■ Last year represented the roughest year for journalists and quite possibly the deadliest as well, according to the Associated Press.
■ Nora Benavidez, a media-policy expert, explained how she found nearly 200 attempts at censorship by the Trump administration in a New York Times essay.
■ Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned American tourists that they may be arrested in Europe for old social media posts, Fox News reported.
Hordes of haters. Technological change historically has been unsettling for a lot of Americans, but A.I. has created a whole new level of fear and loathing, wrote Evan Gorelick for The New York Times.
■ During a CNBC interview, an Israeli billionaire’s call to limit the First Amendment and for democratic nations to take control of social media platforms enraged many conservatives online.
■ In 2026, legal experts anticipate federal judges and the U.S. Supreme Court will confront cases that may alter the boundaries of protected expression in the digital age.
■ Peaceful disagreement is the necessary element for free speech to exist on college campuses, reasoned a University of Illinois professor in a commentary for The Hill.
Pronouncement? Courts across the country have discovered that weighing whether school pronoun policies are constitutional is a complicated issue, USA Today reported.
■ Mandatory anti-racism training violated the First Amendment rights of two Missouri school employees because it required self-censorship, a divided U.S. appeals court has ruled.
■ Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned American tourists that they may be arrested in Europe for old social media posts, Fox News reported.
Hordes of haters. Technological change historically has been unsettling for a lot of Americans, but A.I. has created a whole new level of fear and loathing, wrote Evan Gorelick for The New York Times.
■ During a CNBC interview, an Israeli billionaire’s call to limit the First Amendment and for democratic nations to take control of social media platforms enraged many conservatives online.
■ In 2026, legal experts anticipate federal judges and the U.S. Supreme Court will confront cases that may alter the boundaries of protected expression in the digital age.
■ Peaceful disagreement is the necessary element for free speech to exist on college campuses, reasoned a University of Illinois professor in a commentary for The Hill.
Pronouncement? Courts across the country have discovered that weighing whether school pronoun policies are constitutional is a complicated issue, USA Today reported.
■ Mandatory anti-racism training violated the First Amendment rights of two Missouri school employees because it required self-censorship, a divided U.S. appeals court has ruled.
■ An appeals court has ruled that the city of Nashua, N.H., violated a couple’s constitutional right to fly a flag on the city’s “Citizen Flag Pole” for a second time.
■ A federal court ruled that a Texas law requiring government contractors to certify that they are not engaged in boycotts of Israel is unconstitutional, thereby protecting the First Amendment right to boycott.
Rebooting CBS. Bari Weiss, the new CBS News editor-in-chief, is embroiled in controversy over her decision-making ahead of the updated “Evening News” rollout, The Guardian reported.
■ Jimmy Kimmel “thanked” Donald Trump and Sam Altman for helping him win the Critics Choice award for best talk show.
■ Betty Boop has joined the list of intellectual property in the public domain as her 95-year U.S. copyright expired.
■ A federal court ruled that a Texas law requiring government contractors to certify that they are not engaged in boycotts of Israel is unconstitutional, thereby protecting the First Amendment right to boycott.
Rebooting CBS. Bari Weiss, the new CBS News editor-in-chief, is embroiled in controversy over her decision-making ahead of the updated “Evening News” rollout, The Guardian reported.
■ Jimmy Kimmel “thanked” Donald Trump and Sam Altman for helping him win the Critics Choice award for best talk show.
■ Betty Boop has joined the list of intellectual property in the public domain as her 95-year U.S. copyright expired.
■ The Freely Fest, a music festival organized by the Freedom Forum to celebrate First Amendment freedoms, is coming to Nashville in April, featuring the Killers, T-Pain, and Janelle Monae.
