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Milo Yiannopoulos, the polarizing Breitbart News editor, speaks at California Polytechnic State University as part of his "The Dangerous Faggot Tour" of college campuses, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017, in San Luis Obispo, Calif. His speech was met with dozens of angry protesters outside a campus theater. (David Middlecamp/The Tribune (of San Luis Obispo) via AP)

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) Fans and foes agree that Milo Yiannopoulos specializes in controversy. The polarizing editor from Breitbart News is a self-proclaimed internet troll who has been criticized as racist, misogynist and white supremacist.

His scheduled visit Wednesday to the University of California at Berkeley has raised an issue facing campuses across America at the dawn of the Trump presidency: What is the line between free speech and hate speech?

The visit is sponsored by the campus Republican club. The university has stressed it did not invite Yiannopoulos, a right-wing provocateur who is gay and calls his event The Dangerous Faggot Tour.

The potential for physical danger in reaction to Yiannopoulos came into the spotlight this month after a man was shot and wounded at a protest outside his Jan. 21 University of Washington talk.

Rowdy protests at UC Davis Jan. 13 prompted campus Republicans to cancel his appearance at the last minute.

On Tuesday night at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, his speech was met with dozens of angry protesters outside a campus theater, but they were outnumbered by police who kept them far from the nearly 500 attendees and the event went on as planned.

His last stop was supposed to be UCLA on Feb. 2, but that invitation was rescinded, making Berkeley the grand finale of his cross-country campus tour.

Professors have joined hundreds of students calling for the events cancellation. But university officials say it will be allowed in the name of free speech as will protests that Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks expects could be substantial amid tight security.

In our view, Mr. Yiannopoulos is a troll and provocateur who uses odious behavior in part to entertain, but also to deflect any serious engagement with ideas, Dirks wrote last week to Berkeleys staff and 37,500 students. He has been widely and rightly condemned for engaging in hate speech.

But as a public university, Berkeleys administrators are legally bound by the First Amendment to protect free speech, meaning even offensive and hate speech cannot be banned or censored, Dirks said.

We are defending the right to free expression at an historic moment for our nation, when this right is once again of paramount importance, Dirks said.

His letter did not name President Donald Trump, whom Yiannopoulos supports, but highlighted concerns at Berkeley and elsewhere since his election.

The Berkeley Republican Club says it has no plans to cancel the event because that would send a message that intimidation and violence can win.

We dont support everything hes said or done, said Pieter Sittler, 19, a sophomore who is the clubs vice president. But we think its important to have a complete political discourse. Not just stay in an echo chamber and silence what you disagree with.

The events 500 seats sold out about 48 hours after the event was announced last fall, Sittler said.

Yiannopoulos gives a voice to repressed conservative thought on American college campuses, Sittler said, adding that he uses levity and humor that should not be taken literally.

Administrators say the demands to stifle Yiannopoulos show that modern sensitivities are changing the debate about free speech on campus. What used to be a campaign to allow all voices risks becoming more restrictive.

The number of attempts to keep speakers off college campuses because of their politics doubled last year, according to a report issued late last year by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. It logged a record 42 incidents of disinvitations, with 25 percent aimed at Yiannopoulos.

The increasing unwillingness to allow anyone on campus to hear ideas with which one disagrees poses a grave risk to students intellectual development, Ari Cohn, director of the foundations Individual Rights Defense Program, said in a statement.

Administrators have received hundreds of letters and emails calling for the events cancellation.

Theres a No Milo at Berkeley Facebook page with more than 3,500 people signed on, calling for a mass counter protest to shut down the event.

Nearly 100 professors signed a letter to the chancellor urging him to cancel the event. It cited some of Yiannopoulos earlier comments.

At the University of Delaware, Yiannopoulos referred to transgender people as mentally ill and encouraged his audience to mock them.

He has called Black Lives Matter a form of black supremacism. Twitter banned him in July, as it cracked down on racist abuse targeting Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones.

At Western Carolina University he called feminism, a mean, vindictive, spiteful, nasty, man-hating philosophy.

The university should not provide a platform for such harassment, the letter from professors said. We support robust debate, but we cannot abide by harassment, slander, defamation and hate speech.

Yiannopoulos rejects accusations he is racist or white supremacist, saying his boyfriend is black and his humor is taken too literally in todays politically correct culture.

A group of veterans from Berkeleys 1960s Free Speech Movement praised administrators for allowing the event.

Even the worst kind of bigot, including Yiannopoulos, must be allowed to speak on campus, they wrote in In an op-ed published by Berkeleys The Daily Californian.

2017, Associated Press, All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Berkeley chancellor defends Milo Yiannopoulos event citing First Amendment - LGBTQ Nation

Five years ago, the Florida Department of Agriculture turned its regulatory power on a small third-generation dairy farm in the Panhandles Calhoun County, population 14,462.

