'Rioters and anarchists' / 'These objections are nonsense' / Animated debate

‘Rioters and anarchists.’ Appearing today before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Bill Barr condemned the protesters against which his administration has been using federal agents—in the words of the committee’s Democratic chairman, Jerry Nadler—“to forcefully and unconstitutionally suppress dissent.”

■ ABC News’ live blog of the proceedings: Barr and Nadler mixed it up over charges Barr has politicized the Justice Department.
■ See Barr’s testimony on C-SPAN.
■ Satire from The Onion: “‘We Are Upholding The Rule Of Law,’ Bill Barr Tells Congress While Federal Agents Drag Jerry Nadler Into Unmarked Van.”

‘Left vomiting and unable to eat.’ Portland activists are suing Barr and the Department of Homeland Security on First Amendment grounds to end the use of tear gas against protesters.
■ The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Minnesota’s leading law enforcers, accusing them of violating the civil rights of protesters wounded in demonstrations that followed the death of George Floyd while in police custody.
■ Berkeley, California, is considering legislation that would raise the bar for imposing protest curfews.

‘These objections are nonsense.’ An emeritus professor of government at Wesleyan University: “The Constitution doesn’t have a problem with mask mandates.”

■ A CNN legal analyst: A lawsuit filed against Whole Foods for forbidding staffers from wearing “Black Lives Matter” masks “is a warning shot fired in the direction of corporate America regarding employee free speech rights.”
■ President Trump’s move to punish social media websites for alleged bias against conservatives is now in the hands of the Federal Communications Commission.

No. 4. ‘Violence is not protected by the First Amendment.’ Free Speech Center director Ken Paulson offers five takeaways from the Black Lives Matter protests.
■ Paulson explains why Seattle journalists are fighting police subpoenas for protest photos and video.
■ Chicago is assembling “a critical incident response team” of about 250 cops to deal with large protests.

Beware ‘progressives seeking new restrictions on speech.’ The CEO of the literary and free expression organization PEN America, Suzanne Nossel, warns that people “advocating more aggressive government policing of online hate put enormous trust in officials to draw boundaries around permissible speech.”
■ The Committee to Protect Journalists is honoring four journalists who’ve been arrested or faced criminal prosecution in reprisal for their reporting.

Animated debate. The man fired after 27 years as The Simpsons’ lead composer accuses Disney’s newly acquired Fox divisions of age and disability discrimination, but the company’s defending the decision on First Amendment grounds.
■ A circuit court has rejected a former University of Kansas animation professor’s claim the First Amendment should have protected her from firing after students described her as a “Nazi sympathizer.”

Watchmen watch. HBO’s comic book-inspired and civil rights-themed miniseries has received more Emmy nominations than any other show this year.