Just one vote. Texas Republicans nearly won Supreme Court approval for their repeal of social media companies’ First Amendment rights.
■ CNET notes the ruling nevertheless “could spell trouble for companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter.”
■ A Washington Post editorial: “The dissenters did all the talking, and it was not encouraging.”
Stonewalled? San Antonio Express-News executive editor Nora Lopez tells CNN’s Reliable Sources that “it’s become increasingly difficult for us to trust what authorities are telling us” in the aftermath of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting.
■ A phalanx of bikers working with cops blocked coverage of Uvalde funerals.
■ NPR’s suing for what it alleges is information wrongly withheld by the FBI and other agencies during 2020 protests of police brutality.
A ‘close one.’ That’s how a federal judge describes his decision to reject a former high school student’s First Amendment complaint that he was blocked from commencement after making an online racial slur.
■ High school students and their teachers overwhelmingly say people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions in public, according to a new Knight Foundation survey.
Beware ‘pink slime.’ Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan sounds an alarm about phony news sites like the one that falsely accused a suburban Chicago-area school district of planning to grade students differently based on their race.
■ It’s part of a network of similarly slimy and reactionary sites across the country.
■ One of the real news organizations serving that suburb is using that report as a fundraising hook.
Let it ride. Belmont University law professor David L. Hudson Jr. assesses a federal court ruling that a Virginia transit agency violated the First Amendment in banning political bus ads.
■ Georgetown University’s investigation of a newly hired administrator who posted critical tweets about President Biden’s promise to nominate a Black woman for the Supreme Court has cleared him of any wrongdoing.
■ Asserting that Sarah Palin failed to present “even a speck” of evidence, a federal judge has rejected her bid for a new libel trial against The New York Times.
Move over, ACLU. In a move that could signal competition for leadership of the free-speech movement, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has renamed itself Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression …
■ … and it’s pledging a $10 million ad campaign, including billboards in 15 cities.
■ First Amendment advocates are condemning a Georgia district attorney’s use of hip-hop artists’ rap lyrics in criminal cases against them.
■ First Amendment advocates are condemning a Georgia district attorney’s use of hip-hop artists’ rap lyrics in criminal cases against them.
‘What I’m asking … is to create artwork that is consistent with my beliefs.’ A Colorado web designer’s hoping the Supreme Court will affirm her First Amendment right not to build sites for same-sex weddings.
■ Nebraska’s joining a multi-state coalition supporting her case.
‘The First Amendment is stronger than Johnny Depp.’ Media lawyer Dan Novack, writing in The Atlantic, says “it would be a mistake to draw any sweeping conclusions” from Johnny Depp’s successful defamation claim against Amber Heard.
■ Free Speech Center Director Ken Paulson says that if Depp and Heard sued one another to bolster their reputations, they ironically failed.
■ Heard calls the verdict a “setback for women” and freedom of speech.
■ An ex-prosecutor: “This isn’t really a free speech issue, this is really a credibility issue.”
■ Heard-Depp libel outcomes differed substantially in the U.S. and the U.K.
■ An Indiana appeals court found one divorce’s non-disparagement clause on the wrong side of the First Amendment.
Until we meet again. This marks the end of my run as proprietor of this newsletter, which I was privileged to help launch in January 2020. Taking the reins next issue under the watch of two terrific editors, Brian Buchanan and Ken Paulson: The talented Vincent Troia, whose substantial contributions have made this issue and the last better. I’ll be cheering them and the Free Speech Center on, and I hope you will, too.
■ Meanwhile, if you’re into news for and about Chicago, you’ll still find me daily at Chicago Public Square.