First Amendment
August 10, 2017 — Scott Johnson
On Monday our friend Seth Leibsohn invited me to appear on Phoenix AM 960’s Seth and Chris Show yesterday afternoon. Seth asked me to discuss my post on the law, the leaks and the New York Times. My discussion with Seth frames the background to my “Ten theses on leaks.” What is to be done? In my view, the Trump Department of Justice must pick its best case to prosecute
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August 9, 2017 — Scott Johnson
This past Friday Attorney General Sessions held a news conference to announce the Justice Department’s dedication to stopping the flood of leaks of classified information that is undermining the Trump administration and damaging our national security. The transcript of Mr. Sessions’ statement at the press conference is posted here. What is to be done? This was the only potential reform of policy or practice mentioned by Attorney General Sessions: “[O]ne
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August 5, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday on FOX News Special Report, Chris Wallace led a panel discussion of Attorney General Sessions’s press conference announcing the Trump administration’s efforts to suppress leaks of classified information. Video of the segment is below. In the course of the segment Charles Krauthammer addresses the applicable law in a manner that is extremely misleading. This is what he had to say on the legal issues (my transcription): I thought we
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July 5, 2017 — Scott Johnson
CNN dispatched the head of its “leading investigation team for the social, mobil generation”– Andrew Kaczynski of the so-called KFile unit — to blow the lid off the source of the GIF showing President Trump taking down CNN. President Trump tweeted it out on July 2 (below). #FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017 If you’ve been following the news, you know that Trump’s tweet represents
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June 22, 2017 — John Hinderaker
The City of Minneapolis has established a hot line to report speech and conduct that are deemed hateful. The city’s press release says: Through its 311 service, the City of Minneapolis has opened a new hotline for reporting hate crimes, which are harassing behaviors motivated by prejudice. That is wrong. “Harassing behaviors” may or may not be crimes; in many cases, depending on how the phrase is understood by people
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May 29, 2017 — John Hinderaker
The mayor of Portland, Oregon, Ted Wheeler, is trying to block a free speech rally in his city: The mayor of Portland, Oregon, on Monday urged U.S. officials and organizers to cancel a “Trump Free Speech Rally” and other similar events, saying they are inappropriate and could be dangerous after two men were stabbed to death on a train as they tried to help a pair of young women targeted
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May 5, 2017 — John Hinderaker
The Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial board wrote on Tuesday: “Trump administration continues to threaten a free press.” Did I miss the news about President Trump vowing to shut down CNN or the New York Times? Of course, that didn’t happen. So what is the editorial board talking about? [A]t a campaign-rally style event on Saturday, Trump used the bully pulpit to try to bully the news media, which he said
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December 7, 2016 — John Hinderaker
Gardiner Harris is the New York Times’s White House reporter. His Twitter feed, where many reporters reveal themselves, shows Harris to be an unabashed cheerleader for the Democratic Party. To cite just one of many examples: Republicans consider ending the Republic as we know it: That Supreme Court Stonewall May Not Crumble Anytime Soon https://t.co/9CG8cfeT78 — Gardiner Harris (@GardinerHarris) November 4, 2016 So when Gardiner Harris asks questions of Josh
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November 30, 2016 — John Hinderaker
Democrats are burning American flags in violent demonstrations and riots across the country, which led Donald Trump to re-ignite an old debate with a tweet: Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016 Trump’s suggestion that flag burning should not be treated as protected
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October 28, 2016 — Scott Johnson
YouTube has restricted Kim Strassel’s PragerU short course on The Intimidation Game. It’s almost like they want to prove her point. At least she’s in good company (PragerU tweet below). In a separate tweet, Kim explains that her video “is restricted for any young people with parental controls” as well as “schools and libraries.” Consider it a preview of the next Clinton administration, when Citizens United is to be reversed
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September 7, 2016 — John Hinderaker
In Louisiana, a 17-year-old girl who was about to turn 18 and was excited to vote in her first election went to a local bakery and asked for a birthday cake with an American flag and “Trump 2016” on it. No way, said the woman behind the counter. No Trump! The baker was well within her rights, of course. We have freedom of conscience in America, and she shouldn’t be
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August 11, 2016 — Scott Johnson
Professor Richard Samuelson’s closely argued Mosaic essay “Who’s afraid of religious liberty?” is must reading. In it Professor Samuelson explains the assault on our religious freedom under the ever expanding regime of anti-discrimination law and practice. I urge readers who care about the subject to read the whole thing; there is no substitute for it. I invited Professor Samuelson to write a brief introduction for Power Line readers. Professor Samuelson
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July 16, 2016 — John Hinderaker
Hillary Clinton is giving a speech today in which she describes one of her top priorities as president: Hillary Clinton will pledge on Saturday to introduce an amendment to the Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision within the first 30 days of her administration, an aide said Saturday. A reader writes: Global terrorism, coup in Turkey, unrest in USA, cops killed in cold blood by sniper in
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June 27, 2016 — John Hinderaker
We have written several times about efforts by Democratic Attorneys General and others to make it a criminal offense to point out deficiencies and errors in the Left’s catastrophic anthropogenic global warming theory. Criminalizing one side of a political debate is, as far as I know, unprecedented in American history. Yet the Democratic Party’s Platform Committee has now made this assault on the First Amendment official party policy: Democratic operatives
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June 16, 2016 — Scott Johnson
I can’t say that this is how all overreaching government authorities should be answered, but it does set an inspirational example. At the Daily Caller Michael Bastach explains: Alex Epstein had a terse response to a subpoena sent by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey Wednesday. Healey demanded the oil giant ExxonMobil hand over 40 years of documents, including information pertaining to the company’s dealings with about a dozen think tanks
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June 11, 2016 — Scott Johnson
James Risen is a New York Times reporter who has done great damage to the national security of the United States, some through leaks he has published in the Times and some through leaks the Times has passed. The case of fired CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling involves one such leak on which the Times passed but that Risen included in his book State of War. Sterling was prosecuted and convicted
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May 3, 2016 — Scott Johnson
Democratic officeholders seem to be operating a conspiracy to stifle free speech and suppress heterodox thought. They’re on C.P. time, alright: Communist Party time. Glenn Reynolds named names in his USA Today column “Dear attorneys general, conspiring against free speech is a crime.” Glenn identified U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker, California Attorney General Kamala Harris, and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as co-conspirators. Glenn laid out the
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