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We've been covering a recent First Amendment lawsuit targeting President Donald Trumpa novel legal argumentin which Twitter users claim their constitutional rights were violated because the commander-in-chief blocked them from his personal @realDonaldTrump Twitter handle.

To be sure, it's a digital-age-basedconstitutional theory about social media rights in a day and age when politicians, from the president on down, are using their private accounts to discuss public affairs.

Now there's some legal precedent on the matter. It comes from a federal judge in Virginia who said that a local politician had violated the First Amendment rights of a constituent because the politician briefly banned the constituent from the politician'spersonal Facebook account.

"The suppression of critical commentary regarding elected officials is the quintessential form of viewpoint discrimination against which the First Amendment guards," US District Judge James Cacheris wrote Tuesday in a suit brought by a constituent against Phyllis Randall, the chairwoman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors in Virginia.

The judge didn't issue any punishment against Randall, as the Facebook ban for constituent Brian Davison only lasted about 12 hours. That said, the judge noted Randall committed "a cardinal sin under the First Amendment" by barring the constituent who posted about county corruption. What's more, the judge pointed out from the first sentence of the ruling that "this case raises important questions about the constitutional limitations applicable to social media accounts maintained by elected officials."

Randall's Facebook page, the judge ruled, "operates as a forum for speech under the First Amendment to the US Constitution."

This suit, at its most basic level, is nearly identical to the one lodged against Trump two weeks ago. Like the Virginia suit, the lawsuit against Trump names the chief executive's private account, which Trump uses on an almost daily basis as his political mouthpiece to the world.

"The @realDonaldTrump [Twitter] account is a kind of digital town hall in which the president and his aides use the tweet function to communicate news and information to the public, and members of the public use the reply function to respond to the president and his aides and exchange views with one another," according to the lawsuit (PDF) filed in New York federal court.

The Trump suit was brought by a handful of Twitter users Trump blocked after they posted critical comments. The lawsuit, to which Trump has yet to respond in court, seeks a ruling that the president's actions were unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, Judge Cacheris noted that Randall still had the right to moderate Facebook comments and that it's not always unconstitutional to block commenters.

"Finally, government officials have at least a reasonably strong interest in moderating discussion on their Facebook pages in an expeditious manner. By permitting a commenter to repeatedly post inappropriate content pending a review process, a government official could easily fail to preserve their online forum for its intended purpose," the judge wrote.

What's more, the judge said that allowing online speakers to hijack or filibuster online conversations would "impinge on the First Amendment rights" of other forum participants.

"Given the prevalence of online 'trolls,' this is no mere hypothetical risk," the judge said.

Judge Cacherishad recently tossed a similar lawsuit from Davison, a software consultant. In that suit, Davisonclaimed his First Amendment rights were breached because a prosecutor had removed hiscomments from the prosecutor's official Facebook page. The judge noted that the deletion of the comments was acceptable because they were "clearly off-topic" comments.

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Politicians' social media pages can be 1st Amendment forums, judge says - Ars Technica

Dear Editor:

Re LETTER: Ill take separation of church and state, by Eileen D. Minogue, July 20, 2017: I recently read an article by Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, which I found most enlightening, including the following paragraphs:

The First Amendment, which places freedom of religion as number one, protects the churches from intrusion by the government, not the government from religion.

[Alexis de] Tocqueville asked himself how a country so vast, so diverse, so open to everybody, so bold, under a constitution so daring and unprecedented could ever survive. His answer? Because the American people are religious!

Id like to hope our country has not strayed so far that its people no longer profess what early Americans professed in their Pledge of Allegiance one nation, under God.

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Those who object have the freedom to eliminate what they feel objectionable, but not impose their views on the majority.

Joan Saehloff

Port Ewen, N.Y.

Editors note: The Pledge of Allegiance was adopted by Congress in 1942. The words under God were added to the pledge in 1954.

Original post:
LETTER: First Amendment is a one-way protection for religion - The Daily Freeman

Dear Editor: There have been issues on campuses across the U.S. on free speech. As the argument of hate speech versus free speech continues, many speculate that public campuses have liberal biases. This is due to disproportionate numbers of conservative speakers getting rejected to speak on campuses compared to liberal speakers. A CNN article titled War on campus: The escalating battle over college free speech suggests that these speculations are true: The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education maintains an incomprehensive database of more than 300 attempts to disinvite campus speakers since 2000. About three-quarters of the attempts involved pressure from liberals.

