A bookstore in Saugerties, New York, was threatened with misdemeanor zoning violation charges over an anti-Trump window display. Inquiring Minds Bookstore owner Brian Donoghue assembled the display to voice his concerns over statements made by Trump during his campaign. “I really felt…
Tag: first amendment
CBLDF Joins First Amendment Lawsuit that Challenges Louisiana’s Online Age-Verification Law
Booksellers and publishers filed a federal lawsuit today challenging a new Louisiana law that requires websites to age-verify every Internet user before providing access to non-obscene material that could be deemed harmful to any minor. The lawsuit was brought by…
Neil Gaiman: “Freedom of speech is a hugely important thing.”
“I was really lucky in that my parents definitely didn’t seem to have any kind of rules about what I couldn’t read.” With that, Neil Gaiman — CBLDF Advisory Board co-president and longtime supporter of our fight for the right…
Slinging Satire: Exhibit Explores the Love/Hate Relationship with Political Cartoons
An exhibit at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s ToonSeum, entitled Slinging Satire: Political Cartoons and the First Amendment, poses the question: What does it mean to be a political cartoonist in today’s turbulent global scene and what represents “fair” satire? Broken into two…
Survey Shows 33% of Americans Unable to Name Any First Amendment Right
One third of Americans cannot name any of the five freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment, according to results from the Newseum Institute’s annual State of the First Amendment survey. While it’s encouraging that speech is the freedom most commonly…
Painting Pulled from Library for Depicting Mother Teresa
In Trumbull, Connecticut, a painting depicting Mother Teresa alongside Margaret Sanger, whose advocacy for birth control led to the formation of Planned Parenthood, has been taken down due to supposed copyright infringement. The call to remove the painting from Trumbull…
Hanover, VA, High School Student Speaks Out About Academic Freedom
In light of recent concerns regarding the “un-American” message and overall inclusion of the film Searching for the Roots of 9/11 in Hanover County, VA, academic curriculum, school officials have begun discussing the introduction of a policy that would remove the…
Neil Gaiman on Censorship and the Perception of Comics as a “Gutter Medium”
In the upcoming Winter 2014 issue of Index on Censorship magazine, political cartoonist Martin Rowson interviewed long-time free speech advocate and CBLDF Advisory Board Co-Chair Neil Gaiman on issues of censorship, comics as a gutter medium, and how graphic novels…
Arizona School District Aborts Plan to Redact Biology Textbook
A moment of triumph this week for advocates of free speech and access to information has come in the form of the Gilbert Arizona school board opting to halt all actions to edit an honors biology textbook! In light of…
Neil Gaiman, Robie Harris, Judy Blume, and More Hit the Red Carpet for NCAC
Last week, author and comics creator (and CBLDF Advisory Board co-chair!) Neil Gaiman and 39 other honorees were awarded the title of 2014 Free Speech Defender by the National Collation Against Censorship. On November 3rd, during a gala New York…