Free Speech Roundup: Week of June 24th, 2018

A summary of the top free speech related news and events from the past week. This week we have news on 3 major U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

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.

Supreme Court Sends Christian Florist Case Back To Lower Court

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-court-florist-20180625-story.html
The Supreme Court sent the case of a Christian florist who refused to make flower arrangements for a same-sex wedding back to the state level. Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington refused to provide her services for a same-sex wedding. She was convicted of violating the state’s civil rights law and fined $1,000. She appealed on the grounds that she had the right to refuse artistic free expression and requiring her to do so would violate her right to free exercise of religion. The Supreme Court declined to make a ruling, instead sending it back to the state for consideration in light of the recent Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado ruling. In that ruling, the court ruled in favor of the cake shop because members of the state civil rights commission made comments found to be hostile to religion.

Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Crisis Pregnancy Centers

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/us/politics/supreme-court-crisis-pregnancy-center-abortion.html
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in the case of NIFLA v. Beccera that a California state law requiring religious “crisis pregnancy centers” to give women information on abortions violates the First Amendment. The law specifically requires posted notices that free or low-cost abortion, contraception and prenatal care are available through public programs. The law was adopted because many anti-abortion centers were found to use “intentionally deceptive advertising and counseling practices that often confuse, misinform, and even intimidate women from making fully-informed, time-sensitive decisions about critical health care.” In the case, the centers argued that the law forces them to display messages contrary to their religious beliefs. The law also required unlicensed centers to post that they are not licensed by the state.

Supreme Court Rules Against Forced Union Dues

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/27/supreme-court-deals-blow-public-employee-labor-unions/590440002/
In Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that public sector unions could no longer force nonmembers to pay fees to help defray the costs of collective bargaining. The ruling overturns the court’s 1977 ruling in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education and the law in 22 states allowing forced fees. A similar case in 2016 deadlocked after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The Abood ruling said workers did not have to pay for unions' political activity but could be required to contribute to the costs of collective bargaining, which benefit all workers. In the case, it was argued that such fees represented compelled speech by helping maintain the political power of unions. In the dissent, Justice Elena Kagan accused the conservative justices of “weaponizing the First Amendment in a way that unleashes judges, now and in the future, to intervene in economic and regulatory policy.”

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Recent Free Speech Roundups:

Free Speech Roundup: Week of June 17th, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of June 10th, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of June 3rd, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of May 27th, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of May 20th, 2018

Other Free Speech Posts:

Count Dankula Sentenced
UK Speech Police Offended Again
Lèse-majesté: Archaic Anti-Speech Law
California Bill Threatens Online Press and Speech
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