The McCormick Foundation Civics Program seeks to improve access to quality civic education and engagement opportunities in Chicagoland for youth ages 12-22. For more information about our organization, click here.

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September 11, 2012

Five Freedoms

Obama 'HOPE' poster artist gets probation The artist who created the "HOPE" poster that came to symbolize Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign was sentenced Friday to two years of probation and 300 hours of community service by a judge who cited his charity work. (AP)

Lawmaker Admits Fumble, NFL Players Do Have Free Speech After a testy exchange of scathing letters, Maryland state Delegate Emmett C. Burns has changed his mind and conceded that professional football players have First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.(ABC News)

Group wants FBI records on Nev. bear-hunt foes The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada is demanding to know what information the FBI has collected about people who spoke against bear hunting in the Lake Tahoe area during contentious public meetings earlier this year in northern Nevada.(AP)

Advocates Push Homeless Bill Of Rights In California The bill of rights proposed in the Sunshine State will protect homeless peoples’ right to vote, move freely in public spaces, gain access to emergency medical care and seek employment, despite not having a permanent mailing address.(HP)

Arizona Supreme Court in Mesa case: 1st Amendment protects tattoos The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that tattooing is a form of free speech with full protection under the U.S. and state constitutions -- the first such decision by any state high court in the country. (Arizona Republic)

In Facebook court cases, high tech and free speech collide In rural Mississippi, two firefighters and a police officer are serving 30-day suspensions because they hit “like” on a controversial Facebook post. In Virginia, a sheriff’s department employee said he was fired for “liking” a page sponsored by the sheriff’s political rival. (McClatchy Newspapers)

Twitter’s Free Speech Defender Alexander Macgillivray, Twitter’s chief lawyer, says that fighting for free speech is more than a good idea. He thinks it is a competitive advantage for his company.(NYT)

Ben and Jerry's wins round in X-rated porn fight The Vermont company, known for frozen treats such as Boston Cream Pie, Peanut Butter Cups and Chocolate Fudge Brownie, sued Caballero Video this week and persuaded a federal judge in Manhattan to block the porn producer from marketing or selling Ben & Jerry-esque titles for now. (CT)

Op-ed: Talking Politics At Work Can Get You Fired Although the First Amendment broadly protects our right to freedom of speech, especially when we’re expressing views about politics, the fact is, according to Hurd, private employers can bar political discussions in the workplace.(Forbes)

ACLU: X-rated litter no reason to trample free speech A new ordinance requires leafleters to pick up litter within a 25-foot radius on the sidewalk. But there’s a hitch: The law might run afoul of the First Amendment.(AP)

New Orleans tour guides balk at city licensing Four New Orleans tour guides have asked a federal judge to bar the city from enforcing requirements that they pass a history exam, drug test and criminal background check to be licensed.(AP)

Calif. court: Gang clothing can be factor in police search A Redding, Calif., police officer did not violate the First Amendment rights of a man he stopped to search in part because of his gang-related clothing. A state appeals court determined that the officer could factor in clothing typically associated with a white supremacist gang in deciding whether to detain a person.(FAC)

Kan. can restrict PETA video at state fair A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Kansas State Fair can require an animal-rights group to shield people walking by its booth from easily seeing images depicting animal slaughter.(AP)

Indian political cartoonist Aseem Trivedi jailed in sedition case Drawing a cartoon in India can, sometimes, be regarded a seditious act. A 25-year-old anti-corruption cartoonist, Aseem Trivedi, was charged with sedition and sent to police custody for a week on Sunday by a Mumbai court. (WP)

Protests in Charlotte grow but remain peaceful Dozens of protesters clogged streets and blocked traffic yesterday outside the Democratic National Convention on its opening day, making for some tense moments that ultimately brought more theater than violence.(AP)

On Campus, an Experiment to Save Local News This fall, Mercer, a 179-year-old former Baptist school, is starting an ambitious $5.6 million project to try to save local journalism by inviting both the Macon newspaper and a Georgia Public Radio station onto its campus. (NYT)

ACLU Sues Police for Seizing Man’s Phone After Recording Alleged Misconduct The ACLU has sued the District of Columbia and two police officers for allegedly seizing the cellphone of a man who photographed a police officer allegedly mistreating a citizen, and for then stealing his memory card.(Wired Magazine)

Democrats change platform to add God, Jerusalem The language in the platform — a political document — does not affect actual current U.S. policy toward Israel. The administration has long said that determining Jerusalem’s status is an issue that should be decided in peace talks by Israelis and Palestinians.(AP)

