Free Speech Roundup: Week of Apr. 8th, 2018

A summary of the top free speech related news and events from the past week. This week we have news on a newly signed law, lawsuits, attempted deplatforming, and international news from the Netherlands and Tanzania.

Freedom of speech is the right from which all other human rights follow because it allows people to address grievances and protest for their other rights. It is therefore of the utmost importance to protect the right to express oneself freely from those who seek to restrict it.

Students File Lawsuit Against University And Instructor

https://dailyillini.com/news/2018/04/09/ui-students-file-federal-lawsuit-against-university-for-violation-of-rights/
Three students at the University of Illinois have filed a federal lawsuit against the University for violating their rights to free speech, free press, and due process. Last November at an anti-Trump rally, instructor Tariq Khan allegedly attacked students Joel Valdez and Blair Nelson who were covering the event, breaking Valdez’s phone. Restraining orders were then issued against the two students, along with student journalist Andrew Minik who reported on the incident, but wasn’t present. The lawsuit claims that the restraining orders were issued without proper notice or hearing. The sanctions are an “abuse of power” according to Minik and “unconstitutional” according to their lawyer.

Professor Sues College For Wrongful Termination

https://www.thefire.org/professor-fired-for-defending-black-lives-matter-on-fox-news-files-lawsuit/
A former adjunct professor at New Jersey’s Essex County College, Lisa Durden, filed a lawsuit against the school after she was fired for her political views. Durden appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight last year to defend a Black Lives Matter group’s decision to exclude white people from an event. The college fired her, claiming they were “immediately inundated” by complaints expressing concern about her views. However, records show that was not the case. Even if it were, she was not representing the college on air and was speaking about an event elsewhere related to a matter of public concern. New Jersey’s state constitution provides even broader protection of speech than the First Amendment by not requiring “state action” to invoke it.

Dutch Law Would Reduce Penalty For Insulting King

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/world/dutch-bill-insulting-king.html
A bill in the Dutch Parliament, which passed the lower house and is expected to pass the upper house, would reduce the maximum penalty for insulting the monarchy from 5 years in jail to 4 months. This reduction would put it on par with the penalty for verbally abusing civil servants such as police. The monarchy enjoys high levels of approval and support in the Netherlands. Prosecutions are rare, with 16 people being prosecuted under what is known as the “lèse-majesté” law between 2000 and 2012. Nevertheless, it is an archaic law that suppresses free speech, going against Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. I wrote about lèse-majesté HERE.

Law Students Try To Shut Down Both Speaker And Critic

https://www.thefire.org/stop-debating-cuny-law-students-disrupt-speaker-and-his-critic/
Protestors at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law disrupted and attempted to shut down a talk by Josh Blackman, author and law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston. Blackman wrote about the incident on his blog and features video of it. The student protestors held signs decrying CUNY Law for allowing Blackman to speak, calling him a “racist” and “oppressor.” He was planning to talk about free speech on campus, but when the protestors interrupted him, he shifted to trying to engage with them. The protestors refused to engage in debate and even tried to shame a student who wanted to hear him speak and “ask him very hard questions.” They very clearly only wanted to prevent his views from being heard, denying the right of even those who disagreed to listen and debate. It is especially concerning behavior from law students.

Trump Signs SESTA/FOSTA Into Law

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/11/trump-signs-fosta-bill-targeting-online-sex-trafficking-enables-states-and-victims-to-pursue-websites/
https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr1865/BILLS-115hr1865enr.pdf
On Wednesday, President Trump signed the controversial SESTA/FOSTA bill into law. The new law allows states and victims to file lawsuits against web sites that host sex-trafficking ads. Advocates for sex workers are concerned it will cause criminal trafficking to be harder to track as perpetrators move to overseas sites. The free speech concern is that the bill broadly updates Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act so that websites now become liable for content posted by a third party, even unknowingly. Websites such as Reddit have already begun to self-censor by shutting down forums to avoid possible lawsuits.

Tanzania Imposes Fee To Post Online

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/12/africa/tanzania-blogging-internet-freedoms-africa/index.html
Tanzania has effectively shut down free online speech in the country through new Internet regulations. The new regulations require bloggers, online radio stations, online streaming platforms, online forums, social media users and internet cafes to register and pay a $930 annual fee. They are also required to provide a lengthy list of personal and financial details. This fee is extremely prohibitive because Tanzania’s GDP was just $878 per capita according to the World Bank in 2016. These regulations under the guise of curbing “moral decadence” are likely meant to suppress criticism of the government.

Abridged And Illustrated Version Of Mill’s On Liberty

http://heterodoxacademy.org/mill/
Heterodox Academy has released a new book, available for free in PDF form, which is an abridged version of John Stuart Mill’s seminal work On Liberty. It is edited by Richard Reeves of the Brookings Institute and Jonathan Haidt of New York University's Stern School of Business, with illustrations by Dave Cicirelli. Heterodox’s version features only the 2nd chapter, being the chapter showcasing Mill’s arguments on liberty of thought and discussion, and is edited to remove repetition and obscure historical references. The 3 main arguments made by Mill and laid out in this book are “the opinion may possibly be true,” “he who knows only his side of the case, knows little of that,” and “conflicting doctrines share truth between them.”

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Recent Free Speech Roundups:

Free Speech Roundup: Week of Apr. 1st, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of Mar. 25th, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of Mar. 18th, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of Mar. 11th, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of Mar. 4th, 2018

Other Free Speech Posts:

Lèse-majesté: Archaic Anti-Speech Law
California Bill Threatens Online Press and Speech
Response to Opinion Piece in Toronto Sun
UK Parliament Report on Campus Free Speech
Thoughtcrime in the UK?
New Study Shows College Students Conflicted on Free Speech
Who is most supportive of free speech?
Campus Free Speech Zones
Hitchens on Free Speech - Must Watch

Free Speech Resources:

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
The American Civil Liberties Union
Notable 1st Amendment Cases – ALA
Milton’s Areopagitica – Modern English Translation
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill – Audiobook

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
~ First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States