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Keyword: firstamendment

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  • New Hampshire bakery wins free speech case involving pastry mural dispute

    05/21/2025 3:52:59 PM PDT · by where's_the_Outrage? · 31 replies
    AP ^ | May 2025 | Kathy McCormack
    A New Hampshire town's attempt to force a bakery to remove or alter its painting that shows sunbeams shining down on a mountain range of doughnuts, a muffin, a cinnamon roll and other pastries is unconstitutional, a judge ruled in a First Amendment dispute. The town of Conway infringed on the free speech rights of bakery owner Sean Young, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante ruled Monday, following a one-day trial in February. He ordered the town to stop any efforts at enforcing its sign code regarding the mural painted by high school students atop Leavitt's Country Bakery, mentioning a "complete...
  • Supreme Court orders Maine House to restore vote of censured lawmaker

    05/20/2025 12:07:45 PM PDT · by CFW · 21 replies
    WGME ^ | 5/20/25 | Matthew Bourgault,
    PORTLAND (WGME) -- The Supreme Court has ordered the Maine House to restore the vote of censured Representative Laurel Libby (R-Auburn). Libby was censured by the Maine Legislature after she posted the name and image of a transgender minor online. As part of the censure, she could not speak or vote on the House floor until she apologized, which she refused to do. In her lawsuit before the Supreme Court, Libby didn't contest the censure but the punishment, saying it violated her First Amendment rights and those of her constituents. Maine’s attorney general filed new paperwork both in district court...
  • Defending Education Sues Colorado Over Sick Trans Law

    05/20/2025 8:02:54 AM PDT · by george76 · 24 replies
    PJ Media ^ | May 19, 2025 | Catherine Salgado
    Defending Education is taking parental rights to court, suing the state of Colorado over its outrageous and arguably unconstitutional new groomer law. You might remember the recently passed Colorado legislation to fund castration of “trans” kids with taxpayer dollars and in spite of parents' wishes, to mandate pro-trans policies in schools, to criminalize “deadnaming,” and to take supposed “misgendering” into account in custody cases. Defending Education, an organization that stands for parents and against woke indoctrination in schools, is suing the Democrat-run state over the extremely harmful legislation. Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Protect Kids Colorado, Do No Harm, and Dr....
  • Open Letter to Elon Musk about Freerepublic.com

    05/04/2025 12:41:47 PM PDT · by big bad easter bunny · 73 replies
    Dear Mr. Musk, As a self-proclaimed champion of free speech and a transformative figure in technology and culture, you have reshaped platforms like X to prioritize open discourse and challenge censorship. Your actions—from acquiring X to amplify diverse voices to defending the First Amendment through initiatives like America PAC—demonstrate a commitment to preserving the “digital town square” as a space for unfettered expression. Today, I urge you to consider a significant donation to FreeRepublic.com, a pioneering website that has stood as a bastion of free speech since 1996, longer than any other platform in history. Here’s why your support could...
  • What Does ‘Separation of Church and State’ Really Mean?

    05/02/2025 10:44:47 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 35 replies
    Alliance Defending Freedom ^ | 05/02/2025 | Andrea Dill
    Our Constitution does not forbid government entities from working with religious groups, and the ‘separation of church and state’ is an ahistorical misnomer.Sometimes, a phrase takes on a life of its own and becomes so rhetorically powerful that it can be deployed almost mindlessly, without real consideration of its original meaning. “Separation of church and state” is one such phrase.Consider a couple of examples.In 2011, middle-schooler Brian Hickman auditioned to dance to a contemporary Christian song for his public school’s talent show. Days later, Brian’s mom was told by the school principal that the “separation of church and state” prohibited...
  • Orders to Investigate Columbia Protesters Raised Alarms in Justice Dept.

    05/01/2025 6:56:10 PM PDT · by E. Pluribus Unum · 24 replies
    The New York Times ^ | May 1, 2025Updated 4:56 p.m. ET | Devlin Barrett
    Behind the scenes, a top department official pressed employees to gather a list of activists and investigate them, people familiar with the matter said.A top Trump appointee in the Justice Department ordered an aggressive investigation in the last several months of student protesters at Columbia University, raising anger and alarm among career prosecutors and investigators who saw the demand as politically motivated and lacking legal merit, people familiar with the episode said. The demand for the inquiry into students who protested Israel’s conduct of the conflict in Gaza also prompted pushback from a federal magistrate judge, who believed some of...
  • Stephen Miller just called out legacy media to their faces for defending cartel thugs

    05/01/2025 5:44:45 PM PDT · by Macho MAGA Man · 20 replies
    DC_Draino on Twitter X ^ | May 1, 2025 | DC_Draino
    DC_Draino @DC_Draino Stephen Miller just called out legacy media to their faces for defending cartel thugs He says if he offered them a rent-free home in a neighborhood with MS-13 members, none of them would take it So why should other Americans be forced to deal with that? From Rapid Response 47 8:49 AM · May 1, 2025
  • The Modern Corruption of Separating Church from State

