Free Republic

The University of Cincinnati has reprimanded a faculty member at the center of a TikTok controversy related to gender, free speech and trans rights. The reprimand directs adjunct instructor Melanie Nipper to complete training about UC’s free speech policy and submit her syllabi for the coming school year to her department head. “Please note that this is to be considered a formal reprimand for your actions,” the June 14 document obtained by The Enquirer reads. “A copy of this letter will be placed in your permanent records.” In May, Nipper gave student Olivia Krolczyk 0/20 points for part of a...

SCOTUS is scheduled to release the final three opinions for the October 2022 term today at 10:00 a.m. I'll post information as to those decisions and a link to the opinions as soon as they are made available. The three remaining cases are the two student loan forgiveness cases and the 303 Creative First Amendment case. Below is the issues to be decided on this cases as compiled by Amy Howe (attorney at scotusblog). Just a reminder, scotusblog is a website maintained by court-watchers and is not affiliated with the Court itself. 303 Creative v. Elenis (argued Dec. 5, 2022):...

The Supreme Court released a ruling on Friday in favor of the Colorado evangelical Christian web designer who had not wanted to be forced by the state to design websites for same-sex marriages. YES! Huge victory for free speech as Lorie Smith the web designer who did not want to be compelled by CO law to make a same-sex m. website (tho she serviced the lgbt community in general) WINS HER CASE! This is a BIG WIN FOR FREE SPEECH IN AMERICA — Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) June 30, 2023 The justices, 6-3, held that the First Amendment prevents the state...

"The Supreme Court ruled Friday that Colorado cannot require an evangelical Christian web designer to provide same-sex wedding websites that she argued was in violation of her conscience. The court found that the state’s anti-discrimination law violates Lorie Smith’s free speech rights under the First Amendment by demanding that she create same-sex wedding websites if she wants to do so for opposite-sex unions. The decision narrows states’ ability to apply public accommodation laws to artists, dealing a significant blow to LGBTQ advocates."

Michigan's House of Representatives has passed a hate speech bill, known as HB 4474, which criminalizes causing someone to feel threatened by words, including the misusing of their pronouns, with the possibility of a hefty fine or even jail time. The bill introduces hate crime penalties for causing someone to 'feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened,' with 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity or expression' included as protected classes. Offenders could face up to five years in prison for such a felony offense or a $10,000 fine. It is part of a continues effort by Democrats in the state to advance a...

A group of Hollywood elites is calling for the censorship of people who oppose child mutilation. On Tuesday, a group of over 250 celebrities signed a statement from the LGBT activist group GLAAD that called on social media companies to crack down on people who oppose the trans agenda. The statement was addressed to several social media executives, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Twitter’s Elon Musk. In the statement, the celebrities accused the social media giants of failing to adequately address “hate speech” against gay and trans people on their platforms. “There has been a massive systemic failure to prohibit...

Online platforms spreading misinformation could face millions of dollars in penalties under new proposed government legislation that bolsters the power of Australia's media watchdog. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) would be armed with the ability to require digital platforms to keep certain records about matters regarding misinformation and disinformation and turn them over when requested. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said this would "essentially mean that the regulator is able to look under the hood of what the platforms are doing and what measures they are taking to ensure compliance". The ACMA would also be able to request the...

A Democratic state senator in Rhode Island has been arrested after he was allegedly caught on camera vandalizing a car with a 'Biden sucks' bumper sticker. Joshua Miller, who serves as the Senate Democrat policy chairman, was caught on surveillance camera footage keying the vehicle that had been parked next to his own at the Garden City Center in Cranston, Rhode Island, on Thursday. The son of the car's owner immediately reported the incident to the police, stating that he heard a scratching noise and got out of the vehicle to see Miller holding a set of keys. When he...

Democrats run the state government of Michigan, with majorities in the House and Senate of the state Legislature and Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer with the ability to sign bills into law. That's why a bill already passed by the state Legislature's House and assigned to committee in the state Senate is so dangerous. Can you believe five years in prison for speech based on someone's feelings about it? H.B. 4474 (official summary of text here, revised language of the bill here) has a good chance of becoming law, despite its obvious unconstitutionality.Michigan State Capitol in Lansing.Wade Vellky of the Michigan...

'[T]hat’s why we put a rope on some of them and take them to the slaughterhouse,' the vice president of the district said about those who opposed DEIA California district administrator, who said he wanted to bring voices opposing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives "to the slaughterhouse," was sued by a faculty member – along with the entire district – for allegedly violating his First Amendment rights. The Institute for Free Speech filed a lawsuit against district administrators on behalf of Bakersfield College professor Daymon Johnson, who said he was being targeted for investigation after being outspoken about his political...

