At the very least, Judge Matheson’s ruling is a strong statement of the constitutional case against such legislation as the Oklahoma amendment. Couched in the language of Establishment Clause jurisprudence as it is, it makes clear not only that the grounds for the legislation are nonexistent, but also that its effect amounts to unconstitutional discrimination.
For the last seventy-five years, Augusta, Georgia has predominantly been known for its connection to the Masters, one of the
On Monday, November 28, a group of 20 to 30 Occupy Harvard protesters attempted to disrupt a Goldman Sachs recruiting session being hosted by Harvard’s Office of Career Services. Three days later, the Crimson ran an editorial reprimanding the protesters’ behavior.
On the subject of the First Amendment Gingrich trafficks in exaggerations and outright fabrications entirely unworthy of his Establishment respectability and his Big Thinker moniker. His conjuring of a fictitious conspiracy against First Amendment religious values as a predicate for a wide-ranging attack on the very independence of the American judiciary is particularly dangerous, and particularly worthy of exposure.
The Supreme Court of North Carolina held this month that the arrest of a drunk driver by a police officer
As a legal matter, the ruling is in keeping with courts’ increasingly deferential interpretations of the standards governing school regulation of student speech. Perhaps more so than other recent school speech cases, however, it helps illustrate one of the most problematic aspects of the Supreme Court’s dominant Tinker framework—the possibility that schools can engage in viewpoint discrimination or allow a “heckler’s veto” by suppressing unpopular viewpoints to avoid unpleasantness.
On November 15th, New York Supreme Court Judge Michael D. Stallman denied an application by Occupy Wall Street protesters for a temporary restraining order preventing police from removing them from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan. Judge Stallman found that the First Amendment does not extend to the protesters’ practice of camping in the park overnight.
Judge Leon’s ruling reflects a legitimate doctrinal concern: even for a particularly disfavored type of commercial speech such as cigarette advertising, there are limits on the extent to which companies can be forced to serve as a conduit for government speech unrelated to the truth of their advertising and completely inimical to their own commercial interests.
Whatever their excesses or ideological inconsistencies, they have clearly tapped into a widely felt discontent whose strength is manifested not so much by verbal communication as by the act of gathering together and providing a visible demonstration of solidarity and demographic strength. A stronger conception of the freedom of assembly would capture, better than courts’ current doctrine, the unique benefits which such a movement can bring to the process of American self-government.
The defense attorneys for Tarek Mehanna, on trial in federal court in Boston accused of providing material support for terrorism, will try to convince a jury that Mehanna is being denied his “freedom of thought and the right of private judgment,” and that in fact it was his opinions about the United States and its military involvement in the Muslim world that the prosecution seeks to punish.
A French court last week ordered internet service providers in the country to block all access to a “Copwatch” site
