Gates pushes for omnibus spending bill despite earmarks

Free speech cases at top of Supreme Court's agenda
The Court will look at provocative Anti-gay Protests at Military Funerals and a California law banning the sale of violent Video Games to Children. These cases worry free Speech advocates, who fear the Court could limit First Amendment freedoms. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees such basic rights as Freedom of Speech, religion and assembly. The Funeral Protest Lawsuit, over signs praising American war deaths, "is one of those cases that tests our commitment to the First...

Free speech cases top Supreme Court docket
Another case involves a different aspect of the First Amendment, the government's relationship to religion. The Justices will decide whether Arizona's Income Tax Credit Scholarship program, in essence, directs state money to religious schools in violation of the constitutional Separation of Church and State. Under Chief Justice John Roberts, marking his fifth anniversary on the Court, and with the replacement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor by Justice Samuel Alito, the Court has been more...

Free speech: Westboro church Supreme Court case tests First Amendment
A Supreme Court case challenging the Westboro Baptist Church Anti-gay Protests will test the limits of free Speech, with First Amendment implications for other forms of expression such as Quran burning and Racist demonstrations.

Westboro Baptist's funeral protests put free speech to test
WASHINGTON — The most vexing free Speech fight in years confronts the Supreme Court on Wednesday, pitting a loud-mouthed, Anti-gay Kansas Church against a grieving Pennsylvania father. The father, Albert Snyder, has already won the Popular Vote hands-down. Forty-eight states support him. So do 42 senators and all the major Veterans' organizations. The constitutional tally, though, isn't nearly so simple. "The government may not curtail Speech simply because the...

Supreme Court term has free-speech and immigration cases
Washington (Reuters) - The Supreme Court will consider important cases on Anti-gay Protests at Military Funerals, violent Video Games and Immigration Law during its new term that begins on Monday. The nine-member High Court will open its 2010-11 term with a new member on the bench, Justice Elena Kagan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama. Kagan succeeded Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired in June. She probably will not change the Court's balance of power, which is widely seen as...

Supreme Court term has free-speech and immigration cases
Washington (Reuters) - The Supreme Court will consider important cases on Anti-gay Protests at Military Funerals, violent Video Games and Immigration Law during its new term that begins on Monday. The nine-member High Court will open its 2010-11 term with a new member on the bench, Justice Elena Kagan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama. Kagan succeeded Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired in June. She probably will not change the Court's balance of power, which is widely seen as...

Free speech cases closely watched as Supreme Court begins 2010-11 term with 3 female justices
Washington — First Amendment cases top the Supreme Court's docket as it begins a new Term with a new Justice and three women on the bench for the First time. The Court will look at provocative Anti-gay Protests at Military Funerals and a California Law banning the sale of violent Video Games to Children. These cases worry free Speech advocates, who fear the Court could limit First Amendment freedoms. The Funeral Protest Lawsuit, over signs praising American war deaths, "is one of those...

Free speech: Some First Amendment landmarks
The First Amendment right to free Speech is the most widely understood US constitutional provision.

Funeral protests test limits of free speech at Supreme Court
On Wednesday, Oct. 6, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a potentially groundbreaking First Amendment case. Known as Snyder v. Phelps, it pits a grieving father who lost his son in Iraq against zealous religious Protesters in a test of just how far someone can push the boundaries of free Speech. The case perhaps couldnt have more vilified defendants the infamous Phelps family of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas are known for their Protests at Military Funerals, where they...

Tim Phillips in Washington Times: Obama's ironic attack on free speech
With the country broadly rejecting President Obama's agenda and grass-roots citizens across the nation uniting in search of Fiscal Responsibility and limited government, the president is on the offensive. He is leveling a series of false attacks in an attempt to undermine Americans for Prosperity (AFP). However, on this issue, our constitutional-lawyer-in-chief needs some correction. In a series of Fundraising speeches for Democratic Candidates, Mr. Obama has stated repeatedly that because of...

Mich. assistant attorney general's blog targeting gay student leader raises free speech issues
LANSING, MICH. — An assistant Attorney General is using his personal blog to target the Openly Gay leader of the University of Michigan's Student assembly. Andrew Shirvell claims he has the right to say whatever he wants outside work, including calling 21-year-old Chris Armstrong a Racist with a "radical Homosexual agenda." It's raising questions about how far a Civil Servant can go — and if it should affect his job. Attorney General Mike Cox said Thursday the posts are...

Free Speech? Michigan Assistant Attorney General's Blog Targets Homosexual Student Leader
Friday, October 01, 2010 By Kathy Barks Hoffman, Associated Press Lansing, Mich. (AP) - An assistant Attorney General is using his personal blog to target the Openly Gay leader of the University of Michigan's Student assembly, calling him a Racist with a "radical Homosexual agenda." The lawyer claims that when he's not at work, he has the right to say whatever he wants. But the vociferous criticism has raised questions of just how far a Civil Servant can go, and whether Andrew Shirvell's...

More Free Air Time: MSNBC Maddow Show Airs Almost Ten Minutes of Obama DNC Speech, Obama's NBC PSA
While Liberals complain that Fox News is too helpful in offering its air time for Republican Candidates and campaigns, MSNBC continued the recent string of NBC-Universal properties bowing to President Obama with gobs of unchallenged free air time. On Thursday night's Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC offered two large chunks of a Speech Obama gave to the DNC's "Gen 44" initiative for Young People. Seconds before the first Speech clip, MSNBC aired a 15-second NBC Public service Announcement...

