Some people have sometimes wondered about why our Supreme Court allows one group or another to march in a parade, even though it’s the most provocative thing in the world, and they carry signs that are an insult to one group or another. And the reason is, that’s freedom. Freedom of speech. In America, you have the right to be stupid. If you want to be. …Now, I think that’s a virtue. That’s something worth fighting for.Secretary of State John Kerry • Speaking to a group of German students, on the first overseas trip of his tenure as head of the State Department. Kerry’s allusion to Supreme Court precedent defending the right to offensive parades is no doubt a reference to cases like NSPA v. Skokie, which in 1977 upheld the right of Nazis to hold a march in Skokie, Illinois, where 1 in 6 residents were holocaust survivors. That right, Kerry argued, is virtuous and quintessentially American, despite the terrible emotional toll that may result from such offensive expressions — “the right to be stupid.” source
The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it will hear a case challenging the per-biennial cycle limit on campaign contributions from individuals.
The case, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, argues that the limit on what individuals are allowed to give candidates ($46,200 per two-year cycle) and parties and PACs ($70,800 per two-year cycle) is an unconstitutional violation of the individual donor’s free speech rights.
While the last election certainly disproved the narrative, that changes in our campaign finance regulations would allow a certain political party to buy elections from here on out, we can all certainly expect to hear a great deal from those on both sides of this idea in the days ahead. Thoughts?
Let’s not let arguments over the Constitution’s Second Amendment violate the spirit of its First. President Obama believes that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. However, the Constitution not only guarantees an individual right to bear arms, but also enshrines the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press — fundamental principles that are essential to our democracy.White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, responding to the Alex Jones-initiated petition to deport Piers Morgan.
In a lawsuit against two police officers, the court held the insulting gesture did not constitute “reasonable suspicion that criminal activity or a traffic violation was afoot.”
The lawsuit was sparked by an incident that occurred in 2006 while John Swartz and his wife Judy Mayton-Swartz were driving to their son’s house. The couple saw a police officer using a radar gun to catch speeding motorists at an intersection. John, who was a passenger in the car, stuck his arm outside the side window and “flipped the bird” over the car’s roof. The police officer then followed the couple to their son’s home and stopped them. John was arrested for disorderly conduct after other officers arrived as backup.
The officer who initially followed and stopped the couple said he did so because John appeared to be trying to get his attention by waving his middle finger. However, the court didn’t buy that argument.
“[T]he nearly universal recognition that this gesture is an insult deprives such an interpretation of reasonableness,” Circuit Judge Jon O. Newman wrote in the ruling (PDF). “This ancient gesture of insult is not the basis for a reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation or impending criminal activity. Surely no passenger planning some wrongful conduct toward another occupant of an automobile would call attention to himself by giving the finger to a police officer.”
Raise ‘em high … but don’t forget to keep your eyes on the road.
I’m not happy that my sisters have to worry about being recorded in public, but I’m happy a police officer (for instance) has to worry about this the next time he’s doing a stop & friskReddit co-founder Alex Ohanian • In an emailed statement to Jezebel, regarding the continued fallout from Gawker’s expose on former reddit moderator Michael “Violentacrez” Brutsch and the ensuing media focus on the site’s questionably legal and certifiably creepy corners. Ohanian’s comments echo those made by a number of other people involved with creating/running reddit on a daily basis, who argue that the protection of free speech requires the continued acceptance of content that make the vast majority of people uncomfortable. source
We are not saying stop free speech. We are staying stop hate speech. …You have to see that there is a provocation. You should understand the psychology of people who revere their prophet and don’t want people to insult him.Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation • Advocating for a global ban on denigrating the character of the Islamic faith’s prophet, Muhammad. This is a red-hot issue, as it was six years ago, when a series of Danish cartoons mocking Muhammad sparked worldwide protests and riots, seeing the assault and burning of multiple Danish embassies. The distinction between “hate speech” and “free speech” seems to be a sticking point, here — one which may illicit very different answers from different people, especially across the religious/secular divide. What do you think? source
It’s the final Pitch-down: Well, it’s been a fun summer, hasn’t it folks? Your writers here at SFB have really enjoyed writing the stories you wanted to hear more about. In our last installment of The Pitch, we present to you four choices: a discussion on free speech in post-Soviet Russia, high stakes and suicide rates due to the economies of many countries, chol-egg-sterol and other health warnings, or the gaffe-a-palooza that is recent American politics. Head over to our FB album and choose wisely! You have, as always, until Friday evening to vote. Catch up on last week’s winner, the mythical man that is Paul Ryan. source
A Moscow court has sentenced three members of Pussy Riot to two years in prison for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and enmity.