    05/01/2025 4:59:59 AM PDT · by MtnClimber · 35 replies
    American Thinker ^ | 1 May, 2025 | Susan Quinn
    From the outset of forming our country, our Founders were determined to keep religion as a foundational element, given that many people had left their homes in Britain to be able to practice their religions as they chose. The goal was not for the government to reject faith, but for it to be prevented from dictating doctrine. But over the years, the Left has distorted the meaning of “separation of church and state” (a phrase that’s not written into the Constitution) and now the country feels obligated to ban religion from every nook and cranny. How did a country founded...
  • Marco Rubio Shutters ‘Disinformation’ Agency at State Department

    04/30/2025 10:14:47 AM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 43 replies
    Breitbart ^ | Apr 16, 2025 | Sean Moran
    Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced the closure of the Global Engagement Center as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter the “censorship-industrial complex.”“Today, it is my pleasure to announce the State Department is taking a crucial step toward keeping the president’s promise to liberate American speech by abolishing forever the body formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),” Rubio wrote in an op-ed for the Federalist, titled, “Rubio: To Protect Free Speech, The Censorship Industrial Complex Must Be Dismantled.”Rubio wrote that, in 2016, the Obama administration changed the GEC’s focus on combatting international terrorism cover...
  • Free Speech Under Direct Attack in Texas: House Passes RINO Dade Phelan’s Orwellian Bill to CRIMINALIZE Political Memes Without a Government-Approved Disclaimer

    04/30/2025 6:50:10 AM PDT · by DFG · 79 replies
    Gateway Pundit ^ | 04/30/2025 | Jim Hoft
    The Republican-led Texas House has officially caved to the radical Left’s war on free speech—and shockingly, it’s being spearheaded by none other than the state’s own scandal-plagued former House Speaker Dade Phelan. On Tuesday, House Bill 366 passed with bipartisan support, making it a potential crime in the state of Texas to share or distribute AI-generated and “altered media”—including political memes—without a government-approved disclaimer on political ads. According to the bill: “A person may not, with the intent to influence an election, knowingly cause to be published, distributed, or broadcast political advertising that includes an image, audio recording, or video...
  • EXCLUSIVE: Harmeet Dhillon Reveals What’s Next For ‘Notorious’ DOJ Office That Was Weaponized Under Biden

    04/28/2025 9:16:32 PM PDT · by Morgana · 11 replies
    The Daily Caller ^ | April 28, 2025 | Katelynn Richardson
    After the Biden administration spent four years “weaponizing” her division, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon says that she needs more “energized attorneys” to help her spearhead new initiatives to protect rights that have been trampled on in the past years. The priorities pursued in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division by her predecessor Kristen Clarke — prosecuting pro-life activists, suing states over election integrity efforts and targeting police departments — are going to change, Dhillon told the Daily Caller News Foundation during a Friday interview. Under her leadership, Dhillon said the Civil Rights Division will...
  • Post Falls woman files tort claim with Kootenai County clerk over town hall removal (Idaho)

    04/21/2025 10:15:42 PM PDT · by ProtectOurFreedom · 18 replies
    Coeur d'Alene Press ^ | April 21, 2025 | Bill Buley
    An Idaho woman filed a notice of tort claim Monday with the Kootenai County clerk saying county officials and others violated her constitutional rights when she was removed from a town hall meeting in February. “Town halls are intended to foster conversation and discourse across the aisle, which is why I am deeply alarmed that private security dragged me out of the public meeting for simply exercising my fundamental right of free speech,” Teresa Borrenpohl said in a press release. The tort claim says Borrenpohl is seeking damages of at least $5 million. Wendy Olson, an attorney for Borrenpohl, said...
  • Trump Calls Out CNN: 'They Hate Our Country'

    04/14/2025 12:07:50 PM PDT · by Navy Patriot · 21 replies
    Newsmax ^ | April 14, 2025 | Charlie McCarthy
    President Donald Trump on Monday said CNN refuses to report accurately on the decrease in migrants crossing the southern border because "they hate our country." During a meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office, Trump talked about military and law enforcement recruitment that has surged. "Actually, what you're doing with the border is remarkable. It has dropped, what, 95%? It's incredible," Bukele said to Trump. "As of this morning, 99%, 99.1% to be exact," Trump replied. "Why are those numbers not in the media?" Bukele asked. "Well, they get out, but the fake news, you know,...
  • The Media Keeps Confusing Freedom of the Press With Press Access

    03/28/2025 3:29:43 AM PDT · by george76 · 14 replies
    Frontpage mag ^ | March 27, 2025 | Daniel Greenfield
    Press access is not freedom, it's privilege. For the umpteenth time, AP executive editor Julie Pace claims that it’s fighting for the freedom of speech of all Americans by demanding exclusive cartel access to the White House. If Pace were at all literate, she would at least be arguing about Freedom of the Press, but neither one applies. Now if Trump had dispatched the FBI to take smash up the presses or ban the AP from operating for refusing to use the term Gulf of America, that would be a textbook First Amendment violation. But that’s not happening. Instead the...
  • She was seen waving a Trump flag in traffic in Surprise. She ended up being thrown to the ground by police.

