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It has been almost 150 years since the tragedies of the Civil War, since the enraged Confederacy was quelled by prolonged Union force and since over 200,000 individuals lost their lives over political and social disagreement.

Recently, however, a Purdue student has reawakened the entrenched social memory of Americas bleak history of racism and inequality by the displaying of a Confederate flag in the upper window of his residence.

For some, the Confederate flag is a sign of southern pride and for others its a retired relic merely a piece of irrelevant history. However, most see it as a sign of oppression, servitude, segregation and savage brutality.

Yet, according to Rick Walker, code enforcement supervisor of West Lafayette Police Departments neighborhood resource team, There was no violation of ordinance or law, and while a sensitive issue, the resident was within his right to display it.

I was able to speak with one of the residents at the house, and he understood the concerns of some in the neighborhood and was sensitive to that. As a result, the flag is no longer visible, said Walker.

Regardless of constitutional right, many still find it offensive as a sign of white supremacy and racial oppression.

For many, Confederate symbolism represents a way to venerate ancestors who fought in the Civil War or admiration for the skills and bravery of the Confederate officers and soldiers, said Robert E. May, professor of American history at Purdue. But I would claim knowledge of what the Confederate flag represented in its day; it was the rallying symbol of a nation dedicated to the preservation of slavery in North America.

The south was fighting for a nation designed to perpetuate slavery forever in the United States and possibly extend it southward into Latin America, said May. Displaying their flag is an insult not only to African Americans but also to all Americans who believe in human equality.

Lets not start unraveling our Union memorabilia just yet. Although Union President Abraham Lincoln is often lionized as the champion of modern day racial equality, that is unfortunately not the case.

For instance, the Emancipation Proclamation wasnt a gesture of Lincolns compassion for those enslaved. As much as Lincoln hated the institution of slavery, he didnt see the Civil War as a struggle to free the nations four million slaves from bondage. Emancipation, when it came, would have to be gradual, and the important thing to do was to prevent the Southern rebellion from severing the Union permanently in two.

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First Amendment protects student's choice to display Confederate flag

TIME Tech legal The Supreme Court Is About to Make a Big Decision About Facebook Free Speech Till JacketGetty Images/Photononstop RM The case could have big implications for how we use social media

The Supreme Court on Monday will consider whether violent language posted on social media is covered by the First Amendments protection of free speech.

The case, Elonis v. United States, hinges around the question of whether a Facebook message can be considered a true threat, or a threat a reasonable person would determine to be real. That would be an important distinction, because true threats dont get First Amendment coverage. But it wont be an easy problem to solve: While it can be easy to call a threat true if its given verbally, making that call gets harder when threats are posted online, where they lack the context, tone and other indicators of intent present in verbal communication. Its also arguably easier to make threats online, especially if its done anonymously.

What happened?

A lower court had sentenced Pennsylvania man Anthony Elonis to about four years in federal prison over several Facebook posts threatening his estranged wife. The posts included, among other things, raps about slitting his wifes throat and about how her protection order against him wouldnt be enough to stop a bullet.

A sample:

Theres one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you. Im not going to rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts.

But how is that not a true threat?

Elonis contends his posts werent a threat to his wife but rather a therapeutic form of expression. Its commonly accepted that violent images are often part of rap music and other media, and artistic expression is protected under the First Amendment, explaining Elonis legal strategy. Still, the issue of whether Elonis had the intent to threaten is not necessary for a threat to be deemed a true threat. That requires only for a reasonable person to believe a threat is authentic.

The dividing line here is whether were judging the threat based on the intent of the speaker, or on the reaction of the people who read it and wouldve felt threatened. Thats really the key question, said William McGeveran, a law professor at the University of Minnesota.

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The Supreme Court Is About to Make a Big Decision About Facebook Free Speech

First Amendment Petcha Kutcha - Sheyla Suarez
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By: Sheyla Suarez

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First Amendment Petcha Kutcha - Sheyla Suarez - Video

(Part Two) Gadsden County First amendment Audit
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By: HONORYOUROATH

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(Part Two) Gadsden County First amendment Audit - Video

The Obama administration continues to strong-arm journalists into revealing sources

Bruce Brown is is executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and has argued numerous First Amendment cases before US courts.

By now, everyone knows the feds have been handing out record numbers of subpoenas to journalists hoping to scare them into giving up their sources. The troubles of New York Times reporter James Risen, the most well-known of these besieged journalists, remain unresolved almost seven years after the Bush administration first knocked on his door with a subpoena to appear before a grand jury.

There is another recent subpoena fight that has flown under the radar but ought to be brought into fuller view. It should be a wake-up call for anyone who cares about press freedom to heed a complaint that judges have been making since the Supreme Court looked at this issue 40 years agothat journalists cant prove that their sources dry up when the reporters they leak to are stalked by process servers.

The latest subpoena fight began in the summer of 2009 when Mike Levine, then a reporter for Fox News, wrote a story about the federal government probing links between Somali Muslims in Minneapolis and Al Qaeda. Citing law enforcement sources, Levine reported about grand jury indictments in the investigation while they were still sealed. The government successfully obtained pleas from several defendants and then went on to publicly tout the victory, but the leak set off alarms.

By early in 2011, the Justice Department had subpoenaed Levine, saying that it needed to know the identity of the law enforcement sources cited in his article. Levine moved to quash the subpoena, saying he promised his sources confidentiality. And the government sought to enforce it, saying that federal laws may have been broken.

All sound familiar? Levines case is but a piece in the onslaught of press subpoenas that have defined the Obama administration. But nothing was known publicly about this specific case until last May, when Levine, now at ABC News, wrote about it on the networks website. Then last month, US District Court Judge Royce Lamberth, who sits in DC, unsealed the docket.

Both from Levines account and court records, we learned that in July 2011, Lamberth denied the motion to quash. We also learned that the Justice Department in the end never forced Levine to testify. In April 2012, almost three years after Levines Somali story ran, prosecutors said they were withdrawing the subpoena. They offered no explanation as to why.

Levines case is more than just another example of the administration trying to force journalists to identify their sources. It stands out in part because of a statement by Lamberth in rejecting Levines arguments. The judge looked to a passage from the 1972 Supreme Court ruling in Branzburg v. Hayes, the one and so far only time that the press and the government have clashed over the issue at the nations highest court. In the passage, Justice Byron White wrote for a narrow majority in allowing prosecutors in a drug probe to obtain evidence from reporters trying to claim they were protected from testifying by the First Amendment. White said there simply wasnt enough empirical evidence to show that subpoenaing journalists would have a chilling effect on their sources.

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Press subpoenas are a bigger problem than youd think