Free Republic

The Language of Force: How the Police State Muzzles Our Right to Speak Truth to Power“If the state could use [criminal] laws not for their intended purposes but to silence those who voice unpopular ideas, little would be left of our First Amendment liberties, and little would separate us from the tyrannies of the past or the malignant fiefdoms of our own age. The freedom to speak without risking arrest is ‘one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation.’”—Justice Neil Gorsuch, dissenting, Nieves v. Bartlett (2019)Tyrants don’t like people who speak truth to power.Cue the rise...

Six eighth-grade students in Southwick, Massachusetts have been criminally charged for their involvement in an alleged “hateful and racist” Snapchat group chat. According to Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni, the group chat in question featured appalling language and behavior, including a mock slave auction and derogatory remarks aimed at people of color. The existence of the group chat and the comments made were first reported to school authorities at Southwick Regional School. Upon learning about the group chat, Gulluni notified the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit to launch an investigation. Subsequently, he authorized the Detective Unit and the Chief of...

A small-town political feud that wound up with a Texas city council member behind bars is headed to the Supreme Court this week, where justices will consider whether the councilwoman can sue city leaders for politically motivated retaliation. "I would never believe that I would be going to the Supreme Court," Sylvia Gonzalez told Fox News. "I would never believe that I was in jail either." "In America, we don't arrest our critics," IJ attorney Anya Bidwell said. Gonzalez's story began in 2019 when the then-72-year-old retiree won a seat on the Castle Hills City Council. She said constituents had...

Democrats are no longer coy about their disdain for constitutional freedoms. They used to put on a show, pretending to be champions of free speech and swearing that they didn't want to take our guns. Biden era leftists have abandoned all pretense and now sneer at freedoms that many of us hold dear. After they leveraged COVID panic to help usher Team Biden into the Oval Office.. they got tired of carrying on the fiction. Biden's puppet masters have been flying one freak flag after another .. Ketanji Brown Jackson is Joe Biden's legacy on the court .. a real...

In an incident that exhibits the growing tensions between genderqueer theory and objective morality rooted in Christian beliefs in our society, Victoria Culf, a Christian artist in Britain, has initiated legal proceedings against Watford Borough Council. This legal action follows a series of events that began with a casual conversation about transgender ideology, leading to Culf being barred from her own art exhibition and being reported to the police for alleged hate speech. According to an article in Christian Concern, this case highlights significant concerns regarding freedom of speech and the expression of religious beliefs. According to Christian Concern, Culf’s...

The former civil liberties group continues morphing into a progressive organization.Among the unfortunate changes of recent years has been the transformation of the American Civil Liberties Union from an advocate for free speech and other individual rights into just another progressive political organization. Historically, despite much pushback, the group defended the right of people from across the political spectrum to advocate and protest. But the organization has become unreliable on the issue; most recently in the very 21st century debate over gender identity, which sees the ACLU of Missouri targeting a whistleblower who is critical of medical transitions for minors....

This morning the Supreme Court held oral argument in the case that is now styled Murthy v. Missouri. C-SPAN has posted audio of the oral argument here. The case arises from the government’s “encouragement” of censorship by the social media platforms, as documented in the Twitter Files. We have followed the case as it has wended its way through the district court to the Fifth Circuit and then to the Supreme Court. We (I) have been pulling for the plaintiffs. The Supreme Court has already entered an order staying the narrowed preliminary injunction that had been fashioned by the Fifth...

Free speech is on trial at the Supreme Court, but Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson is no fan of the First Amendment. The Constitution, you see, limits the government. But leftists want unlimited government — which is why they hate the Constitution. During Monday’s oral arguments for Murthy v. Missouri, formerly known as Biden v. Missouri, Jackson claimed to oppose any ruling in favor of Americans’ constitutional right to free speech if it limited the government’s ability to censor that speech via Big Tech. “My biggest concern is that your view has the First Amendment hamstringing the government in significant ways...

This afternoon, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) tweeted about today’s US Supreme Court case (Murthy v. Missouri) that involves several plaintiffs, including The Gateway Pundit, who have been harmed by censorship by the government and big tech. In his tweet, Senator Rand Paul wrote: Today, SCOTUS heard Murthy v. Missouri, the most consequential free speech case in U.S. history. This isn’t just about social media companies; it’s a critical examination of government overreach. The Biden administration and FBI’s efforts to influence Big Tech into silencing dissent tramples on the 1st Amendment. Our focus must be on preventing government censorship, not compelling...

