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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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…Rebecca Downs -
- 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…Fred Lucas -
- 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…Fred Lucas -
- 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…Tim Graham -
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…Jarrett Stepman -
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…Virginia Allen -
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…Tim Young -
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…Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell -
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,”…Jack Fitzhenry -
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….GianCarlo Canaparo -
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…Michael Barone -
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…Annie Chestnut Tutor -
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…Jack Fitzhenry -
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…Kristen Waggoner -
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…Virginia Allen -
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…Christina Lewis -
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…Mike Gonzalez -
John Kerry, Hillary Clinton Are So Done With That Pesky First Amendment
Why is it we hear the loudest shrieks for democracy coming from those who most clearly want to remove all limits to their own power and lord it over their fellow citizens? In just the past few weeks, we’ve seen celebrities and even major political figures on the Left openly call for tyranny. They no…Jarrett Stepman -
Kamala Harris’ Banana Republic on Free Speech
In 2019, Vice President Kamala Harris told CNN’s Jake Tapper that social media companies “are directly speaking to millions and millions of people without any level of oversight or regulation and it has to stop.” Does it? Every two-bit authoritarian in history has justified censoring its citizens as a way of protecting them from the…David Harsanyi -
Who’s for the First Amendment—and Who Isn’t
“There’s a lot of opposition to just hearing what President [Donald] Trump has to say,” Elon Musk said at the beginning of his two-hour interview on X with the 45th and would-be 47th president. Musk noted, “I got a letter from the EU Commission, like, saying to not have disinformation during this discussion we’re having….Michael Barone