does not impose any legal binding on any other Indian publisher that wishes to publish Donigers book in India, lawyers say. Many authors and artists practise self-censorship in religiously diverse India, which is about 80 percent Hindu, due to tough laws against inciting communal violence and a powerful censor.

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American scholar angry after book on Hindus pulped in India

Heres your daily reminder that freedom of speech doesnt mean freedom from consequences.

Kent State wrestler Sam Wheeler has been suspended indefinitely for making several anti-gay statements on Twitter. Like clockwork, this is bringing out the armchair constitutional lawyers who claim that this is an all-out assault on free speech. Duck Dynasty. #FreePhil.

I though we had free speech would they supend a gay person if they made anti christian or post about straght people, says one commenter on FOX Sports Ohios Facebook page.

What ever happened to freedom of speech! Isnt this American! Why are we being forced to accept things we may not agree with! Who cares what you do behind closed doors, keep your sex life to yourself! says another commenter.

Ok, lets take a look at what Sam Wheeler actually said. Referencing Missouris Michael Sam, who just announced that he is gay ahead of the NFL draft, Wheeler lamented that he cant even watch SportsCenter without hearing about that fag from mizzou. He later tweeted at two other users, calling them queers.

O geez I got all these fag boys mad at me now, he said.

All of the tweets (as well as his entire account) has since been deleted. But this is the internet, so here they are (courtesy outragedc.com):

Free speech!

Wheeler has been suspended indefinitely for his tweets.

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Kent State Wrestler Suspended for Anti-Gay Tweets, So Of Course Free Speech Is Once Again Under Assault