The First Amendment chains the government, not the individual.
Free Speech
Free Speech Protects Profit-Makers, Too
For a century after the Civil War, blacks in America's South were subjected to shameful acts of oppression and violence. Deprived of voice and vote, they had no choice but to suffer mutely as they were scurrilously attacked. Two California-based lawsuits indicate that...
Letter to Janeane Garofalo: Confusing Free Speech with Nazism
Dear Janeane, You are an idiot of breathtaking proportions. This is incontrovertible based on your recent statement that said: "Hate mail bothers me less than what happens to the Dixie Chicks. There are boycotts and guys driving tractors over their CDs - that's Nazi...
First Amendment Bull: Tim Robbins vs. Free Speech
Lately, it seems as if almost every week some leftist celebrity finds the time and energy to publicly demonstrate their gross misunderstanding of a simple two-word phrase: "free speech." Although few people expect them to be literate enough to read the second...
Nike, Free Speech and the Constitution
Nike v. Kasky presents the Supreme Court with an opportunity to undo some of the constitutional damage resulting from the so-called "commercial speech doctrine," the Court's test for deciding whether self-interested speech is entitled to First Amendment protection....
Dixie Chicks in the Frying Pan, but Free Speech Isn’t
Dixie Chicks lead clucker Natalie Maines has fans wanting to kick her in the tail feathers. Cumulus Broadcasting is even banning the Chicks from all its 260 stations. Some have suggested, however, that the Cumulus decision violates Maines' First Amendment rights. "I...
Shackling Nike: Supreme Court Should End the Distinction Between Political and Economic Speech
Nike is an innocent victim of this Court’s rigid insistence on maintaining the commercial speech doctrine.
“Hate Crime” Legislation is an Assault on Free Speech
If images of people being persecuted for "thought crimes" strike you as the stuff of science fiction -- or, at worst, something that happened when communism was at its height and jackboots were storming Europe -- get ready for a wake-up call. It comes from Britain....
Permission to Speak: The End of Free Speech
Two recent events show the real meaning of two popular ideas: "hate speech" regulations and campaign finance controls. The real meaning of both is the end of free speech. The first story comes from Canada, where "hate speech" laws are already on the books. Last week,...
The Canadian Government vs. Free Speech
There are two principles that taken together are the cornerstone of freedom. One is that an individual has a right to his life. The other is that an individual has the right to speak uncoerced. Today, the 2nd right is under threat in Canada. According to Ray Girn,...
Ayn Rand Institute’s “In Moral Defense Of Israel” Released By Candian Government
IRVINE, CA--After a three-day detention, Canadian Customs released today a shipment of newsletters from the Ayn Rand Institute titled "In Moral Defense of Israel." Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, said "The detainment at the Canadian...
Anti-Capitalist Demonstrators and Freedom of Speech
Last weekend's anti-capitalist demonstrations in Washington were every bit what most observers expected them to be: sessions in idiocy, lunacy and general mayhem. As expected, portions of the city were significantly impacted by the demonstrations and despite almost...
Censorship in Canada
The University of Toronto Objectivist Club is having an event this Sunday entitled "The Moral Case for Supporting Israel". The club ordered from the Ayn Rand Institute 350 complimentary copies of a pamphlet entitled "In Moral Defense of Israel". (PDF). Yesterday...
Censorship on Campus? Time to Privatize America’s Universities
The terrorist attacks of September 11, according to many college professors, have claimed another victim: free speech on campus. They contend that a chilling climate has arisen, in which they hesitate to voice ideas critical of America for fear of reprimand by...
Corporate Scandals: Where the Real Accountability Lies
By centralizing how accounting must be performed, Congress is trying to control the quality and content of information necessary for the markets to function properly. Once information is in the hands of the government, it’s only a short walk to actually dictating and managing outcomes.
Judicial Ad Hocracy: The Right to Free Speech is Not the “Right to an Audience”
Maybe it was not the most important case before the Supreme Court of the United States. But still it was a galling example of the way some justices casually wave aside the rights of ordinary people for the sake of some special interest that they favor. The case...
“Campaign Finance Reform” Regulates Free Speech
The Enron scandal was welcomed like an unexpected Christmas present by Democrats who, together with much of the media, have tried to tie the scandal to the Bush administration. However, as more and more information has come out about Enron, it has become clear that...
Why New Campaign Finance Laws Will Punish Free Speech, But Not Corruption
Newsflash: The woman who helped launder Al Gore's Buddhist temple money has not served a single day in jail. And she probably never will. The hidden story of how funny money honey Maria Hsia escaped any meaningful punishment for corrupting our election system shows...
Attacks on Free Speech
The genie cannot be kept in the bottle.
Activism Alert: Campaign Finance Regulation vs. Free Speech
The House Republican leadership announced that on Wednesday, February 13, 2002 campaign finance regulation legislation will be brought to the floor for a vote. A similar bill has already passed in the Senate and if passed by the House, this legislation threatens a...
Communists for Free Speech and Property Rights?
Some statements are so outrageous that they stand apart from all others. In my opinion, the winner this week for the most lunatic goes to the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA). According to the Library Journal Academic News Wire of April 26, 2001, the CPUSA...
The McCain-Feingold Gag Order
You don’t end bribery and corruption by banning contributions to campaigns. Instead, you simply step up prosecution against bribery and corruption.
Storm Troopers Vs. Free Speech
Despite media proclamations of "the public's right to know" and frequent invocations of the First Amendment, there has been a deafening silence from the national media over the storm trooper tactics used on college campuses against student newspapers that carried a...
Free Speech and Campaign Contributions
To the majority, the pragmatic goal of “avoiding the appearance of corruption” is more important than the First Amendment. One wonders if the limit of this line of non-thinking is that only individuals speaking on soap boxes ultimately have protected speech.
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