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Free Speech

‘Everyone’ To Defy UK’s Farcical ‘Cat And Mouse’ Game Of Arrests

April 9, 2026 The Canary. , , , ,
On Saturday 11 April 2026, thousands of ordinary, peace-loving people will gather in Trafalgar Square, London. They’ll be there in open defiance of the UK government’s misguided crackdown on peaceful protest. This peaceful vigil, called ‘Everyone Day’, will demonstrate the unwaning resistance to the ban on Palestine Action. The UK government unlawfully proscribed this direct action movement as a ‘terrorist group’, paving the way for numerous arrests. The action will be a peaceful vigil, with people sitting down holding their handwritten paper signs.

In Defense Of De-Platforming Zionists On College Campuses

February 27, 2026 Tarik Aougab, Mondoweiss. , , ,
Recently, Haviv Rettig Gur— political analyst for the Times of Israel— visited Haverford College to give a talk entitled Roots, Return, and Reality: Jews, Israel, and the Myth of Settler Colonialism. Knowing what I already knew about Gur’s politics and analysis, and having made the mistake of attending previous events organized by the same small group of Zionist faculty members, I had no intention of attending. Given the first-hand accounts from students who did attend— and given the shared tactics of Zionist agitators all over the country— I didn’t need to be there to have a fairly clear view of what transpired.

Organizers Fight Back As Missouri Cracks Down On Free Speech In schools

February 18, 2026 Marianne Dhenin, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
A bill moving through the Missouri legislature threatens to censor public school curricula, lead to attacks on teachers, and chill First Amendment speech. If passed, HB 2061 would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism into codes of conduct for Missouri’s public schools and universities. That definition has been the subject of intense critique from dozens of civil society and rights groups since its adoption in 2016, including Jewish organizations and thinkers who warn that legislating a definition of antisemitism singles out Jews in a way that runs counter to the goal of decreasing antisemitism.

Mahmoud Khalil Vows To Oppose Trump Efforts To Deport Him

January 27, 2026 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , ,
A Trump administration official has declared that Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil will be deported to Algeria. “It looks like he’ll go to Algeria. That’s what the thought is right now,” Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, told NewsNation. Khalil, a former Columbia University student and lead negotiator during the school’s Gaza protests, was arrested in 2025 and detained at a Louisiana facility for three months on orders from the State Department. Khalil was never charged with a crime.

Trump Sought To Deport Student Over Pro-Palestine Op-Ed

January 27, 2026 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , , ,
Newly released court documents confirm that US immigration authorities arrested a Turkish university student in the state of Massachusetts last year over an opinion article she wrote criticizing Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, rather than for “terrorist activity,” CNN reported on 26 January. In March last year, Rumeysa Ozturk, a PhD student at Tufts University, was walking on the street when plainclothes immigration officers suddenly detained her. She was transported to a detention center on the other side of the country, in Louisiana, and held there for six weeks.

Hate Crime Laws Can Chill Free Speech

January 23, 2026 Anne Twomey, Consortium News. , , , , ,
What impact will the criminal hate provisions in the Albanese government’sCombatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Act 2026have on the ability of ordinary Australians to protest? An earlier version contained a criminal offence of promoting or inciting racial hatred. The government dropped this part of the legislation after both the Coalition and the Greens opposed it. However, inciting racial hatred remains relevant to the other key provisions, which permit the banning of “prohibited hate groups”. A group can be prohibited under the new law if the governor-general makes a regulation prohibiting it. The governor-general acts on the advice of the minister for the Australian Federal Police.

California’s AB 715 Claims To Combat Antisemitism

December 23, 2025 Jenin Younes and Deyar Jamil, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
It’s not just Washington, DC that has sold out to the Israel lobby. In October of this year, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 715 into law, amending California’s education code, despite significant public opposition.   The ostensible purpose of the AB 715 amendments is to address the crisis of rising antisemitism by fortifying anti-discrimination law in public schools. A closer look says otherwise. The bill was rushed through the state legislative process: at the legislative hearing, even its proponents acknowledged that it had been drafted rather hastily and would require “clean-up” legislation down the road to ensure compliance with constitutional requirements.  

Defending Rights And Dissent Weighs In On Terrorism Definition

December 2, 2025 Chip Gibbons, Defending Rights & Dissent. , , ,
Since the 1980s, defending the right to political expression has increasingly meant challenging the use of counterterrorism powers to stifle political speech. In 1999, we published Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security. Written by two eminent legal scholars, David Cole and James Dempsey, it analyzed how counterterrorism laws and mandates were being used to abridge core rights to political expression. This work was necessitated by continuous revelations throughout the 1980s and 1990s as to how in the U.S. counterterrorism authorities were used to monitor domestic political speech, as well as the dramatic implementation of new counterterrorism laws in the 1990s that criminalized speech and humanitarian activities formerly understood to be protected by core expressive rights.

