Free Republic

Ezra Levant .. I was arrested two hours ago, handcuffed, searched and jailed for “causing a disturbance”. I was just released moments ago. I wasn’t causing a disturbance — I was standing by myself on a public sidewalk, silently filming a grotesque pro-Hamas mannequin in a Jewish neighbourhood — a reenactment of Hamas leader Yayha Sinwar. It would be like someone reenacting Hitler — and police were stopping me from filming it. I was pushed away from it by one officer. And another officer, named Macduff, said if I didn’t go to a special “free speech zone” they’d set up...

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Pierce College student Tuesday filed suit against the school and the Los Angeles Community College District, alleging policies that restrict student free speech rights to tiny zones are unconstitutional and infringe on First Amendment rights. Kevin Shaw, 27, contends the Woodland Hills community college violated his civil rights when he was barred from passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution because he wasn't in the free speech zone -- an outdoor area roughly the size of three parking spaces -- and because he hadn't applied in advance to use it.

Hostility to free speech has become a salient characteristic of American college campuses. Speech codes that make it dangerous for students (or anyone else) to say things that might be regarded as offensive or “harassing” are all too common -- even though the codes have been found to violate the First Amendment when challenged in court. Another means of limiting free speech that college officials have used is the “free speech zone” tactic. That allows them to claim that they aren’t against students exercising their First Amendment rights, but are merely imposing a “reasonable” regulation on them. Policies limiting free...

One of the most blatant incidents of academic bigotry is going to end up in civil court and potentially cost the University of California, Santa Barbara and Assistant Professor Mireille Miller-Young a lot of money. You may recall that the good professor, enraged by the appearance of pro-life demonstrators in a designated free-speech zone on her campus, assaulted a 16-year-old pro-life demonstrator, whose lawful demonstration offended the professor.

Officials and campus cops at Southern Oregon University threatened to call the police on a group of four students who were distributing copies of the U.S. Constitution outside the designated “free speech zone” last week. The Constitution kerfuffle occurred last Tuesday at the obscure public school in the middle of nowhere, Campus Reform reports. The students, all affiliated with Students for Concealed Carry, ironically were also gathering signatures for a petition to end the taxpayer-funded school’s restrictive speech policies. Administrators and school police officers didn’t like it. The four students say they were followed by bureaucrats and cops and threatened...

Two students are suing the University of Hawaii for violating their First Amendment rights after administrator prevented them from distributing copies of the U.S. Constitution — demonstrating a frightening lack of knowledge about the very legal document they were attempting to censor. Students Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone, members of the Young Americans for Liberty chapter at UH-Hilo, were prevented from handing out copies of the Constitution at a recruitment event in January. A week later, they were again informed by a censorship-minded administrator that their First Amendment-protected activities were in violation of school policy. The students were told that...

The latest in a string of successful court challenges to college “free speech zones” is unfolding in Virginia, where lawyers are negotiating a settlement in the case of a student who was barred from preaching on campus. The Virginia Community College System has agreed to suspend its student demonstrations policy in response to a lawsuit filed by Thomas Nelson Community College student Christian Parks. Both sides have asked a federal judge in Norfolk to put the case on hold until May 2 while a new policy and settlement details are negotiated. Judicial history and recent legislative developments suggested Parks had...

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval on Tuesday blasted the Bureau of Land Management for its "offensive" conduct in a bitter dispute with a farmer whose cattle graze on federal land — including the bureau’s designation of a "First Amendment area" where people can protest. In a scalding statement, Sandoval jumped squarely into the middle of a 20-year-old feud between farmer Cliven Bundy and the BLM — focusing his wrath specifically on a penned-in area that the federal agency considers the only place where people can speak freely. "Most disturbing to me is the BLM's establishment of a 'First Amendment area' that...

A feminist studies professor at a California state university is facing criminal charges after a videotaped run-in with a teenage pro-life demonstrator in which she snatched an anti-abortion sign and appeared to get physical with the girl.

A group of atheists unveiled a monument to their non-belief in God on Saturday to sit alongside a granite slab that lists the Ten Commandments in front of the Bradford County courthouse. As a small group of protesters blasted Christian country music and waved “Honk for Jesus” signs, the atheists celebrated what they believe is the first atheist monument allowed on government property in the United States. … American Atheists sued to try to have the stone slab with the Ten Commandments taken away from the courthouse lawn in this rural, conservative north Florida town best known for the prison...

Vice President Joe Biden’s staff may have apologized for stowing a news reporter away in a closet during a fundraiser last weekend, but Saturday’s incident wasn’t the first time the VP kept a member of the media stuck in a tiny room during an event. In March 2010, Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton was on duty to cover a Biden fundraiser in Maryland, and was forced to wait for an hour in what he jokingly called a “cage” that was guarded by the vice president’s staff.

While Gov. Rick Perry was in Johnson Coliseum addressing SFA graduates, on the other side of campus a group of citizens were not so happy about his appearance in Nacogdoches. In the free-speech area of campus, near North Street and Vista Drive, many farmers, property owners and concerned citizens gathered for a Citizens Against the Trans-Texas Corridor Rally. Holding protest signs and using a tractor as a symbol of the farming community, those who gathered wanted to make their cause heard by the governor, as well as the community. Many vehicles traveling on North Street honked in support of the...