FIRST AMENDMENT: Mary Lou Wesselhoeft, owner of the Ocheesee Creamery, was told by state regulators that she must inject additives into her all-natural skim milk or call it imitation milk.

The Ocheesee Creamery, as its known, was caught being a little too honest.

Mary Lou Wesselhoeft, owner, was selling all-natural pasteurized skim milk whole milk with the cream skimmed off and labeling it exactly what it was: skim milk.

But in a strange twist with First Amendment implications, the state said Wesselhoeft was misrepresenting her product. After a decade without complaints or confusion, newly enforced regulations required artificially injected additives something Ocheese Creamery had never done andwasnt about to start doing.

As a result, the department issued an ultimatum: either stop selling skim milk or label it imitation milk.

Wesselhoeft, whose website header includes the Bible verse, The hills shall flow with milk, Joel 3:18, opted to stop selling her locally popular item rather than comply with a condition she believes is dishonest.

But not without a fight.

In March 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida ruled in favor of the Department of Agriculture.

The First Amendments protection of free speech extends to commercial speech, the court said, adding that while Wesselhoefts label is literally true, the department has the authority to establish a standard of identity.

On Jan. 24, the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, argued her case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Court in Jacksonville. The firm has represented Wesselhoeft since 2014.

The state has turned the dictionary on its head, managing attorney Justin Pearson told Watchdog.org.

The state admits that Ocheesee Creamery skim milk consists entirely of pure all-natural skim milk. But because it doesnt add any other ingredients, the state has ordered the dairy not call it what it is. That violates the First Amendment, Pearson said.

According to the department, skim milk can only legally bear the name skim milk in Florida if it contains the same amount of vitamin A as whole milk. If it doesnt, vitamin A must be artificially added.

That puts Wesselhoeft in a bind.

Ocheesee Creamerys milk is separated so the cream rises to the top. But because vitamin A is fat soluble, its largely removed when the cream is skimmed.

OCHEESEE CREAMERY: The Calhoun County dairy farm west of Tallahassee produces all-natural milk items from grass-fed cows.

The thing thats different about our creamery is that its pasteurized, not homogenized, and our milk goes in glass bottles and is all-natural, Wesselhoeft said in a video produced by the Institute for Justice.

Commercial milk is typically homogenized a mechanical process that breaks down fat globules from the cream and suspends them, along with vitamin A, throughout the milk.

The dairys all-natural products are produced from grazing grass-fed cows. Many of its customers frequent the small business precisely because its products dont contain additives.

Many older people enjoy our items because it reminds them of their growing-up days when milk in glass bottles was the norm,the dairys website says.

The three-employee farm also includes a storefront where guests can watch how the family operation bottles its milk.

According to the lawsuit, department regulators routinely tested and approved the farms skim milk prior to October 2012, when the state issued a stop-sale order and demanded that Wesselhoeft refrain from listing any nutrient or health claims on its labels.

But not because its unsafe.

The state doesnt dispute that the creamerys skim milk is safe to drink without the full amount of vitamin A, explained Pearson. The state also agrees that the creamerys skim milk is legal to sell without any additives, he said. It just wont allow them to call it skim milk.

TRADITION: The small third-generation farm has three employees, andincludes a storefront where guests can watch how milk is bottled.

In 2013, Wesselhoeft proposed alternative labels, including Pasteurized Skim Milk: No Vitamin A Added, Pasteurized Skim Milk: No Lost Vitamin A Replaced, and Pasteurized Skim Milk: Most Vitamin A Removed by Skimming Cream from Milk.

The suggestions were denied.

If we would have ignored the Department of Agriculture, they couldve come and pulled our permit and shut us down completely, and we could not have sold any of our products anywhere, Wesselhoeft said.

According to the lawsuit, in addition to canceling permits and issuing fines, selling pasteurized skim milk without complying with Floridas labeling laws could result in incarceration for the Creamerys owners.

The farm has managed to continue operating, but not without losing money. It sells dairy items containing cream, but since the left-over skim milk cannot be sold, itsdiscarded.

Every day we cant sell it, it hurts our livelihood and we lose customers. We cannot continue on. It hurts us in a big way, Wesselhoeft said.

The Agriculture Department refuses to back-off its labeling prohibition despite the lack of public safety concerns. Court documents show the states interest is in establishing a standard of identity and nutritional standards for milk for the purpose of interstate commerce.

Ocheesee Creamery sells its products exclusively within the state of Florida.

Pearson said that amicus briefs were filed by large farm organizations, including the International Dairy Foods Association, on behalf of the state governments position.

Its clear that giant international dairy farmers dont like the idea that small, authentic creameries could offer alternative choices. I dont think thats a coincidence, he told Watchdog.org.

The Eleventh Circuit is expected to decide the case before summer. The lawsuit doesnt seek monetary damages, only the ability to call the product skim milk.

We think the judges understood what we were saying, Pearson said.

