image credit: The Washington Post Since the 2016 Presidential election there has particular political attention paid to the “border crisis.”  Depending on your political ideology, this term, “border crisis” means two different things. Conversation has turned into an outcry, on both sides.  The Trump administration has pushed for a literal “border wall”, increased security, harsher... Continue Reading →

Image credit: Alexis Beauclair As I was reading through various articles about the first amendment in the news, I stumbled upon this publication by the Knight Foundation:  High school student views on the First Amendment: Trends in the 21st Century.  One of the key findings according to the report is that high school students’ support... Continue Reading →

Just within three decades, not only has our society’s means of gathering, sharing, and storing information changed but so has our relationship to information.  Before the internet, people had to search for information by going to places like libraries for books. You need to learn some basic facts about Emperor Penguins? The average height of males... Continue Reading →

In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, day after day articles about “fake news”, “election interference”, and the public messages of political leaders on various social media platforms make “front screen news.”  Facebook and Twitter typically receive the most credit for their close association to the prevalence and rampant spread of mis- and dis-... Continue Reading →

Chapter six of the book “Freedom for the Thought We Hate” by Anthony Lewis describes to what extent journalists are protected from having to name their sources before a grand jury.  Most conversation surrounding the first amendment pertains to who gets to talk about what in society. This chapter presented an interesting question about who... Continue Reading →

The NPR notification read: “Showdown Over LGBTQ Employment Rights Hits Supreme Court.” I grabbed my headphones and committed to not going back to sleep, as one does after they involuntarily waking up at 5:05 am.   The piece from Morning Edition gives a breif rundown of the case at hand; today, October 8th, 2019, the United... Continue Reading →

https://blog.gale.com/tag/president-gerald-ford/

"—the freedom of Speech may be taken away—and, dumb & silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter."From George Washington to Officers of the Army, 15 March 1783https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-10840 Soon after the Supreme Court decision of New York Times vs. Sullivan in 1964, Justice Brennan said,  “At the time of the First Amendment was... Continue Reading →

Since Friday’s Global Climate Strike, and now Greta Thunberg’s speech at the UN Climate Action Summit, climate change headlines are more abundant than ever.  Videos of the young Swedish activist gone icon are being shared by the millions every day. Her catalyst affect brought millions from their schools, work, and homes to the streets to... Continue Reading →