An ‘assault on democracy.’ An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer condemns a new law requiring Florida colleges and universities to survey students and employees about their political beliefs.
■ Free Speech Center Director Ken Paulson: “It’s insulting to college-age students.”
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch: The law echoes “Florida’s shameful, recent past.”
■ On First Amendment grounds, a federal judge has blocked a Florida law aimed at punishing social-media companies that ban political candidates.
■ An Orlando Sentinel editorial condemns “Florida’s loony laws and the hypocrites who pass them.”
On other campuses …
‘Hey there. How about F___ Juneteenth?’ That Facebook post by a white professor at North Carolina’s East Carolina University has resulted in his resignation.
■ A University of North Carolina Wilmington professor has apologized for posting—and then deleting—a Facebook call to “Blow up Republicans.”
■ The University of North Carolina System says it remains committed to upholding First Amendment rights.
■ The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether government tuition aid can be used at religious schools.
■ A federal appeals court has cleared a Texas student who finds fault with the Pledge of Allegiance’s “under God” and “freedom and justice for all” clauses to sue a teacher who forced her to write out the pledge.
■ The ACLU is gearing up to fight state laws across the country limiting the teaching of “critical race theory,” which it has labeled “a nationwide attempt to censor discussions of race in the classroom.”
‘Everyone loves my van, except for Karens.’ A woman with the vanity license plate “TITSOUT” is among those raising First Amendment objections to a new Maine ban on “vulgar” plates.
■ A Nashville woman who says she’s a fan of astronomy and video games is fighting to keep a vanity plate reading “69PWNDU,” explaining that it references the year of the first moon landing and a gamer’s claim of victory …
■ … although the state, for reasons not explained, ruled it “offensive.”
■ A New Jersey cop disciplined for posts on social media has lost his appeal under the First Amendment.
■ A Tennessee court says a Knoxville strip-club ordinance outlawing total nudity and touching by patrons doesn’t violate the First Amendment.
Strange First Amendment bedfellows. Groups across the political spectrum are celebrating a Supreme Court order that California stop collecting the names and addresses of charities’ top donors.
■ Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting raises a warning flag about the Biden administration’s shutdown of 33 foreign media outlets’ websites.
‘If he could be thrown in jail for desiring to write a critical book of the president …’ A lawyer for Donald Trump’s former “fixer,” Michael Cohen, defends Cohen’s $20 million lawsuit against the government, claiming Cohen was returned to prison for planning to publish his thoughts on Trump.
■ A federal appeals court has struck down rules requiring lawyers in two states to belong to or pay dues to their state bar associations.
Which of these events came first? Test your knowledge of the Declaration of Independence with a Free Speech Center quiz.
■ Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson are among the honorees in the 2021 New England Muzzle Awards, spotlighting those who’ve diminished free speech.
■ A new Obamas-produced Netflix show inspired by Schoolhouse Rock features folk-rocker Brandi Carlisle singing about the First Amendment.