The Judge said they showed flagrant disregard for the church parishioners and the fundamentals of the Orthodox faith.
“By their actions, Samutsevich, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina seriously disrupted public order and the day-to-day running of the Cathedral. They showed blatant disrespect to church-goers and workers, and in doing so gravely offended their religious sensibilities,” Judge Syrova said.
Some 100 foreign journalists, including those from countries likes Japan and Australia, gathered at Khamovnichesky Court on Friday to report on the judge’s verdict.
The trial has sharply divided Russian society, with many debating punishment for the group over the infamous ‘punk prayer’ they performed in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. There is intense public interest in the long-awaited verdict.
Two years for hooliganism. Crazy.
This is the Russian police wrestling with World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov, outside the Pussy Riot court.
That is just unbelievable to see.
The members of Pussy Riot have been found guilty of hooliganism for singing a song critical of Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral. Check out the latest over here. (photo by Misha Japaridze/AP)
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This year, the strictures tightened again, with what many observers believe was the rollout of a far more pervasive and sophisticated blocking system. Starting in April, additional bloggers and reporters noted that their sites were being filtered, including De Birhan, a news and analysis blog that was blocked on April 21, when a large number of sites were inaccessible for a few days.
According to informal surveys taken by one exiled Ethiopian journalist, the sites temporarily blocked have been joined by a growing list of smaller exile blogs and news services, including individual Facebook pages like “We Are All Eskinder Nega.” Then, in mid-May, the Tor projectreported that Ethiopia had successfully begun blocking its free anonymizing and anti-censorship services. Given that Tor encrypts, and to a certain level, disguises its traffic as normal secure Web traffic, the implication is that Ethiopia has been rolling out censorship systems that can detect specific Internet protocols and block them. (Tor’s traffic in Ethiopia is still not back to pre-May levels).
Previously the country blocked a number of exile news sites from being accessed in Ethiopia. However, the censorship, while strong, is not fully consistent. The country, for example, doesn’t block SSL-encrypted Facebook pages.
For 19 months, the blind activist and self-taught lawyer Chen Guangcheng was under house arrest for his strong words against the Chinese government — particularly their policies of forced abortions and sterilization. Somehow, he got out, got to the U.S. Embassy, and posted this video, detailing the abuses he and his wife faced. Raise your hand if you think, despite the trouble it took for him to get to this point, this story is amazing.
The State has failed to provide any explanation or evidence as to why a public advertisement or offer to assist in an otherwise legal activity is sufficiently problematic to justify an intrusion on protected speech rights.The Georgia Supreme Court • In a unanimous ruling on a 1994 assisted suicide law that said two things — one, it didn’t fully make assisted suicides illegal, and two, it blocked legal forms of free speech, meaning that the law ran smack-first into the First Amendment. As a result of the incident, members of the Final Exit Network, who were facing charges over allegedly helping a cancer-stricken man die, won’t face trial for the incident. The 1994 law, passed in the wake of Jack Kevorkian, made it a felony for anyone who ”publicly advertises, offers or holds himself or herself out as offering that he or she will intentionally and actively assist another person in the commission of suicide and commits any overt act to further that purpose.” source (via • follow)
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