50-yard faith. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to tackle the case of a Washington state public high school football coach fired after kneeling midfield in prayer.
■ The coach contends his worship was private, but he regularly delivered postgame prayers to crowds of players and others …
■ … a practice the school board says potentially could have left it in violation of the Constitution’s ban on state endorsement of religion.
■ Within a week, a federal judge promises a ruling on whether the University of Florida violated faculty members’ free-speech rights by requiring them to get approval before serving as expert witnesses in outside cases.
■ A national organization advocating for conservatives’ free speech complains that Virginia Tech’s student-conduct rules undermine the First Amendment rights of those opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement, gay marriage and the use of preferred pronouns by members of the transgender community.
■ Wisconsin state lawmakers have advanced a bill aimed at punishing colleges and universities for violating free-speech and academic-freedom rules set by Republicans.
■ Two recent graduates of an Aurora, Colo., Jesuit high school took to the pages of The Denver Post to protest the school’s retraction of a student magazine that included an opinion piece on abortion in which a freshman advocated for “the basic human right of choice.”
■ Tips to university administrators from Campus Safety magazine: “How your college can meet its own goals while also accommodating the First Amendment rights of protestors.”
Sedition and the First Amendment. A William & Mary Law School professor says the charges announced by the Justice Department against people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection raise “serious concerns about the rights of others protesting government actions down the road.”
■ Author and veteran lawyer Teri Kanefield in The Washington Post: The First Amendment may not help those defendants as much as they think it will.
■ Three civil lawsuits filed by House Democrats and Capitol Police officers allege that Donald Trump and his allies instigated the insurrection.
■ Reason’s Jacob Sullum sees “a big difference between reckless rhetoric, which is protected by the First Amendment, and the criminal conspiracy described in [those] lawsuits.”
■ A George Washington University Law School professor rejects Trump lawyers’ call for the suits’ dismissal: “There’s no such thing as ‘absolute immunity’ for former presidents.”
■ A Seattle TV journalist targeted by a neo-Nazi leader who was convicted of conspiracy and mailing threatening communications—and who defended his actions as free speech—says the verdict “makes me appreciate my chosen profession.”
Flags in the news.
■ The American Civil Liberties Union, long opposed to commingling church and state, nevertheless says the Constitution requires Boston to let a Christian organization fly its flag in front of Boston’s City Hall.
■ Boston Globe commentary from a Jewish legal advocate and a Baptist minister: Boston was right to refuse.
■ The Supreme Court hears the case Tuesday morning.
■ A Kansas City Star columnist concedes that a “F___ Biden” flag outside an Overland Park home passes constitutional muster, but pleads for “the kind of self-restraint … that is in such short supply today.”
■ A “F___ OFF” banner on a home triggered controversy in Hampton, N.H.
■ A Washington state appeals court says a man who yelled “F___ the police” and pointed a finger as if he were aiming a gun at an officer was engaging in protected expression.
Phone porn crackdown. Arizona lawmakers will consider a bill that raises First Amendment questions, holding criminally liable those who sell a computer, smartphone or tablet lacking a filter to keep kids from accessing “harmful content.”
■ It has the backing of “an anti-LGBT and anti-porn activist known for his wild stunts.”
■ The Electronic Frontier Foundation is asking a federal appeals court to block copyright rules that it says violate the First Amendment by criminalizing some speech about technology—“preventing researchers, tech innovators, filmmakers, educators, and others from creating and sharing their work.”
Free-speech Barbie. Mattel has created a Barbie doll honoring black female newspaper editor, NAACP co-founder and First Amendment champion Ida B. Wells.
■ There’s a purchase limit of three per user.
