Group Files Free Speech Lawsuit Against ASU

Current Events, ,

Last week attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit in federal court against Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

According to ADF, the school has tried to limit free speech on campus to sanctioned “free speech” zones. When a student recently tried to set up a table outside the student union to generate interest in forming a chapter of the group Turning Point USA on campus, a school administrator stopped her, citing the university’s speech policy.

The question is, how is free speech “free” if it is limited to certain areas of campus and has to be approved by the university first?

The case at ASU is similar to a lawsuit filed in Ohio last month against a university that tried to restrict speech by a pro-life student group.

College campuses used to be places where students could freely exchange ideas. However, we are increasingly seeing attempts by school administrators to restrict speech on campus — especially speech by conservative and pro-life students.

Alliance Defending Freedom has an excellent track record litigating cases like this one in Jonesboro. Given that history, it seems likely the courts will rule against the school’s anti-speech policies in the months to come.

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U.S. Senator Introduces Bill to Spy Out “Hate Speech”

Current Events,

The American Family Association has issued a statement about a piece of legislation rolled out last month by Democratic Senator Edward Markey.

From AFA:

May 1, 2014

Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) has introduced legislation for the federal government to monitor and analyze speech on the Internet, television, and radio looking for anything it considers “hate speech.”

The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014 (S.2219) would capture Internet and other telecommunications that the government interprets as encouraging hate crimes based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

This is a bad bill, even to the liberal Boston Herald editorial staff. It mandates that the government monitor and analyze speech and press statements that are protected by the First Amendment. The wording is deliberately fuzzy, so that although it sounds like it only addresses constitutionally unprotected speech, it reaches much further.

(more…)

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Obama Administration Poised to Silence Political Opponents

Current Events,

The IRS is proposing new regulations giving themselves more authority to restrict nonprofit groups.

For the first time, the IRS wants to define “candidate-related political activity” to include projects such as voter guides, legislative scorecards or reporting voting records of elected officials, get-out-the-vote campaigns, promotion of voter registration, or even mentioning the names of candidates who are running for office. Any “candidate-related political activity” could jeopardize a group’s nonprofit status.

These new proposed rules are significant, because they affect organizations’ ability to engage in issue advocacy and basic political speech.

(more…)

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