j u s t c r i m

Arrest for Nazi salute violated 1st Amendment, court says - latimes.com

The city of Santa Cruz violated the 1st Amendment rights of an advocate for the homeless when the mayor had him arrested for giving a Nazi salute at a City Council meeting, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The unanimous ruling by a full 11-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals deemed Mayor Christopher Krohn's order to remove activist Robert Norse from the public meeting to be "viewpoint discrimination" rather than an effort to maintain order during discussion about where the homeless would be permitted to sleep.

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, a libertarian and fierce supporter of 1st Amendment protections, said Norse's ouster was spurred by a councilman's "hissy fit," not any actual disruption of the meeting.

via www.latimes.com

[The decision is available from the 9th Circuit site and via Findlaw at http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1548330.html]

Ron Paul Defends WikiLeaks - "losing a grip on our empire"

via www.youtube.com

What can you say? Ron Paul is spot on.

The Shameful Attacks on Julian Assange - David Samuels - International - The Atlantic

Getty Images

Julian Assange and Pfc Bradley Manning have done a huge public service by making hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents available on Wikileaks -- and, predictably, no one is grateful. Manning, a former army intelligence analyst in Iraq, faces up to 52 years in prison. He is currently being held in solitary confinement at a military base in Quantico, Virginia, where he is not allowed to see his parents or other outside visitors.

Assange, the organizing brain of Wikileaks, enjoys a higher degree of freedom living as a hunted man in England under the close surveillance of domestic and foreign intelligence agencies -- but probably not for long. Not since President Richard Nixon directed his minions to go after Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg and New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan - "a vicious antiwar type," an enraged Nixon called him on the Watergate tapes -- has a working journalist and his source been subjected to the kind of official intimidation and threats that have been directed at Assange and Manning by high-ranking members of the Obama Administration.

via www.theatlantic.com

gamers

SCOTUS oral argument tomorrow (Tuesday, 11.02.2010):  "Does a state law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors violate the First Amendment right to free speech?" 

hard cases bad law - snyder redux

SCOTUSblog aggregates post oral argument analysis of Snyder v. Phelps  -- 

Worthy of specific mention, the SCOTUSblog  Bonus Roundup post links to First One @ One (F1@1)  for some street side Snyder v. Phelps protester interviews.  ( Best protester sign:  "God Hates Your Feelings."  Thanks for that -- Because I feel so happy the book called bible is classed under BS in the Library of Congress'  organization of human knowledge -- Subclass BS ... The Bible. ...) 

New Jersey Uniform Code of Ethics

New Jersey Uniform Ethics Code, September 2010

"If you can point me to the relevant part of 'New Jersey Transit’s code of ethics,' I’d love to see it"

Volokh on free speech rights and the New Jersey Transit Department Code of Ethics ...  [Another reminder why the ACLU is so crucial -- Freedom Can't Protect Itself  ]

New Jersey Public Transit Employee Fired for Blasphemy

Eugene Volokh • September 15, 2010 1:55 am

“language is a virus from outer space” - william s. burroughs

PrawfsBlawg  (Rick Hills, August 24, 2010):  " ... "Chicano" and "queer" both began their lives as insults for newly arrived Mexican immigrants or gay men and lesbians, respectively. They both have since migrated into the mainstream, with "Queer Studies" and "Chicano Culture" (for instance) being utterly mundane phrases devoid of insult. By contrast, Edmund Burke's use of the phrase "the swinish multitude" to refer to plebeians led various advocates of democracy to embrace the term "swine" or its cognates as a defiant badge of honor. (For the definitive history of the controversy over Burke's use of the term, see chapter 12 of Don Herzog's Poisoning the Minds of the Lower Orders). But the fad faded: No one nowadays uses the term "swine" to refer to, say, trade unionists or working-class folks. In short, one might hypothesize that contemptuous terms must evolve into a mainstream noun (as did "Chicano" and "queer") or die as an unacceptable insult (as did "swinish multitude"), at least so long as the contempt that the terms represent has been banished from respectable society... " (RESTOFPOST) 

kagan and freedom of speech - crs report for congress

Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan: Selected Freedom of Speech Scholarship(Congressional Research Service) Kathleen Ann Ruane, Legislative Attorney, June 18, 2010

"President Obama has nominated his Solicitor General, Elena Kagan, to be the next Supreme Court Justice. If confirmed, she would fill the seat being vacated by Justice John Paul Stevens upon his retirement at the end of the 2009/2010 term. Prior to her term as Solicitor General, Ms. Kagan, in her capacity as an academic and scholar, wrote influential pieces analyzing free speech jurisprudence..." [RESTOFCRS]

"battle for the internet"

I.H.T. Op-Ed Contributor.  The Battle for the Internet.  By BERNARD KOUCHNER (New York Times. Published: May 13, 2010)

"Freedom of expression, said Voltaire, “is the foundation of all other freedoms.” Without it, there are no “free nations.” This universal spirit of the Enlightenment should run through the new media. The defense of fundamental freedoms and human rights must be the priority for governance of the Internet. It is everyone’s business.

digitus impudicus (impudent finger)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Difference Makers - Robert Ekas
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

18 U. S. C. §48 ~ Was the animal cruelty depiction statute overbroad really ?

I agree with Alito's dissent in United States v. Stevens, No. 08-769 (released today, April 20, 2010: @ page 25 in the 52 page pdf file @ http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-769.pdf

http://www.typepad.com/dashboard#

JUSTICE ALITO, dissenting.  "The Court strikes down in its entirety a valuable statute, 18 U. S. C. §48, that was enacted not to suppress speech, but to prevent horrific acts of animal cruelty—in particular, the creation and commercial exploitation of “crush videos,” a form of depraved entertainment that has no social value. The Court’s approach, which has the practical effect of legalizing the sale of such videos and is thus likely to spur a resumption of their production, is unwarranted..."  

holder humanitarian harmonica

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: Under the definition of this statute, teaching these members to play the harmonica would be unlawful. 

Scotuswiki.   Justices weigh free speech, terrorism (NPR)

chemerinsky | on speech rights on campus

Erwin Chemerinsky (UCI Law School Founding Dean) is clear on the scope of speech and the punishment that may accompany civil disobedience.   [This podcast of Chemerinsky's talk 11 February 2010 comes from Dan Tsang's Subversities Blog,"UCI Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinksy on the First Amendment"]

free speech | uci (via subversities blog)