First Amendment Archives

Ken Blackwell: Pushing Back for Truth

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:57-04:00June 24th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing on BigGovernment.com on June 24, 2010.

Left wing blogs have their dander up. They’re attacking me for saying that Elena Kagan favors cloning human beings. Once again, they are trying to confuse the public about what’s involved in cloning humans. Just because they favor killing the embryonic human being after they are done experimenting upon it, but before implanting it in a woman’s womb, they think they are against cloning humans. But they’re not. And neither is Kagan.

It’s almost the same thing as when semantic gymnasts in the pro-cloning camp say they’re not cloning humans, […]

Ken Blackwell: Markets and Morals

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:58-04:00June 22nd, 2010|

ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell wrote this column appearing on HuffingtonPost.com on June 20, 2010.

There’s an old joke about a Transylvanian cookbook. The recipe for an omelet starts off with this: “First, steal two eggs.” If that note really appeared in some country’s cookbook, don’t look for constitutional government or a free market system to arise there anytime soon. That’s because democracy is not something you can just plant, like shaking seeds out of an envelope.

Americans were blessed to have extensive experience of self-government when we made our bid for independence in the 1770s. And Americans at that time — all the most […]

ACLU Attacks School Commencements in Megachurch

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:58-04:00June 3rd, 2010|

The ACLU has sued Connecticut officials to prevent two high school graduations from being conducted in a megachurch, which has ample room for guests and unlimited parking. Several other schools backed off from using the church due to ACLU threats to sue. This is in line with ACLU’s general hostility to any recognition of religion in public.

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Some of the facts for this article, but not the legal conclusions, come from an article in USA on 5 May, 2010. The Enfield, Connecticut School Board voted to stage the graduations of its two high schools at the First Cathedral, a Baptist “megachurch” in […]

Jan LaRue: A Rookie Supreme

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:58-04:00May 18th, 2010|

ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Jan LaRue wrote a column appearing on AmericanThinker.com on May 18, 2010.

Chief Justice John Roberts once said, “The job of a judge isn’t to pitch or bat—it’s to call balls and strikes.”

“Have you ever stopped to think about what it would be like to be a major league umpire? To know the fate of a game rests in your hands? What would it be like to suit up and call the shots each day?” surmises Christie Cowles, Editor/Producer for MLB.com.

We’re about to see how much or little the U.S. Senate thinks about what it means to suit […]

ACRU Files Brief Urging N.J. Supreme Court to Allow Menendez Recall Petitions

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:58-04:00May 11th, 2010|

On May 10, 2010, the American Civil Rights Union filed a brief with the New Jersey Supreme Court urging the justices to affirm a state appellate court ruling ordering the Secretary of State to recognize a recall notice for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D). If the court concurs, petitioners could begin immediately to collect the 1.3 million signatures needed within 320 days to put Menendez on the ballot. Menendez, who was elected in 2006, is not slated for re-election until 2012.

“The New Jersey Supreme Court must either affirm the ruling of the court below, or expressly overrule all the New Jersey precedents holding that […]

ACLU: Academic Fraud Is Free Speech?

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:58-04:00May 8th, 2010|

The ACLU has joined the American Association of University Professors in urging the University of Virginia to defend one of its former professors against an investigation of possible academic fraud. Since the State paid for this research under a grant of public money, the Attorney General of the State has asserted a statutory right to see the research.

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The facts for this article, but not the legal conclusions, come from an article in the Washington Post blog on Virginia politics, on 6 May. Former Professor Michael Mann, a climate scientist, is now […]

ACLU Splits, and Abandons Principle

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:58-04:00May 4th, 2010|

For decades the ACLU has claimed that its basic policy on the First Amendment was that all restrictions on free speech were wrong, and should be fought in court. Now, its national board and staff have reversed that policy in favor of the current Administration, and been attacked for that by leading lawyers and staff members.

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The facts for this story, but not the legal conclusions, come from an editorial in the New York Sun on 30 April, 2010. After a vigorous debate among its top lawyers, top current and […]

Salazar v. Buono

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:59-04:00April 28th, 2010|

The ACRU is happy to report that an important stride was taken today, April 28, 2010, in defense of the 1st Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of protecting an historic veteran’s memorial cross in the Mojave Desert that had been challenged by the ACLU. The Veterans of Foreign Wars erected the memorial cross in the Mojave National Preserve in 1934. A former preserve employee and visitor, Frank Buono, claimed that the cross violated the First Amendment. Rather than remove the cross, Congress and the Interior Department transferred the land to the VFW. Buono, backed by the ACLU and the Ninth Circuit Court of […]

ACRU Urges NJ Supreme Court to Deny Sen. Menedez Petition to Hear Recall Appeal

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:52:59-04:00April 21st, 2010|

Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) petitioned the New Jersey Supreme Court to hear his appeal from the ruling of a state appellate court that a citizens committee seeking a recall election to remove him from office could proceed to circulate petitions to collect the signatures required under the New Jersey Constitution to qualify for such an election.

The American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) filed an amicus curiae brief on April 21, 2010 with the New Jersey Supreme Court urging it to deny the petition from Senator Menendez to hear the case on the grounds that the circulation of petitions and the collection of signatures is political activity […]

FCC 'Distinguished Scholar' Trashes the First Amendment

By ACRU Staff|2020-04-23T21:53:46-04:00March 31st, 2010|

A “distinguished scholar” at the FCC has written in favor of government payments for and control of aspects of Internet communications. Her purpose is to favor news that the government prefers, and to “filter” and counterbalance news that the government finds to be lacking. She demonstrates thinking that King George III exemplified, and the exact opposite of the thinking of Thomas Jefferson, concerning freedom of the press.

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Some of the facts for this article, but none of the legal conclusions, come from an article in CNS News on 31 March, 2010. It is an article […]