Posted in libertarianism, people, tagged censorship, first amendment, freedom of expression, morality, obscenity, offended feelings, paternalism, pleasure, pornography, sex, stagliano on July 1, 2008 | No Comments »
Adult film producer John Stagliano — facing up to 40 years in jail if convicted in a currently running obscenity case – debates Pepperdine Law School’s Barry McDonald on free speech vs obscenity. Money quote from Stagliano:
Barry, your point is that people must be forced to not think things that you don’t like, and for that [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, tagged aclu, anti-discrimination, civil liberties, first amendment, freedom, freedom of association, freedom of spech, laws, negative rights, positive rights on June 8, 2008 | No Comments »
The American Civil Liberties Asoociation has, over the years, done a lot of commendable work in defence of freedom. Particularly praiseworthy is its consistent defence of the First Amendment. It has frequently extended legal help to protect those whose free speech rights have been threatened. It has fought for the separation of the church and [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, people, tagged agoraphobia, artistic freedom, child pornography, court, fiction, first amendment, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, gulity, karen fletcher, laws, liberty, obscenity, sexual, stories, trial, violence, writing on May 21, 2008 | No Comments »
Remember Karen Fletcher? The woman in the centre of the high-profile obscenity case I wrote about earlier? The reclusive lady who wrote violent sexual stories involving children in an attempt to cope with her own history of child abuse and was subsequently hounded by federal prosecuters? Well, the matter’s come to an end.
She battled the federal government’s allegations [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, tagged anti-discrimination, anti-discrimination laws, artistic freedom, discrimination, elane, first amendment, freedom, freedom of association, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, laws, new mexico, photography, sexual orientation on April 15, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I posted earlier about the Elane Photography case. The New Mexico Human Rights commission issued its opinion today, holding Elane Photography guilty of discrimination. As Eugene Volokh discusses here, the breadth of the decision is astounding and ostensibly covers other businesses of a similar nature. For instance, freelance writers — by the same logic employed by the [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, tagged freedom, freedom of expression, anti-discrimination, discrimination, volokh, civil liberties, first amendment, laws, free speech, race on April 10, 2008 | No Comments »
Eugene Volokh writes about a hypothetical scenario involving a mixed-race couple in the photography incident:
The desire to prevent race discrimination should no more dissolve your right to be free from being compelled to speak (here, to create an artistic work) than it should dissolve the right to express bigoted views, to choose members of a racist [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, tagged anti-discrimination, anti-discrimination laws, civil liberties, civil rights, discrimination, first amendment, freedom, freedom of expression, laws, photography, right to associate, volokh on April 9, 2008 | No Comments »
In America, you have freedom of expression and freedom of association, except when you don’t. Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, one does not really have the right to decide who one hires, or rents out one’s apartment to, allows inside one’s restaurant, or does business with. If you refuse to deal with someone commercially because [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in education, libertarianism, news and links, people, tagged affirmative action, civil liberty, first amendment, freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, ku klux klan, offended feelings, political correctness, racial harassment on March 6, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Keith Sampson, a university employee and student, has been charged with racial harassment for reading a book called “Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan” during his work breaks. Apparently, the mere presence of the word Ku Klux Klan offended a co-worker, despite the fact that the book is in fact [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in libertarianism, tagged censorship, child abuse, civil liberties, civil liberty, explicit content, first amendment, freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, internet pornography, intolerance, karen fletcher, liberty, moral police, nanny-state, obscenity, obscenity case, offended feelings, pittsburgh, police state, policies, pornography on February 8, 2008 | 4 Comments »
A hundred years ago, you could be arrested if your drawing, writing or other form of creative expression was considered obscene by the authorities. Artistic freedom was not as important as preserving public morality. And the idea that a century on, pornography could be displayed and sold in perfectly legal shops was unthinkable.
For good or [...]
Read Full Post »