    03/05/2025 3:01:23 PM PST · by simpson96 · 46 replies
    12News ^ | 2/20/2025 | Sean Rice
    SURPRISE, Ariz. — A viral video has surfaced showing a woman being forcibly thrown to the ground by a Surprise police officer after she was seen waving a Trump flag in traffic near an anti-Trump protest. The incident, which occurred on Monday afternoon near Bell Road and Civic Center Plaza, has sparked controversy, with the woman involved speaking out about what she describes as excessive use of force. The woman, Camellia Gocan, explained that she was driving around the Surprise area when she saw a group of anti-Trump protesters at the intersection. In response, she decided to wave a pro-Trump...
  • Can the First Amendment Accommodate an AI Solution?

    01/19/2025 6:11:37 AM PST · by Twotone · 4 replies
    American Thinker ^ | January 18, 2025 | Marc E. Zimmerman
    Snip One problem that has arisen is that in a social media-based world one may not actually be present to be harmed or incited to participate in violent acts. If speech consumers are not in fact in a public space to face an impending menace or to be provoked to commit violence immediately, how should those communications be interpreted? A further complication surrounds the question of whether AI can distinguish incitement of immediate, intended malice so it flags only the most serious threats? Can its programming perceive or discern context if someone is making an allowed political statement if using...
  • Rand Paul Reacts to TikTok Ruling: 'Violation of the First Amendment'

    01/17/2025 4:03:02 PM PST · by Mr. Mojo · 39 replies
    Newsweek ^ | Jan 17, 2025 | Sonam Sheth
    Kentucky Senator Rand Paul ripped the Supreme Court on Friday after it unanimously upheld a federal law requiring TikTok's parent company to sell its United States operations by January 19 or face a nationwide ban. Paul said he was disappointed in the ruling, adding, "I do believe that banning a social media app like TikTok is a violation of the First Amendment." Congress passed the law with broad bipartisan support last year after lawmakers argued that TikTok's ties to China represented a significant national security risk. The Supreme Court's nine justices sided with Congress on Friday, saying in an unsigned...
  • Feds' disbanded 'censorship nerve center' faces hellish afterlife amid lawsuits, Hill probes

    01/03/2025 11:24:33 PM PST · by CFW · 12 replies
    Just the News ^ | 1/3/25 | Greg Piper
    The State Department laid to rest the alleged "censorship nerve center" of the federal government last week after Congress refused to reauthorize the interagency Global Engagement Center, known for teaching youth to distrust populism and allegedly squelching American small businesses online. While it may have a peaceful afterlife – State plans to "realign" GEC staff with other entities that handle purported "foreign information manipulation and interference activities" – GEC also faces an unquenchable fire and undying worm on multiple fronts. The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Monday against State, with nine exhibits, because it...
  • Trump Responds to Judge Merchan

    01/03/2025 8:50:52 PM PST · by usafa92 · 131 replies
    Truth Social ^ | Donald J. Trump
    Every Legal Scholar and Pundit, including the highly respected, and sadly recently passed, David Rivkin, as well as Jonathan Turley, Elie Honig, Andy McCarthy, Alan Dershowitz, Gregg Jarrett, Elizabeth Price Foley, Katie and Andy Cherkasky, Paul Ingrassia, and many others, have unequivocally stated that the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt is a nonexistent case, which is not only barred by the Statute of Limitations but, on the merits, should never have been brought. This illegitimate political attack is nothing but a Rigged Charade. “Acting” Justice Merchan, who is a radical partisan, just issued another order that is knowingly unlawful, goes against...
  • Obama’s ‘Censorship’ Office Goes Bankrupt

    12/30/2024 6:18:54 AM PST · by MtnClimber · 16 replies
    RealClear Politics ^ | 30 Dec, 2024 | Gabe Kaminsky
    Obama’s ‘Censorship’ Office Goes Bankrupt COMMENTARY By Gabe KaminskyDecember 30, 2024 Obama’s ‘Censorship’ Office Goes BankruptAP The Global Engagement Center, an office housed within the State Department and aiming to thwart disinformation and misinformation, has been forced by Congress to close up shop. It’s no mystery why; the taxpayer-backed GEC violated its mandate to work only overseas and devolved into a partisan enabler of speech suppression in the United States. Here’s how. Founded in 2016 and technically the product of an Obama-era executive order on counterterrorism, the GEC lapsed in December and lost congressional funding. Over the last two years,...