Free speech roundup

  • University of Montana professors who refuse Title IX training to be reported to federal government [FIRE, more, Missoulian] Professor yanked from public-university classroom over offensive out-of-class tweet [Popehat, Peter Bonilla/FIRE]
  • Preacher/historical fantasist/horrible human being Scott Lively has probably accomplished more actual evil in life than the picketers of the Westboro Baptist Church, yet it raises disturbing First Amendment questions to let him be sued in U.S. court for having urged foreign governments to be more oppressive [NBC News]
  • Speaking of wacky preachers, Florida sheriff says Terry Jones arrested for unlawful fuel transport and open gun carry, not because anyone disagreed with his speech [Orlando Sentinel, Volokh]
  • Critical speech annoys elected officials and that’s one reason we keep having to fight about campaign regulation [Barton Hinkle, Brad Smith on McCutcheon case, Ilya Shapiro on Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus]
  • Minnesota: “Ban on ‘Advis[ing or] Encourag[ing] … Another’ to Commit Suicide Violates First Amendment” [Eugene Volokh] Pennsylvania: “Crime to ‘Disparag[e]’ an Under-18-Year-Old ‘With Intent to Harass’?” [same] Liking Facebook page presumptively protected speech [same] Veto override fails, so Missouri won’t enact proposed ban on publishing names of gun owners or concealed carry permit holders [same, followup]
  • Danish-Iranian artist convicted of “racism” after critical comments re: Muslim men [Copenhagen Post via @ClaudiaHajian]

2 Comments

  • The post on Terry Jones is a little dated but at the time, the wife of the other man in the truck with Jones said that both Jones and her husband had current open carry permits from the State of Florida. She also said that the truck in which the kerosine was improperly stored and pulling the trailer with the grill full of kerosine soaked Korans belonged to her husband who was driving.

    I couldn’t find anything in the Florida statutes that allowed for the arrest of the passenger of the vehicle to be charged with the “improper fuel container” charge, but I fully admit I could have missed it.

    Something doesn’t add up here.

    (And frankly, given the circumstances surrounding the vehicle stop, I am not willing to rule out that Jones and his followers aren’t being truthful and set the whole arrest thing up for publicity.)

  • “… the wife of the other man in the truck with Jones said that both Jones and her husband had current open carry permits from the State of Florida”

    As a Florida CCL holder, I’d like to point out that there is no such thing as an “open carry permit” in the State of Florida. This is covered under Florida Statute FS 790.053.

    There are exceptions to the statute. It is legal to open carry when hunting, fishing, trapping, and while at work. This is covered under FS 790.25(3)(h), (j) and (k). “Anyone, while fishing, camping, or hunting….or while going to, or coming from fishing, camping, or hunting is exempt from the prohibition on open carry.”

    But again, there is no such animal as an “open carry permit” here.