It’s heartening to see so many faces here in London, to talk about the crisis of free speech around the globe, or to protest censorship, or whatever it is we’re doing exactly. Before we begin, I think it’s important to make a distinction. Unlike Russell and the rest of our hosts, Michael and I, and a few of us in the crowd, are Americans. For us, belief in unfettered free speech is a core part of our character. It’s a big reason that we Americans enjoy the wonderful reputation we do all around the world, especially here in Europe, where...

June is designated as “Pride Month,” which is allegedly about inclusion and diversity, but the Pride Police don’t actually believe in that. There is no diversity of opinions on LGBTQ issues. It’s “My Way” or the Bigot Highway. They say Pride Month is about visibility, but there shall be no visibility for any resistance. Their mentality: agree, or vanish. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, “scandal” erupted when a news manager at WOOD-TV wrote a memo to staff to remember that there were two differing views on Pride events in the community. Quickly, the station’s owner – Nexstar, the largest owner of...

Our world is becoming a creepier place with each passing day. Most of us just want to live our lives in peace without excessive governmental interference, but unfortunately the control freaks that are running things just can’t help themselves. Ultimately, they aren’t going to be happy until they are able to watch, track, monitor and control virtually everything that we write, say and do. This is one of the big reasons why they are gearing up to introduce “central bank digital currencies” all over the western world. Such digital currencies will make it much easier for them to control us...

Elon Musk’s Twitter faces a 28-day ultimatum from Australia’s internet safety watchdog to take decisive action against what it considers online abuse and “hate speech,” or face daily fines of $475,000. France24 reports that Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety commissioner, has issued a stern warning to Twitter in a move to muzzle free speech. Twitter has been given 28 days to prove that it is serious about combating what Australia considers online abuse and “hate speech.” There could be daily fines of $700,000 AUD ($475,000 USD) for noncompliance.

The Ukraine lobby is the latest example of a foreign government and its American supporters having a dangerously outsize impact on U.S. policy and the overall public perspective. Activists have attempted to harass and silence opponents of the fawning U.S. support for Volodymyr Zelensky’s government. At times, Ukraine and its Western backers have fostered a campaign of outright neo-McCarthyism against critics, utterly chilling debate regarding policy toward Kyiv.

Lindsay Jones, better known as TexasLindsay, quit her corporate job last year to dedicate her time to spreading the truth about the harms of the COVID-19 vaccine. Jones joined Liz Collin Reports this week to discuss her work fighting Big Tech censorship, including helping write the Twitter Files. Jones first became aware of mass censorship in January 2021 when she read what she called an “alarming” article from a Ph.D. researcher. The article exposed the dangers of the COVID-19 vaccine for children. Jones knew she had to get the information out, so she shared the article on Facebook. What usually...

Dozens of professors from Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other universities wrote a letter to the Mayo Clinic on Thursday protesting the suspension of a physician after he publicly criticized a federal agency. “Placing academic freedom in jeopardy is certain to tarnish Mayo’s reputation among the many who have always thought of Mayo as a beacon of scientific integrity,” the professors wrote. In a January CNN story, Dr. Michael Joyner, who is principal investigator on a government-funded study on convalescent plasma, said he was “frustrated” with the National Institutes of Health’s “bureaucratic rope-a-dope,” calling the agency’s Covid-19 treatment guidelines a “wet...

* Ordered that Trump can only view evidence in the case with lawyers present * Is also banned from sharing related information on social media * DailyMail.com poll found majority of US voters think it was right to indict Trump ***************************************************** Donald Trump has been banned from publicly sharing information in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case after his dramatic Miami arraignment last week. The order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart also put strict conditions on Trump's access to the materials. The former president can only view evidence in the presence of his lawyers and cannot post anything on social...

On Friday, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled a shirt that read "THERE ARE ONLY TWO GENDERS" could be construed as bullying of a protected class and is not protected speech after a 12-year-old and his father filed suit against officials in the Middlesbrough Public School district for First and Fourteenth Amendment rights violations. Judge Indira Talwani said in the court ruling, the boy and his father had "not established a likelihood of success on the merits where he is unable to counter Defendants’ showing that enforcement of the Dress Code was undertaken to protect the invasion of the rights...

A Laramie church elder who lost presentation privileges at the University of Wyoming in December now is suing the university’s president and dean of student affairs, alleging they violated his free-speech, equal protection and due process rights. Todd Schmidt, an elder at Laramie Faith Community Church, set up a table at the UW Union breezeway on Dec. 2 displaying a sign that read, “God created male and female and Artemis Langford is a male.” Langford is the first transgender inductee into the Wyoming chapter of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. Ryan O’Neil, University of Wyoming dean of students, reportedly asked...