Military judge tells Fort Hood suspect to shave Col. Gregory Gross issued the official order after a hearing to determine whether a federal religious freedom law applied to Maj. Nidal Hasan’s case, and triggered another delay in all proceedings related to Hasan’s trial because his attorneys plan to appeal.(AP)

Police went under cover to infiltrate Occupy Austin Undercover Austin police officers infiltrated local Occupy gatherings and strategy sessions to gather intelligence, a newspaper has reported.(AP)

Student Freedoms

Gay teen expelled for stun gun sues over bullying An openly gay Indianapolis teenager expelled for bringing a stun gun to school to ward off bullies is suing Indianapolis Public Schools, accusing administrators of failing to stop the “relentless, severe harassment” he faced in school.(AP)

Judge won't dismiss lawsuit accusing Minnesota school of demanding sixth-grader's Facebook password A Minnesota student’s lawsuit against her middle school over punishment she was given for Facebook posts will continue after a judge denied the school district’s motion to dismiss. (SPLC)

University of Memphis restores full funding to school newspaper The University of Memphis announced Friday it was restoring full funding to the Daily Helmsman after an internal review determined the newspaper's content may have been a factor in funding being cut 33 percent.(Memphis Commercial Appeal)

Daily Texan newspaper boxes will be allowed outside journalism school A plan that didn’t allow newspaper boxes – even for the school’s paper – in front of the University of Texas’ journalism school is going away after public pressure. (SPLC)

Georgia paper's off-campus newspaper box plan delayed by city of Atlanta The Georgia State student newspaper’s attempt to add off-campus newspaper boxes downtown has been delayed by Atlanta officials because the boxes do not comply with the city’s ordinances. (SPLC)

West GA High School football fans skirt prayer ban Football fans at one west Georgia high school are fighting back against an out-of-state group that forced them to stop praying before games. Hundreds of fans found a way to skirt the law and do it anyway.(WXIA 11)

The Struggle Continues

Feds clear CA regulators in civil rights complaint The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that California regulators did not violate the civil rights of residents of three small farmworker towns by allowing toxic waste dumps to operate in the predominantly Latino communities, according to a report made public Tuesday.(AP)

Video of Police Altercation May Take Key Role in Civil Rights Suit The lawsuit charges that the officers, after chasing Mr. Solivan into his family’s apartment on University Avenue last November, engaged in a “brutal and sadistic” beating beyond what the video captured, also using pepper spray and slamming his head against a wall after he was handcuffed.(NYT)

Border Patrol halts Mexico flights The U.S. government has halted flights home for Mexicans caught entering the country illegally in the deadly summer heat of Arizona's deserts, a money-saving move that ends a seven-year experiment that cost taxpayers nearly $100 million.(AP)

Arizona Police Can Probe Immigration Status, Judge Rules Arizona can require police officers to check the immigration status of people they stop or detain, a federal judge said, denying a request by civil rights groups to temporarily block enforcement of the provision.(Bloomberg)

Teacher Strike Begins in Chicago, Amid Signs That Deal Isn’t Close Teachers in the nation’s third-largest school district went on strike Monday morning after negotiations for a new contract collapsed, giving some 350,000 students an unexpected day off but leading to frustrations among parents and indications that a settlement may not be close.(NYT)

RI court: Texts can't be used in child murder case Incriminating text messages about a man accused of killing his girlfriend's 6-year-old son can't be used at trial because the police search that found them was illegal and violated the man's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, a state Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.(AP)

State must pay for sex change State prison officials must provide taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery to a transgender inmate serving life in prison for murder, because it is the only way to treat her “serious medical need,” a federal judge ruled Tuesday. (AP)

Colorado prison inmate wins right to outdoor exercise For 12 years, virtually the only exposure Troy Anderson has had to the outdoors has come in a 90-square-foot room. (Denver Post)

Disbarred lawyer pleads "the Fifth" more than 80 times in court hearing The answer was the same regardless of the question — does Roy have any bank accounts, has he hidden assets in other people's names, does he currently live with his wife, could he identify himself in a photograph? It got so repetitive that Roy, who is also facing mortgage fraud charges in New York, abbreviated his answer to "Exercising my Fifth Amendment right" over and over again.(Orlando Sun-Sentinel)

Appeals court blocks Minnesota law on corporate political spending A Minnesota law that requires companies to track and disclose the amount of money they spend on political campaigns likely violates the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday.(Reuters)

Presidential hopeful won't be on Colorado ballot A naturalized citizen who wanted to run for president despite not being American-born has lost his bid to get on the ballot in Colorado.(WSJ)

