First Amendment News
The Daily Signal covers First Amendment news with reporting, analysis, and commentary on free expression, press freedom, and religious rights.
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news
NOT SO FAST, MICKEY: FCC Puts Disney in the Hot Seat Over DEI
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr is pushing back after a TV broadcaster owned by the Walt Disney Company accused the commission of violating the First Amendment. WABC-TV, a New York affiliate of the American Broadcasting Corp., objected to the FCC ordering the station to apply for early license renewal amid an investigation into so-called… -
opinion
Cities Church Invasion Inspires Nationwide Movement to Protect Houses of Worship
When a horde of agitators took over a St. Paul, Minnesota, church service in January, shouting, “Who shut this down? We shut this down!” it unwittingly inspired a nationwide effort to defend the sanctity of church services. Four states have already passed laws cracking down on disrupting church services, and more legislatures are considering action…. -
news
Ohio Christian Organization Considers ‘Legal Recourse’ as Proposed Crosses Rejected
The Center for Christian Virtue is prepared to pursue legal action after the group’s proposal for displaying three crosses on top of its building was rejected by the city of Columbus, Ohio. The unanimous decision against the center, a 501(c)(3) family policy organization in downtown Columbus, was made on April 28 by six members of… -
news
Amy Acton ‘Domestic Dispute’ Report Stirring Up Ohio Governor’s Race
A recent report that police were called to the home of gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton during a 2019 “domestic dispute” is raising questions as the election race heats up in Ohio. Over the weekend, NBC News reported that Ohio’s former health director shattered a mirror pulled off the wall during a “verbal argument” with her… -
news
Judge Finds Cutting Taxpayer Funding From NPR and PBS Violates First Amendment
A judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from ending taxpayer funding of National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss of the District of Columbia determined President Donald Trump’s executive order stopping funding was not lawful because the First Amendment “does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this… -
news
First Grader’s ‘Any Life’ Message Sparks Major First Amendment Ruling
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of an elementary school student’s First Amendment rights after she was punished for adding the words “any life” to a picture of “Black Lives Matter.” The student, with the initials B.B., said she added the message while in first grade in 2021, inspired by a… -
opinion
Never Let Leftists Say They Are the First Amendment Stalwarts
The leftist media cabal constantly imagines itself as the grand embodiment of democracy and freedom of speech, even as it seeks to put Republicans in jail and hopes to censor them from speaking on social media. It doesn’t live up to its First Amendment boasting. For example, there’s “CNN International” host Christiane Amanpour, whose leftist… -
opinion
Free Speech Is on Life Support in the UK
Every day that goes by brings more confirmation that Vice President JD Vance was right: Europe has a massive free speech problem. And nowhere is it seemingly worse than the U.K. According to a report from Fox News, a 71-year-old retired special constable from Kent, England, sued the Kent Police (who he’d served for more than a… -
news
Free Speech Thrives Online: Welcome to ‘Era of Rumble’
Rumble is experiencing record revenues, revealing more content creators, and consumers are turning to the platform that upholds free speech in America and around the world. Rumble, a free speech video and cloud service platform, earned $30.2 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024, a 48% year-over-year increase. Rumble’s monthly active users averaged… -
opinion
Zuckerberg’s ‘Free Speech’ Pivot Falls Short: Here’s How Meta Can Make It Right
For far too long, tech monopolies have controlled free speech and political discourse online. It’s been incredibly clear that they have regularly restricted conservative speech—whether it be as overt as silencing full media organizations for sharing the Hunter Biden laptop story or as unknown as suspending your grandmother’s Facebook account for sharing a “spicy” meme… -
news
EXCLUSIVE: ADF Investigates Free Speech Violations by US Science Agency
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A religious liberty law firm has launched an investigation into censorship of Americans’ free speech within the government’s science agency. Alliance Defending Freedom’s Center for Free Speech filed two public records requests shared with The Daily Signal to federal government agencies seeking information related to possible free speech violations within the… -
opinion
What Does an Executive Action Add to the First Amendment?
It’s hardly a sign of civic health when a president begins his term by instructing his subordinates to abide by the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. Yet within hours of his oath of office, President Donald Trump did just that. In an executive action styled as “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship,”… -
news
Justices Skeptical of Porn Websites’ First Amendment Claims in Age-Verification Challenge
Free speech online is “imperiled” by a Texas law requiring multinational pornography websites to verify that their users are at least 18 years old, the lawyer representing them at the Supreme Court said Wednesday. Most of the Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical, although the pornographers appeared to have found two zealous defenders on the bench…. -
opinion
Facebook Embraces Free Speech: The Masses Win, the Experts Lose
The times, they are a-changing. The balance of power in the perhaps eternal battle between the experts and the masses has been shifting starkly, even wildly, with the former losing and the latter gaining clout. That’s been most visible in the series of announcements and selfies emanating from the gaudy precincts of Mar-a-Lago. The experts… -
opinion
The Kids Online Safety Act Prioritizes Kids and Free Speech
Big Tech is terrified that unfettered access to our children is close to an end. And when industry business models thrive on luring minors, they have every reason to be paranoid of the Kids Online Safety Act. That bill has been one of the most clamored-for pieces of legislation in the 118th Congress. Designed as… -
opinion
Court Rightly Rejects TikTok’s First Amendment Claims in Divestiture Fight
Courts are increasingly asked to “apply long-standing First Amendment principles to somewhat novel facts” involving digital social media. They have performed this task often—if not well—in recent cases such as NetChoice v. Paxton, Murthy v. Missouri, and Anderson v. TikTok. The mixed lessons from these efforts were on display in the latest installment in this juridical… -
opinion
What Does Harris Think About the First Amendment? Her Record Screams: ‘Not Much.’
Americans have grown accustomed to empty sloganeering from candidates during election seasons. But we know that what a candidate says on the campaign trail means little. What they do in office—and with the office—is what matters. Vice President Kamala Harris has built a lengthy record over decades in various elected offices. We don’t have to wonder what she would do. We already know… -
opinion
How Artificial Intelligence Is Testing the ‘Bounds of the First Amendment’
Artificial intelligence technology is making its way into more areas of daily life. But there are still many unknowns about AI, including major legal questions about the ways the technology should be governed, and which AI-generated speech is, or is not, protected under the First Amendment. Generative AI, in its most basic form, is “trained on… -
opinion
The First Amendment Was ‘the Most Revolutionary Part of the American Revolution,’ Law Professor Turley Says
“Free Speech defines us, and that is the awakening that we all have to try to work towards,” George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley says. Turley made his remarks on this week’s episode of “The Kevin Roberts Show” podcast. In his recent book, published in June, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an… -
opinion
The Left’s Open Declaration of War on Free Speech
Leftists are becoming increasingly totalitarian in their antipathy for freedom of speech. It’s an obstacle to their desire for power, so it must be crushed. An exaggeration, you say? Just listen to what high-profile leftists have been openly saying about denying you your right to information on both sides of the political equation. Former presidential candidate…