Federal Agency Accuses Kellyanne Conway of Violating Hatch Act
Kellyanne Conway, a senior advisor to President Trump, has been accused of violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in campaign politics at work. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) recommended that Trump fire Conway for being a “repeat offender” of the Act. “As a highly visible member of the administration, Ms. Conway’s violations, if left unpunished, send a message to all federal employees that they need not abide by the Hatch Act’s restrictions,” said the letter to the president. “Her actions erode the principal foundation of our democratic system — the rule of law.” At the heart of the accusation are Conway’s recent comments about Democratic presidential candidates in television interviews and on social media.
Gene Policinski Commentary: New Assange Charges Raise Two First Amendment Alarms
The Newseum Institute’s First Amendment expert, Gene Policinski, originally published this commentary on June 13, 2019, on the Newseum blog, and has given First Amendment Watch permission to reprint. For […]
Columbia President Lee Bollinger Weighs In On The State of Campus Speech
Columbia University president and First Amendment scholar Lee Bollinger writes about the state of free speech on college campuses. Despite President Trump’s claim that an executive order was necessary to […]
Defunding of Student Newspaper Violates First Amendment, Says Watchdog Group
An independent student newspaper lost its funding in a recent referendum vote, and the process violates the First Amendment, says Freedom for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Since The Daily Targumbroke free from Rutgers University in 1980, it has had to rely on funding from the student body, which votes every three years on whether to allocate student fees to fund the newspaper. In order to qualify for funding, at least 25 percent of the student body has to vote on the referendum. But following a two-year campaign by a right-leaning student group to deny funding for the student newspaper, for the first time in 39 years, voter turnout was too low to qualify the publication for funding.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Embroiled in Free Speech Controversy
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is the latest college campus to become embroiled in a free speech controversy. During a campus event celebrating Israel’s independence, a student held up a […]
YouTube Bans Extremist Content
YouTube announced that it’s banning extremist videos that promote white supremacy, neo-Nazi ideology, and conspiracy theories. In a blog post, YouTube said its new policy would ban “videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion.” The changes to YouTube’s hate speech policy comes after it was criticized for refusing to ban videos of a right-wing content creator, Steve Crowder, who’d been harassing a Vox journalist Carlos Maza, by repeatedly using racist and homophobic language in his videos.
Federal Judge Throws Out Charges Against White Supremacist Citing Free Speech Violations
A federal judge in Los Angeles threw out charges against three alleged white supremacists, saying that the First Amendment protected their speech. Robert Rundo, Robert Boman, and Aaron Eason, members of the Rise Above Movement (RAM), had been charged with conspiracy to commit rioting under the Anti Riot Act of 1968. The trio allegedly used the Internet to coordinate combat training, travel to protests, and attacks on protestors at three gatherings in California. District Court Judge Carmac J. Carney ruled that the federal Anti Riot Act, which was enacted during the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, was too broad in regulating free speech.
Tulane Law Professor Amy Gadja On Privacy Rights
Amy Gadja is a professor of law at Tulane Law School in New Orleans. Gadja, a former TV news reporter and anchor, is recognized for her expertise in media law, […]