Ali Selim of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland has declared publicly that he will bring legal action against any Irish newspaper or publication that runs the Charlie Hebdo or other similar cartoons featuring Muhammad. As discussed in my Sunday Washington Post column, these laws in Western countries like France have served to emboldened those like Selim in demanding that others confirm to their religious sensibilities. Despite his effort to deter others from speaking in this fashion, Selim insists without any appearance of embarrassment that he is “a great advocate of freedom of expression” . . . so long of course that it is his expression or an expression that does not offend him.
Category: Constitutional Law
Another food ban has been struck down by a court. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson struck down the two-year state California state prohibition on foie gras as a violation of interstate commerce. The court issued its final decision on January 7th in Ass’n des Eleveurs de Canards et D’oies du Quebec v. Harris and found that the state law is trumped by the federal Poultry Products Inspections Act. Wilson acknowledged that there are few people in the middle of this debate: “This action for declaratory and injunctive relief touches upon a topic impacting gourmands’ stomachs and animal rights activists’ hearts: foie gras.”
Just days after extremists killed 12 people in Paris for insulting Mohammad in cartoons, the Saudi government has decided to go forward with its plan to flog a blogger for blasphemy. As previously discussed the abusive treatment of Raif Badawi, who founded the “Free Saudi Liberals” website. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes for blasphemy and his first 50 lashes will be carried out on Friday.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia To Flog Blogger For Blasphemy On Friday”
We previously discussed the threat of retired Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz to sue Utah Law Professor and former federal judge Paul Cassell (and his co-counsel Bradley Edwards) for defamation for papers mentioning him in revelation to the sex trafficking scandal of Florida financier Jeffrey Epstein. The lawyers sought unsuccessfully to depose Dershowitz who has been accused of being one of the men who were given underaged girls to sleep with by Epstein. At the time, I wrote that Dershowitz’s statements themselves could be viewed as defamatory and actionable. It appears that Cassell and Edwards were thinking the same thing. They have now sued Dershowitz for defamation.
The ABA Journal has posted a podcast that I did with former New York Times journalist Linda Greenhouse on the Supreme Court. Greenhouse is currently the Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law and Knight Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence at Yale Law School.
Continue reading “Turley and Greenhouse Discuss Supreme Court”
The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered Urban Outfitters to remove a picture of a model as showing an impermissible “inner thigh gap” that encourages what is viewed as an “unhealthy” diet for girls. It is the latest example, in my opinion, of a wholesale regulation of speech — both political and commercial — in England.
Continue reading “British Agency Bans Urban Outfitters Picture Over “Inner Thigh Gap””
The National Fraternal Order of Police has launched a campaign to change federal law to add attacks on police as a hate crime. In a letter to President Barack Obama and Congress, the powerful union cites the murders of two New York City police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. The demand would treat an attack based on status as the same as an attack based on race. Given the Administration’s expedited investigations of civil rights violations involving deaths caused by police officers in Missouri and New York, the change would create an interesting situation where both future suspects and officers would be arguably protections under federal hate crime laws.
Like most of the world, we have watched the rapid decline of civil liberties in Turkey after the election of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his coalition of Islamic parties. Just last month, we discussed the arrest of Mehmet Emin Altunses, 16, who allegedly committed the crime of “insulting” Erdoğan. calling people who use birth control “traitors” and saying Muslims discovered America, you are not allowed to be disrespectful or insulting in discussing Erdoğan. The situation is even more dire for journalists who have found themselves threatened or arrested for reporting on Erdogan or his cronies. Now, Turkish police have arrested Dutch reporter Frederike Geerdink on terrorism charges. Erdoğan responded with one of his signature delusional statements, saying that this is just one more “false” report from Western media since it is about terrorism not journalism. It is his statement about the record of Turkey on press freedoms that truly takes Erdoğan’s menacing comments into the realm of madness.
The attack on free speech continues unabated around the world. The latest violation occurred in Tunis where a military court has handed down an absurd three year jail sentence to a blogger, blogger Yassine Ayari, for “insulting” Army officers. That is what free speech means in Tunisia. You can be criminally sentenced for “undermining” the Army through criticism.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
The instances of reported abuse of our country’s laws by our Intelligence services seems never-ending. The National Security Agency, or NSA is at the top of the list when it comes to violations of our laws and even its own rules and procedures that are allegedly designed to protect our privacy.
Pursuant to a court order in a case brought by the ACLU, the NSA is required to provide a list of its abuses on a quarterly basis. Of course, the NSA redacts most of what it puts in its own disclosures. Continue reading “NSA Abuses Never End”
The Chinese government again proved that little has changed in the People’s Republic in the denial of basic civil liberties and human rights. Filmmaker Shen Yongping has become the latest and more poignant example of the totalitarian regime’s continued crackdown on free speech. Shen produced a documentary on the 100-year struggle of the Chinese for constitutional government. Chinese officials responded by arresting him and now sentencing him to a year in jail. It appears that a sequel is in the making.
A Delta Airlines flight from New York’s JFK Airport to Israel was delayed by half an hour after a group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men refused to sit next to female passengers. We discussed the same type of disruption on a flight in September by ultra-Orthodox travelers refusing to sit down until people moved around to accommodate their extreme religious views. What is astonishing is that the disruptive travelers faced no reported repercussions for delaying a flight or refusing to comply with the instruction of flight attendants.
An Egyptian court has permanently banned the three-day festival celebrating the birth of Rabbi Jacob Abu Hasira in Egypt’s Nile Delta region of Buheira. The judge cited unspecified “moral offenses” as the reason for the ban. It is the latest example of Egypt’s devolution from a secular to a sectarian legal system. While the Muslim Brotherhood and President Mohammed Morsi were ousted in 2013 after pushing the country toward an Islamic, sharia-based system, the country still has seen the steady erosion of secular values and the separation of religion and state.
Continue reading “Egyptian Court Permanently Bans Jewish Celebration For “Moral Offenses””
There is an interesting twist on the usual nativity litigation that comes with the season (for a prior column, click here and here). In Ohio, Jasen Dixon has been told to take down his Nativity scene. Dixon, who manages a nearby haunted house, took a unique approach to the standard Christmas display: it shows the holy family as zombies.
Continue reading “Town Orders Ohio Man To Take Down Zombie Nativity”
Mishawaka Police officer Jason Barthel has been told to stop selling T-Shirt in his spare time. There is nothing illegal about the Indiana officer selling shirts, but these t-shirts say “Breathe easy, don’t break the law.” They are in direct response to t-shirts being worn in protest over the decision of a New York grand jury not to indict officers in the death of Eric Garner who died in Staten Island from a chokehold while saying that he could not breathe. “I Can’t Breathe” has become a rallying cry for those protesting police abuse of minorities. However, Barthel wants to sell a counter message that supports police. While there has been vandalism of stores selling the t-shirts, they reportedly remain high selling items.