To bridge religious divide, let students engage students
By CHARLES C. HAYNES - Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012
It’s disturbing, if not dangerous, that most schools in the United States and around the globe largely ignore religion, doing little or nothing to help students live in a world where religion and religious differences clearly matter.
Journalists are natural fit as debate moderators
By GENE POLICINSKI - Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012
Journalists who report on politics for news organizations large and small would seem a good fit as moderators or questioners for debates if they are informed about issues, are up to speed on where each candidate stands, and—it should go without saying—are not aligned with any one candidate. But there are the complicating factors.
In Rhode Island, a student’s lesson in religious freedom
By CHARLES C. HAYNES - Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012
A high school student in Cranston, R.I., Jessica Ahlquist has been taunted and threatened at school, targeted by an online hate campaign, and called “an evil little thing” by a state representative on the radio. Her crime? She asked school officials to remove a “school prayer” banner from the auditorium of Cranston West High School.
Planning can prevent violations of free assembly at political conventions
By GENE POLICINSKI - Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012
Since at least 2000, hundreds of mass arrests have occurred during both parties’ conventions, sweeping up protesters, working journalists and even some bystanders. All too often those arrests ultimately brought no charges. As a result, many claimed that police were acting more to silence critics and preserve decorum than to safeguard citizens. This time around, let’s include a little First Amendment planning right from the start.
Pagans, atheists, Christians and the battle for equal treatment
By CHARLES C. HAYNES - Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012
In the view of many residents in Buncombe County, N.C., outside groups such as the Gideons should have a religious-liberty right to distribute Bibles in public schools.
New year rings with freedom of assembly
By GENE POLICINSKI - Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012
Just 14 percent of Americans in the latest State of the First Amendment survey by the First Amendment Center could name assembly as one of the five basic freedoms. But 2012 is picking up just where 2011 left off: Assembly is often at the top of the news, if not our collective mindset.
These days it’s harder to identify who is a journalist
By GENE POLICINSKI - Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011
A federal district judge raised Internet eyebrows nationwide in ruling that Oregon’s shield law as applied to “journalists” would not protect a blogger sued for defamation.
A plea to politicians: Tell the truth about ‘school prayer’
By CHARLES C. HAYNES - Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011
WASHINGTON --
The claim that public schools are hostile to Christians may rev up caucus-goers in Iowa, but there’s only one problem: It isn’t true.
A reason to make the First Amendment part of the season
By GENE POLICINSKI - Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011
Has there ever been a time when all five of our First Amendment freedoms were more in play?
Putting workers to a cruel choice: your God or your job
By CHARLES C. HAYNES - Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011
Under the news-media radar, workers of many faiths battle daily to practice their faiths without losing their jobs.
‘Occupy’ crackdowns limited by First Amendment
By GENE POLICINSKI - Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011
Looming large over every Occupy demonstration is the First Amendment’s protection of assembly and petition—still a huge barrier to authorities who would wish the anti-Wall Street movement to evaporate along with the last wafts of tear gas or pepper spray.
Religious symbols on public property trigger convoluted church-state debates
By CHARLES C. HAYNES - Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011
A statue of Jesus Christ, erected on federal land by veterans in 1955, is being challenged by the Freedom From Religion Foundation as a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. What statue supporters see as a historic monument, opponents view as government endorsement of religion.
Beware unintended harm of regulating Internet
By GENE POLICINSKI - Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011
The annual conference of the Family Online Safety Institute in Washington, D.C., gave voice to concerns that well-intended regulations and technological devices that impose limits or controls on child abuse may be used by some governments to suppress other kinds of free speech.
Sixth-grader wins round for student religious expression
By CHARLES C. HAYNES - Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011
What’s striking about this case—and, sadly, many others like it—is how hard some school officials will work to make public schools religion-free zones.
Pakistani reporter’s chilling question reminds us of our freedom
By GENE POLICINSKI - Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011
WASHINGTON --
“I have heard you speaking today about freedom of the press and the power of writing the truth,” the Pakistani journalist said. In his rural area, he said, “I am free to write what I want, to write the truth … but some day if I write a truthful thing, they will kill me. And they will kill my family. As a journalist, what am I to do? What advice do you have to me?”
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