Another step towards implementing a Social Credit system.. Financial privacy is a right under the constitution, as is free speech. Under the guise of “credit review”, Stripe is now rolling out a requirement that appears to target conservative or "anti-vax" Substack authors. Stripe is requiring that these authors provide all of their current and historic financial records associated with the bank account into which Stripe deposits Substack subscriber payments (after taking 10% off the top for Substack and 3% for Stripe). Stripe already has information concerning this bank account (including deposits from Stripe), as we have been doing business with...

The Old Gray Lady continues to behave like a Karen triggered by people’s ability to express their opinions about elections freely online. Darn that pesky free speech! The New York Times effectively wrote what amounted to a 3,984-word eulogy for the death of the dystopian thought police. The Times mourned that former President Donald Trump’s “Allies Are Winning the War Over Disinformation.” The newspaper — acting like a speech gatekeeper — bemoaned that Trump and free speech absolutists “have successfully stymied the effort to filter election lies online.” But the same outlet that’s whining about “disinformation” and “election lies” is...

the appeals panel agreed that several federal offices and agencies, including the White House .. violated the First Amendment by coercing the platforms’ content moderation decisions. ... A federal appeals court ... finding that several agencies likely violated the First Amendment. ... The original case was brought by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, who alleged that federal officials unduly pressured social media firms to limit speech on their platforms, as they communicated concerns about posts related to the Covid pandemic or elections. ... The decision had an immediate impact. Following the district court’s order in July, the State...

Today at 10:00 a.m. the Supreme Court hears oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri, a case on federal government officials communicating with social media companies about content moderation policies and whether it amounts to government suppression or speech censorship. At 11:00 (or after Murthy) The Supreme Court hears oral argument in NRA v. Vullo, a case concerning the First amendment and whether a New York State regulator violated it by threatening its regulated entities with regulatory action if they do business with the NRA.

Going further than the Treasury Department's tacit support for debanking alleged "hate groups" after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, a State Department component that "strengthen[s] resilient democratic societies" developed a more sweeping plan for financially choking off disfavored narratives a month later. The U.S. Agency for International Development wrote a "Disinformation Primer" that appears to have been started in "late 2020," judging by a reference to the most up-to-date "social media initiatives" by Facebook and Twitter "to address disinformation and misinformation."It was still being written at least 10 days into the Biden administration, referring twice to the Jan. 31,...

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Friday that public officials can sometimes be sued for blocking their critics on social media, an issue that first arose for the high court in a case involving then-President Donald Trump. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the court, said that officials who use personal accounts to make official statements may not be free to delete comments about those statements or block critics altogether. On the other hand, Barrett wrote, "State officials have private lives and their own constitutional rights." The court ruled in two cases involving lawsuits filed by people who were blocked after...

@TheChiefNerd “The bill poses significant risk of being Patriot Act 2.0…There’s no way to argue this language isn’t vague and could invite abuse…An Elon or a Trump or you take Rumble for example, which is also accused of being a Russian agent, they could be forced to divest the company or have it be banned.”

Disappointed that his 2022 abuse of the Emergencies Act to suppress public protest against his draconian Covid restrictions was ruled unjustified by Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now pushing legislation called the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63). This law would allow the government to impose prison sentences of up to life behind bars on persons who post "hate speech" on social media. Civil liberty advocates have called the proposed law "totalitarian" and "Orwellian." George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley asserted that "the proposed law constitutes a doubling down on Canada's totalitarian commitment to...

Free speech advocates around the world railed against a new Canadian law that could demand a life sentence for adults who violate speech laws on social media. Introduced last month, the Online Harms Act, or Bill C-63, would empower judges to imprison adults for life if they post views supportive of genocide. The bill would increase the maximum penalty for advocating genocide from five years to life imprisonment and from two years to five years, on indictment, for the willful promotion of hatred. Advocates of the bill say it will make online platforms safer. However, critics called the law "totalitarian"...

Twenty-three Democrat run states and the District of Columbia, the home of our nation’s capital, filed amicus briefs in support of government censorship and banning of free speech in the United States. These 23 states and the District of Columbia filed amicus briefs in support of the Biden administration in the SCOTUS case is Murthy, et al v. Missouri, et al, 23-411 (Missouri v. Biden) case. The states essentially argue that they have an interest in collaborating with tech companies to “encourage” the public to behave themselves and “discourage” the public from believing alleged “disinformation” or engaging in online predatory...

It is often brushed aside as conspiracy theory. But call it Deep State, reincarnated Illuminati, or the New World Order, it is becoming increasingly evident that extremely powerful and invisible networks are trying to influence how global events unfold. Whether it is a farmers’ protest in India’s Punjab or defending the police and pushing underage gender surgeries in the US to opposing narcotics control legislations in Uganda, there is always shadowy funding and publicity through NGOs, academia and chosen media outlets. The Narendra Modi government has banned more than 20,000 NGOs. These were siphoning off money, dodging foreign currency regulations,...