Happy Friday! From the archives... An original 1730s pamphlet describing the John Peter Zenger libel trial.

Next to the Stamp Act, Zenger's trial was probably the most radicalizing event that set the colonies on a course towards revolution.

'reporters were blocked from entering the campus to cover the arrests' ... The campus that hosts one of the nation's best known and respected journalism schools. thecity.nyc/2024/04/18/col…]

As part of an indefinite suspension, Columbia’s administration effectively evicted a student from her housing in the middle of the night shortly after her arrest for leading a peaceful protest on campus, affording her only 15m to pack her room. And they talk about student safety.

This is so utterly contrary to our intellectual history: 'if you are going to chant, it should only be in a certain place, so that people who don’t want to hear it are protected from having to hear it.”

It's shocking, frankly.
nytimes.com/2024/04/18/opi…

I would suggest that First Amendment freedoms mean very little if you have to spend untold years and resources vindicating them...

An important note...

Here's Knight First Amendment Institute's comment on today's events at Columbia. knightcolumbia.org/content/knight…

I... I agree with Mike Johnson?

I would commend to everyone Bob Mann's Last Lecture from earlier today. . .

'Let's dispense with the notion that you must always behave civilly . . . When someone says 'you should be civil' they're trying to civilize you. Don't let them do that.'

youtube.com/live/PWEwkO2Ge…

Dean Bissell and Alyson Neel introduce Bob Mann for his “last lecture” LSU LSU Manship School of Mass Communication ahead of his retirement this semester

Here's a fun one from the collection...

Probably one of the most important articles ever written about the First Amendment:

Zechariah Chafee's 1918 'Freedom of Speech' that influenced counsel and Holmes in the Schenck case.

Breaking: Booksellers' challenge to Texas's book-ban regime succeeds at the Fifth Circuit.

Today, the full Fifth Circuit announced that the far-right judges of the court LOST a vote for rehearing en banc 8-9 after a 3-judge panel had previously upheld the dist ct's injunction.

Listening to justices who voted to deny cert in McKesson yesterday express First Amendment concerns in the January 6 prosecutions speaks volumes about this Court’s First Amendment selectivity.

It’s not just about speech, but *whose* speech, to say *what,* and *when.*

Prelogar just very politely told Justice Thomas he's not acting in good faith.

Jury nullification is so originalist it was the first revolution (before the one with the guns)...

🖐️ Put a finger down if you wrote a 223 page law review article about how there is a First Amendment right of access to gov info and the Court that cites you cites a minor proposition in said article not in support of access but to uphold a denial of access to information.

Periodic reminder that the delegates of the First Continental Congress got together and argued all day and then would go get drunk, have a huge party, and fire off canons.

For better or worse, this is a routine thing when people are accused of crimes. Lots of defendants miss lots of things -- kids' births, graduations, funerals, etc. -- because they are on trial or detained pending trial.