Pickering Free Speech Rights and Cyberbullying by Public Employees
“Welcome to ‘Chris Armstrong Watch,’” Shirvell wrote in his inaugural blog post. “This is a site for concerned University of Michigan alumni, Students, and others who oppose the recent election of Chris Armstrong — a RADICAL Homosexual Activist, Racist, ELITIST, & LIAR — as the new head of Student government.” Among other things, Shirvell has published blog posts that accuse Armstrong of going back on a campaign promise he made to minority...

Video: Camp Politics and free speech
My friends at the Institute for Justice have a new project, Protecting Citizen Speech , which defends the First Amendment from government encroachment by politicians looking to protect their incumbencies, and not just on the federal level. As IJ notes, states impose Campaign-finance laws that restrict Freedom of Speech and association in even more egregious ways than attempted through McCain-Feingold, and are in some ways more difficult to fight. While some laws attempt to rely more on...

Swedish artist, his Phila. speech on freedom canceled by threat, meets with media
Inquirer Staff Writer Lars Vilks, a conceptual artist from Sweden with a $100,000 bounty on his head, could be found secreted away in a room at the Rittenhouse Hotel Thursday morning, receiving carefully screened visitors from the media. Vilks is on a weeklong tour of the United States and Canada, speaking about freedom of expression. He had been scheduled to hold forth at the Union League Thursday, but late Wednesday, the event was abruptly called off. Craig Snider, a Union League member who...

WILL U.S. SUPREME COURT EXEMPT CORPORATIONS FROM ALIEN TORT LAW--EVEN AS U.S. STATES CAN STILL BE BROUGHT TO COURT?
"(3) Under International Law, corporations are not liable for violations, and any such norm of corporate liability is far from "specific, universal, and obligatory.'" On the other hand, what the Second Court has ignored (and what many legal eagles fail to note) is that this issue dates back to 1789 US Legislation, called the Alien Torts Statute. The ATS Law apparently came into being after Europeans in America were initially unable to seek resort to American Courts when beaten up, attacked or...

Supreme Court Begins New Term Monday
Justice Elena Kagan will take the bench of the Supreme Court on Monday, joining her eight colleagues for the First day of arguments of the 2010 term. '); } The term's docket features a variety of issues related to the First Amendment , the death penalty , states' rights and prosecutorial misconduct, but the docket is overshadowed by what looms in the future: potential challenges to Health Care Legislation, Same-Sex Marriage and Immigration Reform. Those issues are currently working...

Kagan won't help Supreme Court decide many of this term's cases
Washington — The newest Supreme Court Justice will be missing in Action during much of the Court's historic term that starts Monday, Oct. 4. From Video violence to Immigration enforcement, the Court's 2010-2011 term will confront some of the nation's toughest controversies. For Justice Elena Kagan, however, the nine-month session will be a start-and-stop affair. For everyone else, this could prove consequential. Because of her work as the Obama Administration's former...

Feds Try to Save Law Punishing Military Phonies
Friday, October 01, 2010 By Dan Elliott, Associated Press (AP) - The Justice Department will appeal two Court decisions that said a Federal law making it illegal to lie about being a war hero is Unconstitutional. Prosecutors in Colorado said Friday they'll appeal a Denver Federal Court ruling that the Stolen Valor Act violates free Speech. A California appeals Court also found the law Unconstitutional. Late Thursday, prosecutors asked that Court to reconsider. The law makes it a crime...

Obama Admin Targets Pro-Lifers in FBI Training Forum That Partnered Pro-Abortion Orgs
Topics: Life Issues , Political News and commentaries It seems that the Obama Administration sees the real enemy America faces is not Radical Islam - it's Pro-Life Americans , as evidenced by the news that the Obama Administration partnered with leading pro-abortion organizations to host an FBI training seminar in August with the main focus of declaring as "violent" the free Speech activities of Pro-Life Americans. Protecting baby-killing facilities from idiots that commit violence is one...

Assistant AG suspended over gay-bashing blog
Source: The Detroit News Attorney General Mike Cox changed his stance Thursday, suspending Andrew Shirvell after the assistant Attorney General attracted national attention for a Controversial blog that ridicules and denounces a University of Michigan Student leader for his Gay advocacy, religious beliefs and character. The suspension came a day after Cox told CNN he didn't intend to fire Shirvell, citing civil service rules that protect government employees from being "fired willy-nilly"...

Assistant AG takes leave amid gay-bashing controversy (update: not suspension)
Source: The Detroit News Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell had been suspended. An assistant Attorney General who has attracted national attention for a Controversial blog that ridicules and denounces a University of Michigan Student leader for his Gay advocacy, religious beliefs and character has taken a personal leave following intense public scrutiny, a spokesman for Attorney General Mike Cox said today. Cox...

Homophobic Assistant Attorney General Takes a Personal Leave, His Boss Takes the Blame
Andrew Shirvell, the Michigan assistant Attorney General who launched a bigoted Internet offensive against the University of Michigan's gay Student-body president, announced today that he's taking personal leave from his job. The news comes one day after his employer, Attorney General Mike Cox, defended Shirvell's right to hate-blog in his free time on CNN on the grounds that it fell under free Speech and that Shirvell was protected by civil-service rules that prevent employees from unfair...

Assistant AG takes leave amid gay-bashing controversy
Shirvell's decision to go on leave came a day after Cox told CNN he didn't intend to fire Shirvell, citing civil service rules that protect government employees from being "fired willy-nilly" for exercising their rights of free Speech. Cox said he hadn't earlier read all of Shirvell's blog, "Chris Armstrong Watch," which dogs Armstrong, the 21-year-old, Openly Gay president of U-M's Student government and accuses him of "anti-Christian behavior," "mocking God," promoting Homosexuality and...