Unforbidden ‘love letters.’ Oregon’s first-in-the-nation ban on so-called real estate “love letters”—personal notes from potential homebuyers to home sellers—has been blocked by a federal judge who says it runs afoul of the First Amendment.
■ It’s a defeat for those who championed the bill on grounds that such notes can perpetuate housing discrimination by signaling a buyer’s race, religion, sexual orientation and marital status …
■ … and a victory for the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, which asserted that “these letters … do a lot of good” (December link).
■ Read the judge’s preliminary injunction: “It is not in the public interest to enforce a law that is likely unconstitutional, even one aimed at the laudable goal of reducing unlawful discrimination in housing.”
‘The National Association of Broadcasters threw … our cherished First Amendment right of free speech … under the bus.’ The owner of a Missouri radio station that carries the Kremlin-funded Radio Sputnik condemns the NAB’s call for stations to stop carrying Russian programming.
■ NPR in February 2020: “Meet The Man Who Brought Russian State Radio To Kansas City.”
■ The NAB’s March 1 statement: “Our nation must stand fully united against misinformation and for freedom and democracy across the globe.”
■ Mother Jones quotes a leaked government memo to state-friendly Russian media: “It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson.”
■ Columnist Eric Zorn (middle of his latest dispatch): “Her essay lacks the important context that the political left is far from the only faction … attempting to squelch the expression of ideas.”
■ MSNBC’s Zeeshan Aleem: “The plague of self-censorship” isn’t what it seems.
■ Conjuring what he calls “a nightmarish vision of what higher education might become in Texas,” a community college professor is suing over his dismissal after condemning Confederate statues and criticizing the college’s COVID-19 response.
■ A Kansas middle school teacher is suing the district over her suspension for refusing to use a student’s preferred name.
■ Her suit contends that requiring her to refer to a student by a gendered, non-binary, or plural pronoun violates her religious beliefs.
‘First Amendment rights to read, learn, and discuss vital topics in schools are under attack.’ The ACLU reviews classroom censorship laws passed around the country restricting schools’ teaching of race and gender.
■ Headed to Florida’s governor: A bill that would forbid teachers from teaching anything that makes students feel personally responsible for historic wrongs because of their race, color, sex or national origin.
‘There is nothing safe about this ill-conceived piece of legislation.’ A Valdosta Daily Times editorial condemns a Georgia bill—the “Safe Communities Act”—for “pandering to a base with strong feelings about social justice protests last year in Atlanta and across the nation.”
■ Civil rights lawyer Nora Benavidez: The legislation would “strip Georgians of their constitutional right to speak up for what they believe in by classifying protest as a criminal activity.”
Deceptive climate ads as ‘free speech.’ Climate journalist Amy Westervelt asserts that oil companies are using the First Amendment to defend advertisements, op-eds and public appearances discouraging climate action.
■ The New York Times lists a series of court cases that First Amendment scholars want the media to lose.
‘Whether we know it or not, we all have something to do.’ That’s legendary singer-songwriter and founding member of the Rascals Felix Cavaliere accepting the Free Speech in Music Award from the Free Speech Center.
■ He recalls his label’s resistance to releasing the Rascals’ anthemic People Got To Be Free.
■ As rapper Travis Scott fights the many legal battles arising from his fatally disastrous Astroworld Festival in November, victims’ lawyers argue that a charitable initiative he launched this month is designed to curry favor with potential jurors …
■ … and they want him included under a gag order that his lawyers say would violate his First Amendment rights.
