Death by paper cuts. As daily newspapers dwindle by two per week, and news “deserts” grow, a Northwestern professor reports that nothing less than “our own democracy” is at stake as 70 million Americans live in a county with little or no local news.
■ High court denies AB5 petition, squelching rights of freelance journalists hired as independent contractors for news outlets.
■ Chancellor denies access to state Children’s Services case file for reporter investigating teen's starvation death.
‘Blowing a hole in the wall between church and state.’ A
New Yorker commentary reveals how in a single week the conservative justices of
the Supreme Court asserted their recently consolidated power in dealing with
guns, religion, abortion, and climate change.
■ The Christian Right is as emboldened as ever, but
NPR numbers show it is not winning over public opinion.
■ Human rights activists’ commentary in The Hill explains
why right now represents the best and worst of times for religious freedom.
Private prayer or pep rally? With the ruling on a high school football coach’s religious-freedom case, Free Speech Center Director Ken Paulson says the Supreme Court failed to feed the public’s hunger “for clarity and consistency” on church and state separation issues.
■ Coach Joseph Kennedy has his 50-yard-line prayers answered in the SCOTUS ruling.
■ Broward County megachurch loses court battle with Southern Poverty Law Center to have its “hate-group” designation removed.
Doubting Thomas. A million Americans, citing conflicts of interest over his conservative activist wife, have signed a petition demanding that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas be impeached.
■ Justice Thomas, declare legal experts for The Guardian, has laid out the formula for destroying a free press.
■ The marshal for the Supreme Court asks Virginia and Maryland officials to prohibit picketing outside homes of justices who live there.
■ A Las Vegas Sun editorial warns that the First Amendment is in the crosshairs of conservative Christian extremists.
Voice of America? With more than 100 million
followers on Twitter, the New York Post urges Elon Musk to post five tweets ASAP for the sake of the nation.
■ Politico’s Rebecca Kern writes that efforts by “blue
and red” state lawmakers to police speech on social media platforms are running
into First Amendment obstacles.
■ High-profile trials of celebrities, with or without
axes to grind, have amplified this country’s war over free speech.
More lessons in free speech. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
pushes legislation to prevent state colleges from becoming “hotbeds of stale ideologies.”
■ California governor says Floridians should fight DeSantis or flee to the Golden State.
■ State appeals court says school board in Nashville
violated free-speech rights of terminated director in non-disparagement clause.