In Wisconsin, GOP representatives have responded to these issues by proposing free speech policies on the UW System. These policies are suggested as precautionary, threatening future speech disrupters with suspension and/or expulsion. But such policies are criticized as damaging the rights of those who oppose the views of speakers and minorities.

The relationship between Americas future leaders and the United States First Amendment must continually be closely observed.

Currently on the Press Freedom Index, the United States is ranked at the 43rd position. Obamas onslaught on whistleblowers and Trumps attempts to thwart press coverage are listed as problems that contribute to the United States position.

Media conglomerates are an obstacle to press freedom. A statistic from morriscreative.com shows that in 2012, six media companies owned 90 percent of American media, compared to 50 companies that owned 90 percent of American media back in 1983.

These attacks on freedom of speech and press threaten one of our most sacred rights. People should care more about free speech.

Michael Flores

Madison

Send your letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.

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Michael Flores: Attacks on our First Amendment need more attention - Madison.com

Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 8:32 a.m.

Adam Carolla cites President Obamas 2015 appearance on WTF With Marc Maron as a milestone ushering podcasts into the mainstream. I think its another modality for conversation, and thats always a good thing, the Adam Carolla Show host says of the medium. In the next election three and a half years from now or sooner, as they campaign theres probably going to be more politicians sitting down with podcasters.

The third annual unconventional political convention known as Politicon, intended to narrow the gap between Washington insiders and the public, takes over the Pasadena Convention Center on July 29 and 30. Nearly 150 politicians, consultants, journalists, entertainers and podcasters anchor the nonpartisan event fostering discourse via panels, interviews, readings and live tapings.

Along with the James Carvilles, Ann Coulters, Jake Tappers and Lesley Stahls of the lineup, attendees can catch comedians including Greg Proops, Al Madrigal, Anthony Atamanuik, Michelle Wolf, Trae Crowder and Lizz Winstead. A highly anticipated debate sees Chelsea Handler engaging former talk-show host Tomi Lahren. On Saturday evening, Carolla records a live interview with The Daily Shows Roy Wood Jr., followed by an audience meet-and-greet.

Im just interested in a lot of different opinions, Carolla says of Politicon. The exchanging of ideas, thoughts and occasionally fluids, so Im excited.

The North Hollywood native studied improv in the early90s, and in 1994 parlayed his amateur-boxing background into training KROQs Kevin and Bean show personality Jimmy Kimmel. He soon co-hosted the stations Loveline with Dr. Drew Pinksy before partnering with Kimmel for Comedy Centrals The Man Show and Crank Yankers.

In 2011, The Adam Carolla Show set the Guinness World Record for most downloaded podcast. His Carolla Digital network houses a dozen podcasts, and 10 episodes of Adam Carolla and Friends Build Stuff Live aired this spring on Spike. Hes a fan of quick naps and of going with his gut.

I do tons of things, and people say, Why? Why did you do Dancing With the Stars or Celebrity Apprentice,' or 'Why did you write a book? And I just go, Somebody asked me to do it.

Carollas current point of pride is his Chassy Media documentary company. Subjects include cars and sports; his personal favorite, Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman, combined both.

Next up is a crowdfunded film exploring political correctness and freedom of speech on college campuses. Carolla teamed on No Safe Spaces with conservative radio host Dennis Prager, with whom atheist Carolla doesnt share much in common but nevertheless respects intellectually. (Prager recently tweeted that the "news media in the West pose a far greater danger to Western civilization than Russia does," even though that he's a member of the news media.)The two have mounted a series of school speaking engagements denouncing the coddling of students and chronicled the results. (Prager subsequently told Fox News, "The only thing I regret about the tweet is that I didn't write the universities and the media in the West are a greater threat to Western civilization.")

It seemed like a simpler time when people wanted to hear opinions that were a little bit different than their own, recalls Carolla, who has publicly said Hollywood fears tackling the subject. A mid-2018 release is expected.

Then again, not all change is bad. Particularly for a guy who claims he doesn't really work for a living anymore.

I try to keep things in perspective, especially when its 119 degrees outside, he muses. I used to be on a construction site in Chatsworth with this kind of weather. And now Im sitting in an air-conditioned trailer. I try to keep that in mind.

Adam Carolla podcast and meet-and-greet, Politicon, Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena. politicon.com/speaker/adam-carolla.

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First Amendment Fan Adam Carolla Takes Politics Even More Seriously Than Podcasting - L.A. Weekly

FrontPage Magazine

The Left's War on the First Amendment FrontPage Magazine Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism. Once upon a time there was a liberal media. Like most left-leaning institutions it ...

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The Left's War on the First Amendment - FrontPage Magazine