Judge Noel Wise pressed government attorneys on how visa-revocation statutes are applied and whether they disproportionately target students who expressed sympathy for Palestinians during Israel's war in Gaza. She also questioned whether a chilling effect on speech, absent any formal enforcement action, is enough to show plaintiffs have been harmed.
The legal challenge centers on a 6 September letter Morath sent to school superintendents across Texas, instructing them to report educators who made what he termed reprehensible and inappropriate remarks about Kirk, who was shot and killed on 10 September while speaking at Utah Valley University. Public school teachers and other employees do not surrender their first amendment rights simply by virtue of their employment, the lawsuit reads.
It's not just courts telling these lawmakers they are wrong. EFF has spent the past year filing friend-of-the-court briefs in courts across the country explaining how these laws violate young people's First Amendment rights to speak and get information online. In the process, these laws also burden adults' rights, and jeopardize everyone's privacy and data security.
Texas A&M University will not reinstate Melissa McCoul, the instructor fired in September after a video showing a student confronting her over a gender identity lesson went viral, New York Times reported.
VIP argued that under the standard developed by the Second Circuit in Rogers v. Grimaldi 875 F. 2d 994 (2d Cir. 1980), an infringement claim against an expressive work must be dismissed unless a complainant proves the work "(1) has no artistic relevance to the underlying work and (2) explicitly misleads as to the source or content of the work."
When the U.S. government cut funding for local news stations, the Knight Foundation moved quickly to help stabilize a rapidly eroding industry. President and CEO Maribel Pérez Wadsworth unpacks the evolving roles of philanthropy and government, and why philanthropic organizations must learn to move at the speed of the news cycle. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian.
And while the paper he wrote about killing Mexicans and disenfranchising non-whites got him some notoriety, he wasn't in trouble over it per se. He got in trouble after he took to Twitter to announce that " Jews should be abolished by any means." That tweet was read as a threat by the university and prompted them to expel Damsky to prevent the campus from becoming hostile.
But moments before the Nov. 14 media event began, the Oakland Police Department barred the Peralta Citizen reporter from entering, a remarkable blockade against a college newspaper covering a national story about beloved Laney coach John Beam, who was fatally shot on campus a day earlier. The reason? The Citizen reporter an associate editor had not first obtained a police-issued press credential.
In this episode of The Briefing, Scott Hervey and Richard Buckley break down Campbell Soup Co. v. Campbell for Congress, the lawsuit over a political candidate's "Soup4Change" slogan and AI-generated soup can design. They cover the backstory, the trademark and First Amendment arguments, and how the Hershey case may influence the court's view of political campaign branding. Tune in for a clear look at where trademark law meets political speech.
First filed in August, the suit alleges the administration has used immigration policies to suppress protected speech by student activists and journalists. It names Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as defendants. The plaintiffs the newspaper and two individuals using aliases are challenging two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that they say let the government punish noncitizens for exercising protected speech.
The law requires platforms to use "commercially reasonable methods," which it says include a screen that prompts the user to enter a birth date. However, NetChoice argues that Virginia could go beyond this requirement, citing a post from Governor Youngkin on X, stating "platforms must verify age," potentially referring to stricter methods, like having users submit a government ID or other personal information.
Since late January, leaders at liberal foundations and donor networks have been preparing for a legal assault by federal agencies. That moment finally arrived in September, when, in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directed federal prosecutors to investigate the Open Society Foundations on a range of possible criminal charges, reportedly on orders from the White House.
