Blog

  • FDFA Helps Defend Free Speech in California - By John Friend On Sept. 8, 2015, I received an email from a reporter with The San Diego Union-Tribune, the largest newspaper in San Diego County. The reporter, J. Harry Jones, covers local government and politics in North San Diego County, where I reside and work. At the time, I was employed by the City of Escondido, one of the oldest cities in San Diego County, as the Division Coordinator in the City Manager’s Office. I had been working on a part-time basis for the City of Escondido for well over one year prior to accepting the full-time position as […]
  • So Much for Free Speech - By Dave Gahary A series of separate incidences in the Sunshine and Lone Star states illustrate that the freedom to voice ones opinion, as memorialized in the U.S. Constitution as well as these state’s constitutions, may be an endangered relic of bygone days. Fortunately, the law is still on the side of the people who are brave enough to speak their minds, and it is only a matter of time before advocates of free speech and thought push back. The latest incident followed a widely publicized scuffle that unfolded in the town of McKinney, Texas, where a white police officer […]
  • Good Samaritan Silenced in Idaho - By C. Petherick He says he only wanted to inform neighbors about child molesters, who may be living in their neighborhood. That’s why L.D. Bryson put signs in front of his house in Osburn, Ida ho, informing parents that they may have sex offenders living among them. But local law enforcement didn’t see it that way. So when Bryson refused to take them down, he was arrested. Bryson is now demanding $1 million from authorities for violating his First Amendment rights. “They threatened my mom and dad if we didn’t take the signs down,” Bryson told Associated Press. But it […]
  • Seditious Talk of Peace - By Paul T. Angel A critical First Amendment fight that erupted in a school classroom has spilled over into the courtroom in Bloomington, Ind. The outcome could either allow teachers to speak freely or gag them. It began on a January day two months before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. The sixth-grade students at Clear Creek Elementary School were thinking about the impending war while discussing an issue of Time for Kids,  a version of Time  magazine written for children and a regular part of the lesson plan. One student had read an article about a peace March […]