‘Broken and more necessary than ever.’ A lawyer with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press assesses the health of the Freedom of Information Act in the aftermath of the Trump presidency.
■ Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington hails “a victory for transparency”: A Biden administration reversal of Trump policy that let presidential records be preserved by screenshot. (Image: Zolak/iStock.)
Parler’s harbor. The far right’s alternative to Twitter, Parler, has found a new host, which pledges “non-negotiable” support for its users’ First Amendment rights …
■ … and it has a new CEO, who was a founder of the Tea Party Patriots, which was among the organizers of the event that spawned the Capitol insurrection.
‘Politicians had no business penalizing our clients for refusing to participate in this ideological litmus test.’ An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer hails a federal appeals court’s finding that Arkansas’ law requiring that state contractors pledge not to boycott Israel is unconstitutional.
■ It’s a victory for an alternative print monthly whose publisher refused to sign.
‘I don’t believe that free speech extends to you drawing on someone else’s canvas.’ A Michigan township supervisor defends charges against four people accused of tarring, feathering and applying clown makeup to a Confederate statue.
■ The ACLU is sounding a First Amendment alarm about a Port Orange, Fla., ordinance banning “aggressive panhandling.”
Of note. A University of North Texas professor who attributed the “paucity of African-American women and men in the field of music theory” to evidence that “few grow up in homes where classic music is profoundly valued” is suing the university over retaliatory action that he says infringed on his First Amendment rights.
■ Three University of Iowa professors say the university’s College of Dentistry dean was wrong to apologize for criticism of then-President Trump’s order forbidding universities and other recipients of federal funding from offering diversity training.
■ A University of Tennessee pharmacy program grad student is suing that university, accusing it of imposing vague standards on her off-campus, unaffiliated-with-the-university social media posts—which she defends as the work of “a strong woman that embraces her sexuality.”
Porn publisher, First Amendment champion. Hustler founder Larry Flynt is dead at 78.
■ Free Speech Center director Ken Paulson: Flynt was “outrageous, abrasive and effective in his defense of free speech.”
■ Reason’s J.D. Tuccille: “Abrasive, tasteless, and uncompromising, Flynt undoubtedly made the world safer for speakers of all varieties.”
‘FKGAS.’ A judge has upheld a Rhode Island man’s right to deliver that anti-fossil-fuel message on his electric-powered car’s license plate …
■ … and ruled that the law prohibiting the plate was unconstitutional.
■ North Carolina has stopped issuing plates displaying the Confederate flag.
