Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorNovember 3, 2015

What in the world is going on? As if our political world isn’t enough to drive us crazy, we seem to be bombarded by a constant barrage of bizarre events that are difficult to comprehend. Nonetheless, the news media insists on producing stories testing our common sense. They would be funny if we knew they […]

Julie DelegalOctober 15, 2015

Rights, even those guaranteed by the constitution, are never absolute. Free speech rights don’t protect us from committing libel or slander, for example. They don’t protect us from yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. But so far, no one is challenging the NRA for its abuse of the First Amendment: spreading misinformation about guns in […]

Julie DelegalOctober 14, 2015

Rights, even those guaranteed by the constitution, are never absolute. Free speech rights don’t protect us from committing libel or slander, for example. They don’t protect us from yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. But so far, no one is challenging the NRA for its abuse of the First Amendment: spreading misinformation about guns in […]

Melissa RossJuly 9, 2015

Saying “Security is the creed of the tyrant,” former Duval County Circuit Judge John Merrett joined the chorus of callers into WJCT’s First Coast Connect Thursday to chime in on the current flap over PINAC activists suing for the right to take photos and record video outside the Duval County Courthouse. “It’s nobody’s business to stop […]

Martin DyckmanJuly 7, 2015

It is amusing, in a wry sort of way, to witness the tantrums and hear the gnashing of teeth in right-wing circles over the several big cases they have just lost at the U.S. Supreme Court. Spare them no sympathy. You might think that losing has become more than they can bear. But in fact, […]

Bob SparksJuly 2, 2015

For all of Charleston, S.C.’s attractiveness, history will always record that the Civil War began there 154 years ago when rebels fired on Fort Sumter. The institution of slavery was the foundation of the conflict. History will also record that on June 17, 2015, a young gunman slaughtered nine good people in a racially motivated […]

Martin DyckmanJune 1, 2015

With all the horrors continuing to occur in the world, notably including the massacres perpetrated by Boko Haram in Africa and ISIS in the Middle East, the evangelist Franklin Graham has not exactly overlooked them. But it’s to some other crisis that he has been devoting most of his public preaching lately. He’s been praying […]

Guest AuthorMay 18, 2015

Anonymity and pseudonymity have been key threads in the fabric of American life since the Colonial era. From arts to politics, from the Revolutionary era-tracts known as Cato’s Letters to the street art of the elusive Banksy, there is a long tradition, respected in practice and protected by the First Amendment, of publishing or distributing […]

Guest AuthorMay 5, 2015

Testing the First Amendment’s limits has always been an important act in ensuring democratic rule in this country. Today, there are very few limits on free speech; the only justification for censorship is protecting national security or preventing violent or dangerous behavior. As a result, we live in a society where almost any words or […]

Martin DyckmanApril 6, 2015

The original Religious Freedom Restoration Act – RFRA for short – was intended to protect faith-based practices from unnecessary government interference. That’s the opposite of trying to use it to justify faith-based discrimination against others. But of course irony and hypocrisy are hardly strangers to politics. Congress enacted RFRA in 1993 in response to the […]

Tag: First Amendment

Tim Bryce: It's getting strange out there

Julie Delegal: The NRA has gone all the way down the rabbit hole

Julie Delegal: The NRA has gone all the way down the rabbit hole

Former Judge John Merrett rips Duval Courthouse video ban

Martin Dyckman: Supreme Court more often goes astray

Bob Sparks: People have the right to fly the Confederate flag — on private property

Martin Dyckman: Franklin Graham praying for destruction of the U.S. Constitution

R.J. Lehmann: Copyright lobby seeks new hammer to pound free speech in Florida

Steven Kurlander: Dissing Muhammad – Pamela Geller and the deadly art of being a hateful skank

Martin Dyckman: Religious freedom isn't license to discriminate