Lawsuit Charges That California Law Illegally Muzzles Students, Teachers

November 6, 2025 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , , ,
Beginning January 1, 2026, teachers in California classrooms will be looking over their shoulders to avoid running afoul of a frightening new “antisemitism” law. On October 7, despite widespread opposition from civil rights groups, teachers’ unions, and education advocates, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 715, which amends the California Education Code to police what teachers can teach and what students can learn about Israel and Palestine. “This problematic classroom censorship bill silences Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, Jewish, and other marginalized voices in California public schools by shielding a foreign government — Israel — from legitimate criticism and criminalizes honest discussions on Palestine and other global human rights issues,” the Council on American Islamic Relations said in a statement.

US Detains British Journalist During Tour After Israel Criticism

October 27, 2025 Middle East Eye. , , , , ,
US authorities detained a British Muslim journalist on Sunday, apparently due to his criticism of Israel, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair). Sami Hamdi was held by the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency at San Francisco international airport during a speaking tour in the US. Hamdi had spoken at a Cair gala on Saturday in Sacramento, where he condemned Israel's genocide in Gaza. He was scheduled to speak at another Cair event in Florida on Sunday. Cair has described the detention as retaliation for Hamdi's criticism of Israel, calling it an "abduction". “Detaining a prominent British Muslim journalist and political commentator during his speaking tour in the United States simply for daring to criticise the Israeli government’s actions is a blatant attack on free speech,” the Washington-based Cair said in a statement.

Craig Murray: 36-Minute Trials And No Jury

October 22, 2025 Craig Murray, Consortium News. , , , , ,
Those charged with terrorism for supporting Palestine Action will have no jury in trials limited to 36 minutes each, with prison sentences up to six months. These are the plans for Starmer Courts for mass trials of anti-Genocide protestors. The plans are devised by Justice Michael Snow. He is the epitome of judicial prejudice. When Julian Assange appeared before Snow in the first hearing after being dragged from the Embassy, Snow called Assange a “narcissist” even though Assange had said nothing but to confirm his name, and no evidence had been led.

We Who Believe In Democracy Must Fight To Make It Real

September 26, 2025 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , ,
We wake daily to new spectacles of violence and humiliation: kidnappings in broad daylight, attacks on unions, LGBTQ people, women, and immigrants, the erosion of long-cherished rights. It’s no longer a tricky question whether we have tipped into authoritarianism. The answer is yes. To fight back, we have to confront what the Trump administration is exploiting: fear. We are living in fear, cowed by it. Each workplace and free speech crackdown, each violation of democratic norms, feeds on the paralysis that fear produces. Fear is the fuel of authoritarianism. Democracy is its antidote. But all around us is evidence of how thoroughly democracy has been hollowed out—and it didn’t start with Trump. Democracy is its antidote. But all around us is evidence of how thoroughly democracy has been hollowed out—and it didn’t start with Trump.

Tom Alter’s Firing Marks A New Front In Campus Political Repression

September 26, 2025 Victor Harlan, Left Voice. , , ,
Many people in the United States and around the world were watching the news very intently on September 10, but they could be forgiven for not knowing that a Texas professor was illegally fired for his political views, as it wasn’t much reported on, even in Texas. History professor Thomas Alter was terminated after being accused by Texas State University president Kelly Damphousse of “conduct that advocates for inciting violence.” This politically motivated firing, while outrageous, is sadly becoming less and less unprecedented — it’s part of a new McCarthyism in American higher education. The university said the illegal firing was the result of comments made by Alter at the virtual Revolutionary Socialism Conference. The conference was organized by Firebrand, Socialist Horizon, and the International Socialist League in early September, and was geared towards the formation of a revolutionary party.

Trump Targets CODEPINK After Public Confrontation

September 18, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , ,
Activists from the anti-war group CODEPINK confronted US President Donald Trump and his cabinet at a restaurant in Washington, DC on September 9. The disruption made national headlines and (evidently) sent the Trump administration into a frenzy. At the restaurant on September 9, peace activists got surprisingly close to Trump and cabinet members including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, shouting “Free DC, free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time!” Trump appeared to react with visible frustration as he gestured for his security to remove the protesters, saying “Get them out of here.”

Charlie Kirk’s Racist/Xenophobic Rants Are Not Protected Speech

September 16, 2025 Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
Political flamethrower Charlie Kirk was shot dead on September 10, 2025, while speaking at a political event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Authorities have arrested Utah resident Tyler James Robinson, 22. He allegedly confessed to the shooting to a family member. Kirk’s shooting has triggered a national discussion about the political significance and/or impact that it will have moving forward. There are two basic elements of analysis of this event for me: the human element and the political. From the human perspective, very simply put, this was first degree murder.  It was the unlawful and intentional killing of a human being by another human being with malice and aforethought.  Murder is wrong.
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