First Amendment

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• 1/12/2021
  

  Public Speech and Democracy

  by Sandra Peart

  American leaders have failed to support public speech that sustains disagreement without violence. That culture of speech must be rebuilt for democracy to survive.

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• 1/10/2020
  

  Jefferson's Other Legacy: Religious Liberty

  by Cameron Addis

  Thomas Jefferson's critics have pointed out his ownership of slaves as reason to question his continued relevance as a symbol of freedom. But his commitment to religious liberty helped to prevent violent sectarian conflict and should be honored. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  12/14/2020
  

  Facing a First Amendment Fight, a Small Minnesota Town Allows a White Supremacist Church

  A small Minnesota town has approved the use of a church building to house a neopaganist group strongly associated with white supremacy, arguing that they would be exposed to an expensive legal action if they denied the permit. This is part of a long pattern of similar First Amendment cases. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  11/29/2020
  

  The Cost of Trump’s Assault on the Press and the Truth

  New Yorker editor David Remnick writes that while Trump is not the first president to battle the media, his apparent belief that the press exists as his public relations agency--and anger that it doesn't work that way--are leading him to attack a fundamental institution of society with deadly consequences.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/1/2020
  

  Religious Animus Did Not Drive The Laws The Supreme Court Just Overturned

  by Adam Laats

  Historical restrictions against "sectarian" use of tax dollars used the term broadly to encompass many religious doctrines. Claims that the laws were based in anti-Catholic bigotry are inaccurate. 

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• SOURCE: ProPublica
  6/9/2020
  

  The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years. I Know Because I’m One of Them.

  by Wendi C. Thomas

  Wendi C. Thomas is a black journalist who has covered police in Memphis. One officer admitted to spying on her. She’s on a long list of prominent black journalists and activists who have been subjected to police surveillance over decades.

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• SOURCE: Virginia Mercury
  4/27/2020
  

  As Campaign 2020 Shifts into High Gear, Trump’s Defamation Suits Pose a Chilling Prospect for the Press

  Although the 1964 Times v. Sullivan ruling makes it unlikely Trump would win a libel suit against a media outlet, the adminstration wants to break the historical relationship between the press and public figures.

• 
• 4/5/2020
  

  US v. Sineneng-Smith Echoes the Fugitive Slave Act

  by Alan J. Singer

  A Supreme Court decision in United States v. Sineneng-Smith that broadens the authority of the federal government to suppress the rights of advocates for undocumented immigrants could divide the nation irreparably.

• 
• SOURCE: Freedom Forum
  4/2/2020
  

  "Be Nice" Is Not Needed During Crisis — But A Free Press Is

  “Be nice” — two words not found anywhere among the 45 words of the First Amendment.

• 
• 7-3-18
  

  The Media Have Been the Target of Violence since the Beginning of the Republic

  by Harold Holzer

  It’s always an ominous sign.

• 
• 6/29/18
  

  Why Is Christian America Supporting Donald Trump?

  by John Fea

  Their belief is based on a false reading of American history.

• 
• 4/30/18
  

  At a Time Like This We Need more Truth Tellers Like Michelle Wolf

  by Ed Simon

  Her great contribution is demonstrating how afraid of uncomfortable truths we’ve become.

• 
• SOURCE: LikeTheDew
  11-12-17
  

  Cheerleaders taking a knee aren’t dishonoring the flag

  by David B. Parker

  Why the president of Kennesaw State University might want to reconsider his criticism.

• 
• SOURCE: National Security Archive
  10-25-17
  

  Finally, we can see the long-hidden records of the U.S. government prosecution of the Chicago Tribune during WW2

  This article draws on grand jury records that had been sealed for decades until historian Elliot Carlson, joined by the Reporters Committee on Freedom of the Press, the National Security Archive, and other historians’ organizations, filed a lawsuit for their release.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  10-2-17 (accessed)
  

  Flip-Flopping on Free Speech

  by Jill Lepore

  The fight for the First Amendment, on campuses and football fields, from the sixties to today.

• 
• SOURCE: PennLive
  3-7-17
  

  The press was way more political in Jefferson's day - but he defended it anyway

  by John Fea

  The Founding Father had his problems with the press. But what he didn't note was that despite his agitation with the press, he defended a much more biased press as a necessary part of free speech.

• 
• SOURCE: Huffington Post
  3-3-17
  

  The Press Was the Enemy of the People in John Adams’s Era

  by Jeff Biggers

  Federalists even passed a law allowing the authorities to jail journalists.

• 
• SOURCE: NYT
  2-26-17
  

  Trump Embraces ‘Enemy of the People,’ a Phrase With a Fraught History

  It is difficult to know if President Trump is aware of the historic resonance of the term, a label generally associated with despotic communist governments rather than democracies.

• 
• 3-5-17
  

  FROM OUR ARCHIVES The American Press Has Served Us Well. We Need to Protect It.

  by Vaughn Davis Bornet

  That new man in the White House needs to be made aware that the job he occupies is a Bully Pulpit—and not a Bullying Pulpit.

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• SOURCE: Corpus Christi Caller Times
  2-10-17
  

  Partisan at the pulpit: The Johnson amendment

  by Randall Balmer

  Donald Trump’s promise to “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment, delivered at the National Prayer Breakfast last week, is a totally bad idea, one that compromises the First Amendment.