Featured Stories

The New York Times Building, Manhattan, New York City, USA. FLICKR/Adam Jone.

Ballard Spahr: Sixth Circuit Sides with ‘The New York Times’ in Defamation Suit

Reprinted with Permission from Ballard Spahr July 19, 2019 An article in The New York Times about controversy surrounding an Ohio State University cancer researcher was not defamatory because reasonable readers would understand it was “a standard piece of investigative journalism” that presented both sides of the story, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held in a July 17 decision. The unanimous three-judge[Read More…]

Read More >

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Faces Two Federal Lawsuits for Blocking Twitter Users

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Faces Two Federal Lawsuits for Blocking Twitter Users

July 10, 2019 — Comments are Disabled

July 10, 2019 Former New York assemblyman Dov Hikind and Republican congressional candidate Joseph Saladino are suing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for blocking them on Twitter.  The lawsuits were filed soon after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that President Trump’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, was a public forum, and as such, blocking critics was a violation of[Read More…]

Authors Share Excerpts on Free Speech

Authors Share Excerpts on Free Speech: Amy Werbel and Lust on Trial

Authors Share Excerpts on Free Speech: Amy Werbel and Lust on Trial

January 11, 2019 — Comments are Disabled

In Lust on Trial, [Amy] Werbel presents a colorful journey through Comstock’s career that doubles as a new history of post–Civil War America’s risqué visual and sexual culture. Born into a puritanical New England community, Anthony Comstock moved to New York in 1868 armed with his Christian faith and a burning desire to rid the city of vice. Werbel describes how[Read More…]

History Speaks

The Enduring Impact of Jefferson’s Inaugural Address in 2019

The Enduring Impact of Jefferson’s Inaugural Address in 2019

January 2, 2019 — Comments are Disabled

By Stephen Solomon, founding editor of First Amendment Watch The most-visited page on First Amendment Watch during 2018 was not one of the many conflicts over freedom of speech and press that we covered during the year. It was Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, delivered by our third President on March 4, 1801. Jefferson articulated a message that resonates in our own time of[Read More…]