With traditional calendar school districts getting underway in late August across North Carolina, many parents might be wondering about what is and isn’t permissible for religious expression in public school classrooms. The issue has been in the news again this week due to calls from GOP superintendent of public instruction candidate Michele Morrow to begin...
The North Carolina State University (NCSU) Board of Trustees University adopted a resolution Friday reaffirming the University’s commitment to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and institutional neutrality. The resolution comes as college campuses around the country, several in North Carolina, experience disruptive protests related to the Israel/Gaza conflict. Chairman of the board, Ed Weisiger...
People can speak without government permission. The First Amendment guarantees it. But regulators in many states have found a workaround. They simply redefine some speech as conduct and then punish people for talking without an occupational license. Health coach Heather Kokesch Del Castillo received a cease-and-desist letter when regulators caught her talking about kale without...
The morning after Donald Trump was elected president, I was sitting in the office of Carol Folt, the then-chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill, along with the school’s top academic officer, Provost Jim Dean, to discuss my concern that UNC had fostered an oppressive monoculture that was undermining critical thinking on campus. The timing was serendipitous, as...
How much can freedom of speech be limited? Courts and legislatures alike have been grappling with this question since the signing of the Constitution. More recently, in 2017, high school freshman Brandi Levy did not make the varsity cheer team at her Pennsylvania public school. Levy then proceeded to post a Snapchat featuring her middle...
The Surry County Board of Commissioners is taking up a resolution to defend freedom of speech. The board is expected to pass it in a meeting Monday, Feb. 15, Commissioner Eddie Harris told Carolina Journal. Harris introduced the resolution, which condemns major technology companies for their “attack on the free speech rights of the American...
Author David Bernstein uncovers numerous ways government attacks the First Amendment using "antidiscrimination" laws.
