First Amendment
January 14, 2026 — Scott Johnson
On December 17 six named plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit in federal court here seeking declaratory and injuncitve relief against Kristi Noem et al. The case is styled Tincher v. Noem. The complaint in the lawsuit is accessible here. It alleges a variety of illegal misconduct by ICE officers against plaintiffs. The lawsuit is a project of the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (MCLU). MCLU has
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December 1, 2025 — Bill Glahn
That didn’t take long. The employee whistleblower Twitter (X) account @Minnesota_DHS has been suspended. [Update: back up! With some additional signifiers. The blue check mark has vanished, though.] In my last conversation with them (yesterday) they expressed fear over retaliation regarding their explosive post placing the blame for fraud in Minnesota on Gov. Tim Walz. When I last checked that post before the account suspension, it had received more than
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October 29, 2025 — John Hinderaker
In June, Barack Obama appeared at the Connecticut Forum for an extended conversation with Heather Cox Richardson. I became aware of the event via this tweet: Barack Obama says the quiet part out loud — it’s time to “experiment” with “new forms of journalism” with “government regulatory constraints.” “Part of what we’re going to have to do is to start experimenting with new forms of journalism and how we use
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October 8, 2025 — Scott Johnson
I wrote about Minnesota’s statutory ban on so-called “conversion therapy” in columns for the Free Beacon and Alpha News. As it applies to minors, the law bans therapy “that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions…” If a teenager is troubled by the feelings that conflict with his sex and wants to mitigate them or reconcile himself to his
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September 30, 2025 — John Hinderaker
President Trump has been doing pretty well in litigation lately. Yesterday, YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a putative class action that was brought by Trump and two other plaintiffs: Trump sued the Alphabet-owned video sharing platform in July 2021, alleging that YouTube unlawfully silenced conservative viewpoints after the company suspended his account in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. *** YouTube
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September 18, 2025 — John Hinderaker
One of this week’s strange news stories is Attorney General Pam Bondi’s apparent assault on “hate speech.” During a podcast on Monday, Bondi said her Department of Justice would “absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.” That led to a storm of outrage from the right, which in turn caused Bondi to “clarify” her statement the following day: “Freedom of speech is sacred
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September 16, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Governor Walz is still threatening to call a special session of the Minnesota legislature in the aftermath of last month’s mass shooting by Robin (formerly Robert) Westman at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis. He wants them to do something about “gun violence” and to adopt an “assault weapons” ban. Walz has been threatening to call the special session for a while. Something has caused him to pause. Perhaps it’s the fact
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August 31, 2025 — Scott Johnson
A faithful reader alerted me to an Eighth Circuit case with a Minnesota setting and a timely First Amendment issue. The case is set at the state prison in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Plaintiff Anthony Schmitt and a colleague taught “The Quest for Authentic Manhood” as volunteers for some ten years based on their understanding of Christian doctrine. The goal of the twice-a-week class was the prevention of recidivism. In 2023
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May 7, 2025 — Scott Johnson
I called Minneapolis Police Department Katie Blackwell’s defamation lawsuit against Alpha News (on whose board I sit) and Liz Collin “Blackwell’s folly.” The alleged liability of Alpha News derived from our support of the film The Fall Of Minneapolis (still available for free on YouTube). Blackwell’s lawsuit resulted in a court order finding the allegedly defamatory statements to be substantially true. Please see the linked post for the background and
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April 12, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Judge Ned Wahl dismissed Assistant Minneapolis Police Department Chief Katie Blackwell’s defamation lawsuit against Liz Collin and Alpha News this week. I’m a member of the board of Alpha News. We supported the film and Liz’s work on it all along the way. I wrote about Judge Wahl’s dismissal and posted his 58-page order in “Blackwell’s folly.” The story of Blackwell’s lawsuit should be of interest to those who followed
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April 11, 2025 — John Hinderaker
I was on the U.S. Report on Sky News Australia last night, with host James Morrow. We talked about three topics, one and a half of which are included in the clip that they uploaded to YouTube. In the video, we talk about the AP’s successful “Gulf of America” lawsuit against the Trump administration, and the Democratic Party leadership’s unwillingness to condemn political violence: The full appearance was longer than
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April 8, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Katie Blackwell is assistant chief of operations for the Minneapolis Police Department. She briefly appeared in the film The Fall of Minneapolis (produced by Liz Collin). Based on her appearance in the film and in the related book by Liz, Blackwell brought an ill-advised defamation lawsuit against Liz and Alpha News (I’m a member of the board). I reported on the defendants’ motion to dismiss Blackwell’s lawsuit in “Alpha News
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February 13, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday Matt Taibbi gave his opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the “censorship-industrial complex.” He posted the text of his remarks here (with links) at his Racket News site and added a brief note on the hearing as well. I have posted video below. This is the text. * * * * * Two years ago, when Michael [Shellenberger] and I first testified before your Weaponization of
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February 8, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Alpha News (on whose board I sit) is among the defendants sued for defamation by Minneapolis Police Department Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell. The claim against Alpha News arises from its posting of The Fall of Minneapolis. The documentary was produced by Liz Collin and based substantially on the reporting Liz did for her book They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and the Death of George Floyd. Liz is the multi-Emmy
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December 4, 2024 — Scott Johnson
This past month FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr took up the work of NewsGuard in a letter to the chief executive officers of Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Meta (Facebook), and Apple. I learned of the existence of the letter in Carr’s NewsNation interview with Chris Cuomo posted here by RCP. Carr is President Trump’s pick to chair the FCC. In the interview with Cuomo he states that he will seek to “smash
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November 24, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I’ve been covering Minnesota Attorney General since he first ran for Congress in 2006. Most recently, I summarized some of my research on Ellison in the 2023 City Journal review/essay “The anti-cop attorney general” and in the 2024 Power Line post “Ellison denies and defames.” Suffice it to say I’ve been beating my head against the wall to expose Ellison for a long time. Ellison now seeks to lead the
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October 4, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Among the corporate media “fact-checks” of the great debate between Senator Vance and our overmatched Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, I have yet to find one that homes in on the fundamental question of free speech. When Vance brought it up, Walz vomited up his ignorant take on the law of free speech: “You can’t yell fire in a crowded theater. That’s the test. That’s the Supreme court test.” That’s what
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