For Wesselhoeft, the challenge is a simple matter of right and wrong. We should win this case because we want to tell the truth, she said.Someone has to stand up.

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Small dairy farmer seeks First Amendment protection from state regulators - Watchdog.org

Anti-Trump protesters and the Denver Police Department may disagree about whether the First Amendment grants them the right to protest at airports.

According to a video posted to YouTube by protester Darren OConnor on Saturday, Commander Lopez of the Denver Police Department was having none of it, no First Amendment Right to express the outrage being felt across the country at the unilateral closing of our borders to people with Green Cards and families in America. The First Amendment requires a permit. Even carrying the constitution without a permit is illegal, according to Commander Lopez. Read that again. And again. And again.

During the protest, Denver Police Commander Tony Lopez told protestersthat they should put all the signs away that have anything to do with First Amendment expression, political message. Based on legal advice we are getting at this time, from the city attorney, whats being displayed, is a violation of airport rules and regulations.

As NBC News affiliate 9News pointed out, the Supreme Court has ruled before that airports are not traditional public forums, giving airport officials the ability to impose reasonable restrictions. This coincides with the position taken by Denver International Airport spokesman Heath Montgomery, who told 9News that we have to ensure that people who use this airport are safe and able to go about their business uninterrupted and thats going to remain our focus. According the airports rules and regulations, protesters need to submit a permit one week in advance, which didnt happen prior to Saturdays event.

Eventually a compromise was struck and the protesters were allowed to move to another part of the airport.

In the end, We The People won the day, proclaimed OConnor in the description under his YouTube video. Commander Lopez backed down, and as We The People stood in support of immigrants and the First Amendment, a federal judge stayed Trumps order. We the people won the day.

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Denver Police say airport protesters aren't protected by First Amendment, need permit - Salon

WIAT 42

Police: Veteran's hanging Trump effigy protected by First Amendment WIAT 42 MacLean said Freedom of Speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and under Article 1, Section 9, of the Indiana Constitution, permits and protects speech as long as it is not a call to imminent lawlessness. It is illegal to threaten ... and more »

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Police: Veteran's hanging Trump effigy protected by First Amendment - WIAT 42

An overview of the goals of reforming the Colorado Open Records Act. Nick Coltrain

Lauren Gustus is Executive Editor of the Coloradoan.(Photo: File photo)

About a year ago, a bill withFort Collins origins failed in the Colorado Legislature.

You might be thinking, well, thats nothing new. This session will see more than 700 bills introduced at the Capitol. A fraction of them will become law.

It's what happened after this specific bills failure that was unusual.

The Secretary of States Office committed to helping reframe the bill for 2017 so it worked better for those who made public records requests and those in receipt of them.

The idea: If a record is available in digital form, it should be given to a requestor in a native format, i.e., some sort of searchable digital format. Today the standard is that it be made available in printed form (and that could be somewhere far from where you live).

The prospect of open records modernization is understandably concerning to government employeesworking in an office that doesnt receive requests often or if your office isnt familiar with excel or other digital formats.

So the Secretary of State created a working group to determine how to create a piece of legislation that updated todays Colorado Open Records Act known as CORA, which hasnt been updated since 1996 without creating potential for unintentional release of data that is not public (such employees Social Security numbers, gender, etc).

I served on the 16-person working group as the representative for the Colorado Press Association, which started to discuss the issue in early summer and wrapped in December.

The result is Senate Bill 40, which will be heard in the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on Feb. 6. I am headed down to Denver to testify in its support. If it passes out of committee, it will move to the Senate floor.

Some people might wonder if it is my place to speak in support of legislation at a time when we are discussing daily how to best offer balanced coverage for you.

Just as it is our responsibility to fight abuses of power and champion issues for those who do not have a voice, it is also our duty to work for improved transparency.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote that First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought.

Timely stuff, even if his comments were made 15 years ago.

The update to CORA is a reasonable solution thats worked its way through a monthslong process with stakeholders from across the state and the political divide.

I am impressed by the open-minded approach taken by Colorado legislators on both sides of the aisle, as well as state agencies such as the Secretary of States Office, and how stakeholders with disparate missions brought to a table to make concessions.

With this piece of legislation, Colorado is demonstrating that it can be an exception to todays political rule in Washington, D.C.

This bills sponsors (Sens. John Kefalas and Dan Pabon) compromised. Just as important, they listened. Im hopeful the committee will do the same when it considers the legislation.

The bill would require the custodian of the public records to provide an accurate copy of the public records in a searchable format when requested. If public records are not stored as structured data but are stored in an electronic or digital form and are searchable in their native format, the custodian is required to provide a copy of the public records in a format that is searchable when requested.

Nothing in the bill requires a custodian to produce records in their native format. A searchable format is required.

http://leg.colorado.gov/content/committees

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Gustus: First Amendment matters; here's what I'm doing - The Coloradoan