By Helen Ruhlin
Texas v. Johnson (1989)
Private information is a news source too
We'd like to believe that ethics and morality are the founding pillars of good journalism, and in the grand scheme of things, I truly believe they are. But when leaked, private information becomes a journalist's only source, those moral pillars often seem to crumble. According to an article written for the Columbia Journalism Review, in... Continue Reading →
Can you sue if it’s true?
We all have past experiences we aren’t proud of. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone without a few ancestral skeletons in the closet––but few take home the prize for cringeworthy family roots quite like Edward Tayloe II. Tayloe is your average 76-year-old guy from Virginia: he’s white, he's angry, and he just happens to come... Continue Reading →
The fine line between sex and obscenity; a First Amendment conundrum
Anthony Lewis's Freedom for the Thought that we Hate tackled another taboo subject from our handy list of human rights this week. In his chapter titled "Another's Lyric," Lewis outlined how the Supreme Court decides what’s too raunchy for media and what isn’t. As one of mankind’s greatest motives, sex is a historically hot topic... Continue Reading →
Soceity Changes, but does the Law?
Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis once wrote in the Harvard Law Review of 1890, that, “ the common law, in its eternal youth, grows to meet the new demands of society.” They were asserting that when changes occur within our economical, political, and social structures, the law, in its nature, and with justice... Continue Reading →
Free Press Free Speech 