News & Commentary
When Colleges Confine Free Speech to a ‘Zone,’ It Isn’t Free
On certain college campuses, administrators have created “Free Speech Zones” — spaces where people are allowed to speak, protest, or gather signatures for causes they believe in. While it may sound like these zones are designed to promote speech, they actually do the opposite by confining political expression to designated areas, often in out-of-the-way locations on campus.
Bill Gives People and Businesses Right to Use Religion to Discriminate
House Bill 1228, called the "Conscience Protection Act" - by Rep. Bob Ballinger, R, Hindsville and Sen. Bart Hester, R, Cave Springs (both near Springdale): Seems to protect religious liberty, but actually allows people--and businesses--to use religion to discriminate against others.
ACLU and APLC Challenge the Constitutionality of New Obstacles to Participating in the Arkansas Initiative and Referendum Process
Please see document referenced below in the documents section.
Know Your Rights - Free Speech, Protests and Demonstrations
Please see document referenced below in the documents section.
Guide to Protests
The ACLU of Arkansas has just released new guidance for those wishing to protest, demonstrate or simply exercise free speech in Arkansas. Included in the release are a full Know Your Rights “Free Speech, Protests and Demonstrations in the State of Arkansas: An Activist’s Guide,” a corresponding KYR pocket card for Protesters and updated KYR pocket card regarding police encounters. The ACLU of Arkansas began developing these materials in the spring in response to protesters who wished to know their rights in Arkansas. With protests currently being planned throughout Arkansas, the ACLU finalized and issued these documents. Speak out, Speak up, Speak freely!
Protesters Know Your Rights
Please see document referenced below in the documents section.
NYCLU Report from OWS Anniversary Protests
Approximately 3,000 protesters from across the country amassed in New York City’s financial district to celebrate Occupy Wall Street’s one year anniversary. Refusing to be deterred by the barricades and checkpoints that precluded them from entering the area by the New York Stock Exchange, protesters broke into numerous roving marches, chanting, singing and throwing confetti. The NYPD’s response to many of these marches was more tempered than previously observed in other Occupy protests, and a fair number of arrests were the result of civil disobedience.
FOIA Documents Show FBI Was Watching Occupy Protestors, Some Docs Still Secret on National Security Grounds
Just shy of the one-year anniversary of the inaugural Occupy Wall Street protests, the ACLU of Northern California obtained initial documents from the FBI about surveillance of Occupy demonstrations in the region (see the FBI’s response here).
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