Free Speech Roundup: Week of June 3rd, 2018

A summary of the top free speech related news and events from the past week. This week we have news on several court decisions and students suspended for satire.

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.

Judge Rules In Favor Of Student Suspended For Shirt

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jun/1/addison-barnes-victorious-judges-ruling-allows-stu/
A federal judge sided with a Washington high school student in his lawsuit against the Hillsboro School District for suspending him for wearing a pro-Trump border wall shirt. He wore a "Donald J. Trump Border Wall Construction Co." shirt featuring the phrase "The wall just got 10 feet higher" to a class discussion on immigration issues. He initially covered up the shirt after one teacher and one student reported being offended, but then removed his jacket to express his rights and was removed from school. U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman ruled that “there’s not enough to go on here to show that sort of legitimate concern (a “hostile learning environment”) justifying censorship of this core political speech.” The judge issued a temporary restraining order allowing the shirt to be worn for the rest of the school year.

Petition Denied For Teacher In Free Speech Case

http://www.albanyherald.com/news/local/georgia-supreme-court-denies-petition-of-tift-teacher-in-free/article_fb20071c-fca7-538c-87c3-60a207af57ab.html
The Georgia Supreme Court denied the petition to appeal by a public school teacher who filed a lawsuit against her school district alleging a violation of her First Amendment rights. The teacher, Kelly Tucker, was suspended for five days and ordered to attend diversity training after complaints about she said about Black Lives Matter in a personal Facebook debate. The Court of Appeals dismissed the case on the grounds that the school officials were protected by “qualified immunity,” protecting government employees from lawsuits in their personal capacities, and because they did not violate any clearly established law. State Supreme Court Justice Nels S.D. Peterson upheld that ruling on those grounds, but noted “grave concerns that the school officials may well have violated Tucker’s First Amendment rights.” It was also noted that Tucker could have asserted her First Amendment argument if she had appealed the punishment administratively first.

Supreme Court Sides With Baker Who Denied Gay Couple

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/us/politics/supreme-court-sides-with-baker-who-turned-away-gay-couple.html
In a deceptively narrow 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jack Phillips, owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado. Phillips denied serving a gay couple in 2012 who then filed a complaint Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission. The commission and state courts ruled the state law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation was violated and Mr. Phillips’s free speech rights had not been violated because he denied them before discussing designs. While the case had been mostly discussed on free speech and religious grounds, the Supreme Court focused on unique procedural flaws in their ruling. Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority, said members of the Colorado commission acted with “clear and impermissible hostility” to sincerely held religious beliefs by making comments “inappropriate for a commission charged with the solemn responsibility of fair and neutral enforcement of Colorado’s anti-discrimination law.” He also noted the commission was inconsistent, with rulings allowing the denial of designs demeaning to gay people. The larger issue of whether businesses can discriminate against LGBT people based on First Amendment rights remains open.

Court Dismisses Twitter Ban Lawsuit

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/technology/391096-court-strikes-down-far-right-activists-lawsuit-over-twitter-ban
The California Superior Court in Fresno dismissed the lawsuit against Twitter by far-right activist Charles C. Johnson. He was banned from Twitter in 2015 for a tweet asking for help to “take out” Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson. Johnson argued the ban violated his free speech rights and that Twitter is a public square not protected by the Communications Decency Act. The court ruled that the closure of his account was an exercise of Twitter’s own First Amendment right to regulate speech on the platform. The ruling states, “Although it does invite the public to use its service, Defendant also limits this invitation by requiring users to agree to and abide by its User Rules, in an exercise of Defendant’s First Amendment right. The rules clearly state that users may not post threatening tweets, and also that Defendant may unilaterally, for any reason, terminate a user’s account.”

Syracuse Suspends Students For Satirical Roast

https://www.thefire.org/syracuse-slams-students-with-multi-year-suspensions-for-satirical-fraternity-roast/
Syracuse University suspended 16 students from the Theta Tau engineering fraternity up to 2 years for a satirical roast. Videos leaked from the private event show fraternity pledges satirically roasting each other. Despite receiving no complaints from those involved, a university panel found the students guilty of violating university policies for “harassment” and “destructive behavior.” The panel falsely claimed that the students had gone “beyond the bounds of protected speech” and were guilty of “an immediate breach of the peace.” They based their judgement on subjective responses to the videos by other students saying it made them feel unsafe. The students were given just one day to appeal and a successful appeal would result in multiple tasks including required reading, writing, and community service. Ari Cohn of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education denounced the ruling saying, “Despite objections that these students were being tried as a group, by a biased committee, and ‘represented’ by an agent of the university, Syracuse has the gall to maintain that justice was served.”

---

What do you think about these stories? Leave a comment below!

Recent Free Speech Roundups:

Free Speech Roundup: Week of May 27th, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of May 20th, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of May 13th, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of May 6th, 2018
Free Speech Roundup: Week of Apr. 29th, 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