first amendment

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By | January 01, 0001

We the People don't like Washington

The Tube
If you can't quite figure out where Brian Crowley and his buddies stand on the issues, neither can they. All they know is that they love America, the First Amendment, and public access television.
By DANIEL MCGOWAN | September 07, 2011

A libertarian's view of the Barstool/Brady child-porn fiasco

Freedom Watch
Sophisticated First Amendment scholars, lawyers, and media commentators, all of whom are strongly free-speech/free-press supporters, were critical of Coakley for allegedly engaging in a legal bluff — the veiled threat of possible prosecution under the state's child-porn statute — to convince Portnoy to remove the offending and exploitative image from his site.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | August 25, 2011

Don't do that

What the GOP, libertarians, and jellyfish have in common
Republicans and libertarians share many similarities. For instance, members of both groups are generally equipped with bladders.
By AL DIAMON | March 23, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Chafee’s talk radio ban

On the Air
Governor Lincoln Chafee's announcement this week that his administration would forsake talk radio sparked all manner of outrage.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 12, 2011

Strong-arming the First Amendment

Plus activist judges and fat versus gay
President Barack Obama is a bright guy. In fact, he's a former constitutional-law professor.
By EDITORIAL | December 15, 2010

MuckRock City

How two local new-media junkies cut through the red tape and became First-Amendment superstars
Michael Morisy and Mitchell Kotler started their Web site, muckrock.com, as a hobby, and they set out to do something woefully esoteric.
By CHRIS FARAONE | November 17, 2010

Could it happen here?

Press releases
The news a few years back that the Bush administration had convinced the big telecom companies to allow the authorities to spy on customers without warrants, in the name of fighting terrorism, caused a ruckus.
By JEFF INGLIS | September 22, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Cafeteria Americans

The mosque malarkey; constitutional showdown in Cranston
Congratulations to the national Republican Party. Dismissive of the Constitution and thoroughly addicted to whipping up fear and ignorance, they've now managed to get a rise out of the "booboisie" — H.L. Mencken's term for the clueless public — with their demagoguery on the New York "mosque" non-controversy.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | August 18, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

The 13th Annual Muzzle Awards

A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England
A year and a half into the Age of Obama, we are learning a lesson we should have figured out long ago — that repression, once in place, is rarely rolled back all the way, and that liberals no less than conservatives are reluctant to give up power.
By DAN KENNEDY | July 05, 2010

Bully pulpit

Letters to the Boston editor, April 23, 2010
While I understand, appreciate, and respect the First Amendment and our right to speak freely, in the case of bullying, Harvey Silverglate makes a dangerous assumption that “civilized people, even teenagers can intuit the difference between protected speech and criminal harassment.”
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | April 21, 2010

Clearing the air

Letters to the Boston editor, February 12, 2010
Adam Reilly’s analysis of right-wing talk radio’s support of Scott Brown was nearly perfect.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | February 10, 2010

Free speech for me, but not for thee

Freedom Watch
Last Thursday's Supreme Court opinion striking down corporate campaign advertising restrictions might as well have been divorce papers in the rocky marriage between the political left and the First Amendment.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | January 29, 2010

Critical Mass

Over the years, UMass Amherst has proven to be a reliable hotbed for political hypocrisy and squelching of free speech
If free speech is what gives value to the campus "marketplace of ideas," UMass Amherst would long ago have gone bankrupt.
By KYLE SMEALLIE AND HARVEY SILVERGLATE | November 18, 2009

Muzzle Awards: Collegiate Division

New England campuses muzzle free speech
In a 1957 Supreme Court decision upholding the free-speech rights of university professors ( Sweezy v. New Hampshire ), Justice Felix Frankfurter quoted prominent South African scholars on the importance of academic freedom.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | July 10, 2009

Sotomayor's mixed message on free speech

Freedom Watch
Minutes after President Barack Obama announced that he was nominating appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, battle lines were drawn on the pre-scripted questions of "post-racial" America.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 03, 2009

A star is porn

Adult-film star Sasha Grey makes her mainstream debut
"As Steven was saying the other night at the screening, at the end of the day we're all selling something, and we all want something, whether it's monetary or not."
By PETER KEOUGH | May 18, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Menino's promise

Realizing his pledge of flexibility is the key to Boston's future success
Boston's political tribes checked their traditional hostilities at the door this week when they trooped into Faneuil Hall for the inauguration of Mayor Thomas Menino, who took the oath to serve an unprecedented fifth term.
By EDITORIAL | January 06, 2010