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Free Speech

Exterior view of Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, May 2, 2012. Facebook will go public on May 18, a Wall Street Journal report says, in one of the most highly anticipated tech initial public offerings since Google went public in August 2004. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Facebook 'Like' button not free speech, judge rules

Last updated Friday, May 4, 2012 - 10:16am

NORFOLK, Va. -- The "like" button on Facebook seems like a relatively clear way to express your support for something, but a federal judge says that doesn't mean clicking it is constitutionally protected speech.

Courts, Facebook, Free Speech, Politics, National Read more Comments

Dan Mach, the national American Civil Liberties Union’s director of Freedom of Religion, presents “Polygamy, Peyote and the Pledge of Allegiance” at Weber State University in Ogden on Wednesday. (ERIN HOOLEY/Standard-Examiner)

ACLU speaker: Courts key to freedom of religion, expression

Nancy Van Valkenburg Standard-Examiner

Last updated Thursday, April 5, 2012 - 8:26pm

OGDEN — Americans treasure their freedom of speech and freedom of religion, along with the ability to deny both to people they don’t like.

So Dan Mach, director of Freedom of Religion for the American Civil Liberties Union, told an audience at Weber State University on Wednesday.

ACLU, American Indians, Bigamy, Book of Mormon, Constitution, Courts, Event, First Amendment, Free Speech, Guest speaker, Idaho, Mark Twain, Native Americans, Pledge of Allegiance, Religion, Supreme Court, U.S. Constitution, U.S. Supreme Court, Utah, Utah history, Weber State University, Featured, LDS Church Read more Comments

Participants in Occupy Ogden carry a tent to their protest site in front of the Ogden Federal Building on Monday as they demonstrate against Congress’s proposed expansion of laws regarding the detention and trials of Americans accused of terrorism. Protesters say, if approved, the laws would stifle freedom of speech. (Contributed photo)

Occupy Ogden: Congress infringing on rights

JaNae Francis Standard-Examiner

Last updated Monday, December 12, 2011 - 11:30pm

OGDEN -- The right of all Americans to a trial by their peers was at the heart of a protest at noon Monday by about 20 members of the Occupy Ogden movement.

Marching and chanting at the Ogden Federal Building, the protesters expressed their concern over the U.S. Senate's National Defense Authorization Act, Senate Bill 1867, passed Dec. 1 by a vote of 93-7.

Civil Rights, Congress, Free Speech, Legislation, Occupy Ogden, Occupy protestors, Sen. Orrin Hatch, Terrorism, Utah, Featured Read more Comments

Kansas governor apologizes for flap over student tweet

Michael Muskal Los Angeles Times

Last updated Monday, November 28, 2011 - 5:02pm

LOS ANGELES -- Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on Monday apologized for his staff's response to an 18-year-old student's tweet about him.

Free Speech, Kansas, Politics, Sam Brownback, Social media, Twitter, National Read more Comments

Old laws against cussing are history

Kate Thayer Chicago Tribune

Last updated Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - 5:28pm

Police can't tell you to watch your mouth -- that's best left up to mothers.

Kurt Lash, a law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said it's not uncommon for local municipalities to have old laws that address profanity, such as the one recently deleted by the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge. The problem is they violate First Amendment rights, Lash said.

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Muslim students guilty of disrupting Israeli envoy's speech

Mike Anton, Nicole Santa Cruz Los Angeles Times

Last updated Friday, September 23, 2011 - 2:21pm

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- After more than two days of deliberation, an Orange County jury on Friday found 10 Muslim students guilty of two misdemeanors to conspire and then disrupt a February 2010 speech at the University of California, Irvine, last year by the Israeli ambassador to the United States.

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Police: USU student won’t be cited for flag desecration after all

The Associated Press The Associated Press

Last updated Saturday, July 9, 2011 - 10:55pm

LOGAN — Cache County officials say a Utah State University student and a friend will not receive a citation for writing a political statement on an American flag and carrying it during a Fourth of July parade.

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Nazi salute case to go to Supreme Court

J.M. Brown, Santa Cruz Sentinel

Last updated Friday, May 6, 2011 - 8:47am

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- The city of Santa Cruz plans to appeal its loss in the Robert Norse free-speech case to the U.S. Supreme Court next month unless a settlement agreement can be reached with the longtime government critic, officials confirmed Thursday.

The city has hired a high-powered Supreme Court expert to file the appeal if an agreement isn't reached with Norse, who filed suit in federal court nearly a decade ago alleging the city violated his First Amendment rights by ejecting him from a 2002 City Council meeting. The 63-year-old activist was arrested after refusing an order to leave the meeting, which city officials said he disrupted by raising a mock Nazi salute.

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