#^Hawaii To Pay Up After Trying to Criminalize Political Memes

Hawaii has agreed to pay $118,237.47 in attorney’s fees and costs to The Babylon Bee and local activist Dawn O’Brien, closing the books on a failed attempt to make some political satire a criminal act.

The state chose not to appeal a January ruling that struck down its so-called deepfake law, Act 191, as facially unconstitutional. It tried to ban speech. It lost. Now, taxpayers are covering the bill.
Unfortunately, the people who voted for the bill and signed it into law are not penalized other than possibly of losing a few votes and their share of the taxes for the fees. Perhaps there should be legal penalties for violating your oath of office by creating unconstitutional laws.

#free_speech #Government_is_the_enemy

#^Texas Woman Arrested for Facebook Post About Town Water Quality

Jennifer Combs had never gotten so much as a speeding ticket. On May 8, police in Trinidad, Texas, arrested her on a state jail felony charge for writing a Facebook post about the town’s water supply.

The post said residents had been hospitalized due to bacteria in the water. The city says that claim was false. So they sent cops to her door.

The charge is felony false alarm or report under Texas Penal Code § 42.06, a statute designed for people who call in fake bomb threats or fabricate emergencies. Trinidad’s police chief and local officials decided it also applies to a woman who ran a community Facebook page and relayed what neighbors told her about getting sick.

Combs’ post, published on her “Southern Belle Watch” account, read in part: “We have received reports that some citizens have been hospitalized due to bacteria in the water. This is a serious public health concern that deserves immediate attention. If your water looks discolored, contains sediment, has a strong odor, or you have experienced related health issues, please send us a message. We are gathering information and reporting findings to the state.”
#free_speech #Government_is_the_enemy

#^Berenson Wins Settlement and First Amendment Admission Over Twitter Ban

The Trump administration has settled with journalist Alex Berenson over the Biden White House’s role in getting him banned from Twitter during the summer of 2021.

The settlement includes a payment and a written admission that “the Government did in fact violate the First Amendment by exerting substantial coercive pressure on social media companies such as Twitter to suppress disfavored speech like Plaintiff’s.”

Not “encouraged.” Not “suggested.” The federal government put its name on a document saying it silenced a journalist because it didn’t like what he was saying about COVID-19 vaccines. Berenson’s lawyer, James Lawrence, believes this is the first time an individual American has received a cash payment to resolve a lawsuit over government coercion of social media companies.
#free_speech

#^The American Way Is Under Fire



A shooter on Saturday threatened the president, his administration, and our country’s free press. It was only the latest assault on the foundations of our way of life.
#free_speech #free_press #politics

#^Strictest 3D Printing Regulation YET!



California AB 2047 is the strictest regulation on additive manufacturing we've seen yet, and it's built on a foundation of technical impossibilities and manufactured fear.
#video #free_speech #3Dprint #regulation #Government_is_the_enemy

#^Man Arrested for Filming Police Wins Lawsuit



“I was one man with a camera filming the precise actions of the police,” said Justin Pulliam, a citizen journalist who covers police activity and local politics.

“If the police have nothing to hide, it shouldn’t have been a big deal; however, they went to extreme lengths to stop my reporting.”

Now, Judge George Hanks of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has ruled: “Pulliam’s arrest was motivated by Rollins’s hostility towards the content of Pulliam’s speech” and the arrest was in “retaliation for the exercise of his First Amendment rights of free speech as a citizen and journalist and to discourage this speech based on its content.”
#video #free_speech #IJ

#^Finally, Good News: Free Speech Wins Big in Court

Four years after the Twitter Files, the Missouri v. Biden case ends in a consent decree barring government from threatening protected speech - a belated but important victory
#free_speech

#^He Criticized the Mayor. They Arrested Him. He WON.



A federal judge in Iowa ruled that the city of Newton, Iowa, violated Noah Petersen’s constitutional rights when city leaders arrested him for critiquing the police and calling them “fascists” during a city council meeting. The decision is a clear warning to government officials nationwide: in America, you don’t get to call the cops on your critics. If you do, not even qualified immunity can save you.

“Today’s ruling is a major win for government accountability,” said Institute for Justice (IJ) Attorney James Knight. “From small towns to federal agents, government officials don’t get to use the power of arrest to punish protected speech. The First Amendment doesn’t allow public meetings to become praise-only zones—and it certainly doesn’t allow officials to weaponize the police against dissent.”
#video #IJ #free_speech #qualified_immunity

#^This TWEET lands you in JAIL?!



British police arrest an average of 33 people per day for their “offensive” social media posts.
#video #free_speech #UK

SECTION 230 - KILL THE INTERNET - NOW ... #law #internet #free_speech #errtlings #bookcafe #legal #rights #freedom #according_to_hoyle www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eqt...

They Are Trying To Kill The In...