Home : Free Speech

test

ACLU Urges Restoration of Reasonable Limits on Media Cross-Ownership (05/15/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC -- The ACLU urges members of Congress to support a resolution (S.J. Res 28), reversing the FCC’s Broadcast Cross-Ownership Rule.

ACLU Skeptical of Senate Report on "Homegrown" Terrorism (05/08/2008)
Washington, DC – After Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a report on Islamic homegrown terrorism today, the American Civil Liberties Union strongly urged Congress to use caution when moving forward on related legislation, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (S. 1959). The report, "Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorism Threat," is based on findings from hearings held by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The ACLU and nearly twenty other groups sent a memo to the committee outlining concerns with the report, most notably the free speech implications of labeling the internet as a "weapon" and the unfair singling out of one religious group as possible "extremists."

ACLU Commends Net Neutrality Hearing (05/06/2008)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union commends Chairman Edward Markey (D-MA) of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet for holding a hearing today on the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008 (H.R. 5353), legislation designed to keep the Internet free for open discourse.

Booksellers, Publishers, Librarians and Others Challenge Censorship Law (04/28/2008)
PORTLAND, Ore. - Should a grandmother have to risk being charged with a crime if she gives her 7-year-old grandson a copy of "It's Perfectly Normal," a sex education book widely regarded as among the best available?

Senate Poised To Tighten Broadcast Ownership Rules (04/24/2008)
Washington, DC – Today, the Senate Commerce Committee is expected to approve a bipartisan resolution, sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), which would restore a media ownership rule recently rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The old rule generally restricted a company from owning both a newspaper and a television station in the same city, unless the FCC granted a waiver.

Botetourt County Promises to Repeal Ordinance Placing Time Limits on Campaign Signs (04/22/2008)
Botetourt County, VA - Botetourt County Administrator Gerald Burgess has informed the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia that a local ordinance prohibiting the posting of campaign signs on private property more than 60 days in advance of an election will be repealed in the near future and will not be enforced in the interim.

ACLU: Keep the Internet Open and Innovative (04/17/2008)
Washington, DC –The ACLU submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today calling for open access to the internet. Its activists plan to participate in today’s FCC public hearing on Internet freedom and net neutrality in Palo Alto.

ACLU Encouraged By Bipartisan Support of Shield Bill (04/15/2008)
Washington, DC - After reports that the three major presidential candidates expressed support for The Free Flow of Information Act, the American Civil Liberties Union asked the Senate leadership to use that momentum to bring H.R. 2102, the House-passed version of the bill, to the floor for a vote. Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) all signaled their support for a federal shield bill yesterday, with Senator McCain announcing his backing in a speech and Senators Clinton and Obama adding their names as co-sponsors of the Senate version of the bill.

Berryville Revises Demonstration Ordinance Under Pressure from ACLU and VOP (04/15/2008)
Berryville, VA – Less than a month after the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the Virginia Organizing Project threatened to file a lawsuit, the Town Council of Berryville has repealed its old demonstration and parade ordinance and passed a new one.

ACLU Encouraged By Bipartisan Support of Shield Bill (04/15/2008)
Washington, DC - After reports that the three major presidential candidates expressed support for The Free Flow of Information Act, the American Civil Liberties Union asked the Senate leadership to use that momentum to bring H.R. 2102, the House-passed version of the bill, to the floor for a vote. Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) all signaled their support for a federal shield bill yesterday, with Senator McCain announcing his backing in a speech and Senators Clinton and Obama adding their names as co-sponsors of the Senate version of the bill.

ACLU Introduces First Amendment Argument In Key Patent Law Case (04/04/2008)
WASHINGTON - Introducing a rare argument applying the First Amendment to patent law, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a friend of the court brief today urging a federal court to uphold the denial of a patent that would, if awarded, violate freedom of speech. In the brief, the ACLU argues that Bernard L. Bilski is seeking a patent for an abstract idea, and that abstract ideas are not patentable under the First Amendment.

Protect Mourners' Rights, But Not at Expense of First Amendment (04/04/2008)
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The quiet reverence of a funeral service held in honor of a fallen soldier is punctuated by the jarring retort of a 21-gun salute. A folded American flag, once draping the coffin of the deceased, is handed respectfully to the surviving spouse. A few short words "from a grateful nation" are uttered, followed by a crisp salute and the solemn playing of "Taps." A few yards away mulls a group of protesters holding signs and chanting "Thank God for dead soldiers." It's the juxtaposition of these two rituals that is at the heart of one University of Missouri professor's examination of the legal issues surrounding privacy and free speech.