All articles tagged with #free speech
Barstool founder Dave Portnoy says free speech should come with accountability: you can be criticized for offensive remarks, but there’s a line between holding someone to account and dredging up years of dirt to smear them. He argues that politicians are a different case and even floated a potential run against NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani while promoting his new book Cancel Me If You Can.
A federal lawsuit argues that DHS/ICE has been using “warning notices,” doxxing accusations, and even in-person visits to chill speech by online critics of immigration policy, contending such actions amount to government retaliation against First Amendment-protected commentary. The Verge reports that ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility has opened more than 100 investigations into doxing and alleged threats, while DHS defends its actions as necessary to protect agents. Civil-liberties groups, including FIRE and the EFF, say the approach blurs criticism with threats and could deter lawful dissent, noting DHS’s routine requests to tech platforms for user information as part of broader crackdown on critics. The piece also cites incidents like a Syracuse polling-place warning and the broader pattern of conflating criticism with threats, raising concerns about civil liberties amid security concerns.
A federal appeals court (11th Circuit) ruled that Florida's Stop Woke Act’s higher-education provisions—restricting what professors can teach about race and gender—violate the First Amendment, upholding an injunction and marking a setback for the governor's campus-ideology agenda.
In a 2-1 decision, the 11th Circuit held Florida's Stop WOKE Act violates the First Amendment by restricting how race- and gender-related topics are taught in colleges, reinforcing the prior ruling that the law censors unpopular ideas in the classroom. A dissent argued the First Amendment does not require the state to endorse every viewpoint. The ruling keeps in place blocks on enforcement as Florida continues its legal battles with FIRE and the ACLU.
An upstate New York man, represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, sues ICE after federal agents delivered a warning at his home for an email he sent to acting director Todd Lyons criticizing the agency, arguing his First Amendment rights were violated; the suit notes similar warnings against other residents who criticized ICE online.
David Streever of Rochester, New York, filed a lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security officials alleging his First Amendment rights were violated after federal agents visited his home and tracked his whereabouts following a caustic email to acting ICE director Todd Lyons. The case highlights concerns about DHS tactics toward critics, while a DHS spokesperson says the agency investigates credible threats to employees.
After a 2022 police raid on his Ohio home, Afroman rode a wave of viral videos and a defamation suit against sheriff’s deputies into a national free-speech spotlight; the 2023-24 trial ultimately ruled in Foreman’s favor on all counts, reviving his career, boosting streaming and tour demand, and cementing his status as a First Amendment advocate through satire and a renewed music catalog.
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville settled for $1.9 million with Tamar Shirinian, a former anthropology professor fired after criticizing Charlie Kirk on social media; Shirinian sued, claiming her dismissal violated First Amendment rights, and the case underscores ongoing campus free-speech battles without reinstating her position.
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Kavanaugh, struck down longstanding federal limits on how much national party committees can spend in coordination with candidates, ruling such caps violate the First Amendment. The ruling lets parties spend unlimited money in coordination with candidates while independent expenditures remain unrestricted but must be separate from campaigns. Republicans cheered, arguing the decision levels the playing field, while Democrats warned it empowers billionaires and special interests. The change follows decades of rollback of campaign-finance rules since Citizens United and could boost party spending in the 2026 elections; the old caps—up to about $4 million for Senate races and around $127,000 for large House seats—no longer constrain coordinated spending.
A Syracuse poll worker says ICE agents visited her polling site during New York’s primary to pressure her to delete a six-month-old Instagram post about an ICE agent, prompting concerns over First Amendment rights and worker safety. She asserts that election workers should be safe and not intimidated at polling places, and says she’ll pursue legal options for free-speech violations. Lawmakers are seeking explanations about the emailed/posted visit and the broader use of ICE at polling sites as election-related tensions rise ahead of November.
A Maine election worker says Homeland Security agents left a voicemail and later confronted her inside a polling place about a social-media post criticizing ICE, an encounter critics say could intimidate voters and poll workers; advocates and lawmakers call for limits on federal monitoring of online speech at polling sites and for protections of free expression during elections.
Daniel Sanchez Estrada’s 30-year sentence for transporting a box of antifascist zines in the Prairieland case is framed as a free-speech crisis, showing how NSPM-7 prosecutions risk criminalizing possession of political information and chilling dissent.
A former Meta executive (Wynn-Williams) sues Meta over the memoir Careless People, accusing the company of pressuring and retaliating against her to suppress disclosures about its practices, framed as a matter of free speech and public-interest accountability.
A former Meta director of global public policy, Sarah Wynn-Williams, filed a California lawsuit accusing Meta of illegally trying to suppress publicity around her memoir Careless People through an interim arbitration ruling and non-disparagement clauses, arguing the move violates the First Amendment and was coerced under financial duress. Meta counters that Wynn-Williams is attempting to monetize the book and that the arbitration order related to a severance agreement she signed years ago; the case also highlights Meta’s alleged surveillance of her public appearances.
UFC heavyweight Josh Hokit says his comment that Michelle Obama is a man was meant as a compliment and a nod to freedom of speech, made after his win at Freedom 250 on the White House lawn; the remark drew swift backlash, including from UFC president Dana White, who condemned insults to families, while Helwani pressed Hokit to explain his stance.