Tag: Civil Rights & Free Speech
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ICE Airport Arrests
The airport security every traveler passes through is now part of the immigration dragnet. This week the Washington Post reported that ICE is expanding arrests inside airports nationwide. Documents obtained by watchdog groups show how it works. In May 2025, ICE and the TSA signed a data-sharing agreement. Several times each week, TSA sends ICE…
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Ohio Antigay Billboards
The scapegoat list always grows. Yesterday trans people, today gay families, tomorrow whoever is next. This month, billboards went up across rural Ohio reading “No child has two dads. No child has two moms.” The messages were paid for by Seattle-based Them Before Us, part of a coalition of more than 50 groups pushing the…
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National Guard Detains Veteran
Troops trained for combat, stationed in neighborhoods, produce exactly this. On July 29, the ACLU filed a legal claim on behalf of Anna King, a retired Army captain who earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart in Iraq. The claim seeks 3 million dollars from the Defense Department and the Idaho National Guard. On…
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Trump IRS Targets Free Speech
When they tell you what they’re planning, believe them. On July 16, a conference that received little notice was held in the Loy Henderson Conference Room at the State Department, convened by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. Officially called the…
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Trump Blacklist
On his first day in office, the president signed an order that purported to end federal censorship. A government blacklist now punishes journalists for telling the truth. Donald Trump keeps a media blacklist, and he has now expanded it to include private individuals. Since last November, the official White House website has hosted a page…
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First Amendment Holds?
For now, the First Amendment held. But states are falling all over themselves to out-MAGA each other and others have passed similar laws. One wonders for how long it can be withstood. This week a federal appeals court ruled that Florida’s so-called Individual Freedom Act violates the First Amendment. The 2022 law, championed by Governor…
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Warning Notice
In an autocracy, people measure their words. Americans now must begin to measure theirs. On Monday, U.S. citizen David Streever sued the Department of Homeland Security. He says its agents violated his First Amendment rights by punishing him for criticizing ICE. Streever’s offense was a three-paragraph email sent in January in response to the killings…
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Celebrate What?
I am celebrating with hope that they still exist. Today America is 250 years old. Many of us are despondent or enraged over the loss of American democracy. I am here at Antietam, site of the bloodiest single day in American history. Why am I here? What is there to celebrate? On September 17, 1862,…
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Bible Required in Texas Schools
State-required Bible reading in public schools. It seems state-sponsored religion is already here. On Friday, the Texas State Board of Education approved a required reading list of Bible stories and Bible verses for every public school student in the state. If implemented, more than 5 million Texas children will read it, roughly one in ten…
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Reflecting Pool Criminals
One wonders how much state power is now being exerted simply to keep one man from ever having to admit that he was wrong. On Saturday, Donald Trump announced that the United States Park Police had arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He called it a serious crime against a national…
Notes To My Future Self 