Richmond anti-soda tax committee sues for federal protection from city's campaign disclosure rules The beverage industry-funded campaign against a local ballot measure has sued the city in federal court, arguing that Richmond's campaign-disclosure laws targeting special interest groups violate the First Amendment.(Contra Costa Times)

9th Circuit ruling keeps ‘none of the above’ on Nev. ballot Nevada’s “none of the above” voting option will be on the November ballot following an emergency stay sought by the secretary of state’s office and granted by a federal appeals court.(AP)

Voter ID law approved by Justice Dept. The U.S. Department of Justice has approved a state law enacted in June that requires New Hampshire voters to show a photo ID at the polls.  (Concord Monitor)

Op-ed: Stricter Gun Laws Remain an Ineffective Way to Address Crime Sometimes, hysteria sets in and unifying and emotional tragedies become polarizing political battles over how to best address the oversights and mistakes that allowed them to occur. In cases like these, however, stricter gun laws simply aren't the answer, which is why increased gun regulations nationally and at the state level aren't likely to be seen in light of these tragedies.(HP)

Pentagon escalates case that former Navy SEAL broke secrecy pledge The Pentagon on Thursday released new details about a secrecy agreement signed by a former Navy SEAL who wrote a book about his role in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, escalating its argument that the commando violated promises not to disclose classified information. (Reuters)

U.S. takes second crack at GPS tracking target Government lawyers are arguing that data collected by a third-party, such as a wireless carrier, isn't protected by privacy rights granted by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.(PC World)

Ruling protects property of homeless A U.S. appeals court panel has ruled 2-1 that Los Angeles and other cities cannot destroy the property of the homeless unless it is really abandoned. (UPI)

Op-ed: The Constitution on Skid Row In the latest clash, the city seized identification papers, family photographs and other personal belongings of homeless people, when they left their things momentarily as they stepped away to eat, shower, use a bathroom or tend to some other need. City employees took the property away to destroy it, sometimes after owners had returned and pleaded to get their possessions back. (NYT)

Texas Sees Rising Tide of Property-Rights Cases Crawford, a northeast Texas farmer, is fighting to keep TransCananda, the pipeline’s owner, from invoking the right of eminent domain to cross her property. A Lamar County judge ruled against her last month, but Crawford says she plans to file an appeal soon — probably to the state’s 6th Court of Appeals in Texarkana.(Texas Tribune)

Justice and the Courts

Federal judges won't ease California prison crowding order The judges wrote in a four-page order that they are not willing to reconsider the population cap order that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. (AP)

State lawmakers tackle juvenile law overturn With more juvenile lifers in prison than any other state, Pennsylvania is in the legal cross hairs now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down laws that require juveniles convicted of homicide to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.(Scranton Times-Tribune)

Fired Colorado professor Ward Churchill loses Supreme Court appeal Former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, rebuffed by the state Supreme Court Monday, said he plans to appeal his firing by the school to the U.S. Supreme Court. (DP)

This Day in History

On September 11, 2001 the U.S. comes under terrorist attack. Two planes were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, causing a massive explosion that destroyed the skyscrapers. An airplane struck the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and a fourth plane was hijacked and brought crashing to the ground in Pennsylvania. Thousands of innocent people were killed or injured in the attacks. The terrorist attacks were carried out by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, an extremist organization. The war to destroy the terrorism network in Afghanistan began on October 1, 2001. U.S. forces killed bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2, 2011. (History.com)

Source Abbreviations:

AP: Associated Press; BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation; BG: Boston Globe; BS: Baltimore Sun; BW: Business Week; CR: Chicago Reader; CSM: Christian Science Monitor; CST: Chicago Sun-Times; CT: Chicago Tribune; DH: Daily Herald; DMN: Dallas Morning DP: Denver Post; Drudge Report; EP: Editor & Publisher; FAC: First Amendment Center; HC: Houston Chronicle; HP: Huffington Post; IHT: International Herald Tribune; LAT: Los Angeles Times; MH: Miami Herald; MJS: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; NW: Newsweek; NYT: New York Times; PI: Philadelphia Inquirer; PEIJ: Project for Excellence in Journalism; RCP: Real Clear Politics; SC: San Francisco Chronicle; SJR: State Journal-Register; SLPD: St. Louis Post-Dispatch; SPI: Seattle Post-Intelligencer; SPLC: Student Press Law Center; SPT: St. Petersburg Times; ST: Seattle Times; TH: Townhall.com; UNWP: U.S. News and World Report; USA: USA Today; WP: Washington Post; WSJ: Wall Street Journal; WT: Washington Times.

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