Category: Legal

VICTORY: Judge Stops Arizona’s Ban of Mexican-American Studies

Judge A. Wallace Tashima has ruled that the Arizona law targeting Tucson’s lauded Mexican American Studies program is unconstitutional and that the state cannot ban ethnic studies programs. Tashima, who had upheld the law in previous decisions, ruled in Acosta et al…

2017: CBLDF Takes Legal Action

CBLDF’s legal efforts in 2017 protected our community, overturned unconstitu-tional laws, and preserved the right to free expression. Some highlights: California’s “Autograph Law” The Fund helped facilitate the replacement of California’s flawed autograph law, protecting the rights of comics retailers,…

CBLDF Joins Call to Restore BUCK to Classrooms in Maryland

CBLDF has joined the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Kids’ Right to Read Project in calling for the restoration of BUCK: A Memoir by M.K. Asante to Baltimore County School District classrooms. CBLDF is a sponsor of KRRP. CBLDF joins coalition efforts like these…

Indian Political Cartoonist Faces New Charges

Five years ago, Aseem Trivedi dodged a bullet when sedition charges against the Indian political cartoonist were dropped. But that bullet has come back around: new charges have been brought against the outspoken artist. In 2012, Trivedi was arrested for…

Lawyers Ask UN to Help Cartoonist Detained in Equatorial Guinea

It has now been almost three months since graphic novelist and political cartoonist Ramón Esono Ebalé was arrested without charge in his native country of Equatorial Guinea. Now a U.K.-based law firm specializing in human rights issues has teamed up…

Protecting Our Rights: 2017 CBLDF Annual Report

Free expression withstood a wide range of attacks in 2017. Thanks to donors like you, CBLDF was at the forefront, protecting our community from an increasing tempo of challenges to comics and other expressive material. From deploying our lawyers to…

Lawsuit Overturns Utah Schools Ban on ‘Advocacy of Homosexuality’

Advocacy groups in Utah settled a discrimination lawsuit against the state last week, after both the legislature and the statewide board of education repealed rules that banned “advocacy of homosexuality” in public schools. In practice the rules had basically quashed…

ACLU & EFF Challenge Warrantless Border Searches of Electronic Devices

In response to a skyrocketing rate of warrantless searches of travelers’ smartphones and other electronic devices at U.S. border crossings, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation this week filed a lawsuit challenging the practice as unconstitutional.…

Florida Governor Signs School Censorship Bill into Law

Florida governor Rick Scott yesterday approved legislation that will facilitate challenges to classroom materials, allowing any county resident to lodge a challenge against textbooks or supplemental materials that they claim fail to present “a noninflammatory, objective, and balanced viewpoint on…