first amendment

DICKINSON, TX — The town of Dickinson, Texas is home to just over 20,000 people, an annual crawfish festival, and one of the most absurd requirements for disaster relief imaginable.
The town recently made non-support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign a condition for receiving hurricane aid. How can a small town like Dickinson put forth such a gratuitous disaster relief requirement? In this case, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree — Dickinson is simply following in the footsteps of the entire state of Texas.

Empty seats pockmarked the Georgetown University auditorium where U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke Tuesday about free speech on college campuses, but a hundred students protesting outside the venue said they were denied entry.
Early on in the 35-minute event, the former Alabama senator emphasized that the First Amendment protects everyone from student protesters to professional athletes.

By all means, let’s talk about patriotism and President Trump’s call for “respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem.”

The issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race. It is about respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem. NFL must respect this!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2017

The Seventh Circuit handed a victory to the Libertarian Party on Friday, declaring an Illinois requirement that third parties run a full slate of candidates to get on the ballot unconstitutional.
“We have little difficulty concluding that the full-slate requirement severely burdens the First Amendment rights of minor parties, their members, and voters,” Judge Diane Sykes said, writing for the unanimous panel.

If you thought the militarized police response to Ferguson and Baltimore was bad, brace yourselves. Many police, including beat cops, now routinely carry assault rifles. Combined with body armor and other apparel, many officers look more and more like combat troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thanks to President Trump, this transformation of America into a battlefield is only going to get worse. To be fair, Trump did not create this totalitarian nightmare.

Homeland Security officers improperly searched laptops and smartphones without warrants from people entering the country, 10 U.S. citizens and one green card holder claim in a federal class action Wednesday.
A group representing several Muslims and people of color, the plaintiffs include a military veteran, journalists, students, an artist, a NASA engineer and a business owner.

We are witnessing a politically correct philosophy at play, one shared by both the extreme left and the extreme right, which aims to stifle all expression that doesn’t fit within their parameters of what they consider to be “acceptable” speech.

“If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.” — Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

Forget everything you’ve ever been taught about free speech in America. It’s all a lie. There can be no free speech for the citizenry when the government speaks in a language of force. What is this language of force? Militarized police. Riot squads. Camouflage gear. Black uniforms. Armored vehicles. Mass arrests. Pepper spray. Tear gas. Batons. Strip searches. Surveillance cameras. Kevlar vests. Drones. Lethal weapons. Less-than-lethal weapons unleashed with deadly force. Rubber bullets. Water cannons. Stun grenades. Arrests of journalists. Crowd control tactics. Intimidation tactics.

There was a time in this country, back when the British were running things, that if you spoke your mind and it ticked off the wrong people, you’d soon find yourself in jail for offending the king.