Is S&P’s downgrade of the US bond rating “free speech” and thereby protected by the Constitution?

“She asked for it” is no longer an acceptable argument in rape cases. So, why is a preacher in Florida burning a book being condemned by American political and military leaders for a days-long murder spree in Afghanistan?

If we allow the possible reaction of the most dogmatic, evil people who might hear the message to govern our expression, we don’t have freedom at all.

Dr. Dre is arguing that police officers have no right to privacy.

Should members of the Armed Forces and other public employees have the same rights under the 1st Amendment as the rest of us? Or should they be more like journalists?

Courtesy Jacob Davies: [I]f Harry Reid & Nancy Pelosi are listening: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. POP QUIZ: Question 1: Are you a member of the United States Congress? YES [X]    NO [ ] Question 2: Should you have ANY OPINION AT ALL [...]

The 9th Circuit yesterday ruled that Stolen Valor laws violate the 1st Amendment and that there is a limited right to lie.

President Obama’s decision to speak out on the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” has turned what was a hot-button cable news item into a political issue that even his fellow Democrats don’t want to deal with.

President Obama has expanded upon the comments he made last night about the construction of an Islamic cultural center and mosque near the site of the September 11th attacks: Speaking to reporters today, President Obama drew a sharp line under his comments last night, insisting that his defense of the right to build a mosque [...]

Can a public university expel a student for a religiously-motivated aversion to homosexuality?

When 5 high school students were suspended for wearing American flags on Cinco de Mayo, the conservative commentariat predictably exploded. Many conservative pundits opined that, of course, the ACLU would never get involved in protecting the violation of these conservative students’ First Amendment rights. Of course, as Conor Friedersdorf points out, the ACLU is acting [...]

Despite a 39-seat margin and rules that ordinarily allow the majority party to pass bills with impunity, the Democrats are finding themselves hamstrung with brazen parliamentary maneuvers: House Democrats had to scrap their only substantive bill of the week Thursday after Republicans won a procedural vote that substantively altered the legislation with an anti-porn clause. [...]

As David Weigel notes, the directions from which activists and pundits on the will attack the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court are already fairly clear. I. The Harvard Military Recruiters Controversy Already this morning, one conservative blogger has called Kagan an “anti-military loon” for her role in banning military recruiters from Harvard [...]

“As some leftie website put it, “Defending freedom of speech for jerks means defending jerks.” Well, yes. But, in this case, not defending the jerks means not defending freedom of speech for yourself. It’s not a left/right thing; it’s a free/unfree thing.” — Mark Steyn You’d think a professional writer and man of the arts [...]

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court today ruled that the right of corporations to engage in political speech, including campaign and issue advertising,  is protected by the First Amendment. AP, “Justices Block Key Part of Campaign Law” The Supreme Court threw out a 63-year-old law designed to restrain the influence of big business and [...]

There’s quite a bit of chatter this morning about the fact that two travel bloggers of whom I’d never previously heard have  had their computers confiscated pursuant to subpoenas after publishing unclassified but sensitive TSA screening procedures.  AP’s Eileen Sullivan has the rundown: As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring [...]

President Obama is frustrated by the national media’s obsession with silly stories, Time‘s Michael Scherer reports. We are past, for the moment, the White House “war” on Fox, such as it was. (Obama did an interview with Fox News’ Major Garrett a few weeks back, and General Petraeus is on Fox News Sunday today, with [...]

It appears that Sonia Sotomayor will be an activist judge after all. During arguments in a campaign-finance case, the court’s majority conservatives seemed persuaded that corporations have broad First Amendment rights and that recent precedents upholding limits on corporate political spending should be overruled. But Justice Sotomayor suggested the majority might have it all wrong [...]

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that could overturn two recent precedents allowing the restriction of political speech by corporations for the purpose of curbing the appearance of undue influence.  There’s an excellent chance they will do so. That raises ageless questions about the role of stare decisis — the court’s custom of [...]

How far does the 1st Amendment go?  Hal Turner is about to find out. Internet radio host Hal Turner disliked how three federal judges rejected the National Rifle Association’s attempt to overturn a pair of handgun bans. “Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed,” Turner wrote on [...]

Yesterday’s Gallup poll finding that the town hall protests are having the desired effects of gaining sympathy for the protestors and increasing doubts about health care reform efforts is getting a lot of attention.  Those results don’t surprise me, however.  (They do surprise Mickey Kaus.) What is interesting is this: Frank Newport: There is a [...]

Glenn Greenwald rebuts those who think his strident attacks on Presidents Bush and Obama for abusing their power make his blog “an ideological wind tunnel” and that he is “oblivious to the practical considerations policymakers must contend with.” By the design of the Founders, most American political issues are driven by the vicissitudes of political realities, [...]

The Supreme Court has ruled that kids should be able to access pornographic images on the Internet. Or, rather, the fact that a lot of parents don’t supervise their kids does not supersede the rights of adults to access said content. A long legal drive to shield children from sexually explicit material on the Web [...]

The 9th Circuit has upheld Los Angeles bans on billboards, saying no 1st Amendment issues were at stake. Outdoor advertising company Metro Lights LLC had argued that the city could not prohibit new “off-site” signs — images that advertise products not sold on the immediate property — while at the same time selling advertising space [...]

Pennsylvania is fighting over rules banning the wear of campaign clothing at the polling booth. Sue Nace thought election volunteers were joking when they told her she would have to remove her T-shirt to vote in the presidential primary last spring. But it was no laughing matter to the poll workers-turned-fashion police, who said Nace’s [...]

Eugene Volokh points to a First Amendment Center survey (PDF) showing that 42 percent of Americans disagree with the proposition People should be allowed to say things in public that might be offensive to RELIGIOUS groups and 54% disagree that People should be allowed to say things in public that might be offensive to RACIAL [...]

A plurality of Americans want “government [to] require all radio and television stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary” and nearly a third believe even privately owned blogs should have that requirement, Rasmussen reports. Nearly half of Americans (47%) believe the government should require all radio and television stations to offer [...]