Update

 Free Speech and Anger
26 June 2021

   The Supreme Court supported a teenage girl's right to post her opinions on Facebook, even if she resorts to profanity in doing it.
   A local school board suspended her from cheerleading activities because of her posting, which was done at her home on a weekend, and no school facilities were involved.
   SCOTUS ruled 8-1 that the school board was wrong in suspending her for doing something in her own home on her own time. The girl acknowledged that she was angry about losing her effort to get on the cheerleading team, and she vented her anger with profanity, using the F-word four times in a single posting.
   The court noted that while the school can regulate activities and comments made on school time and in school facilities, it cannot expand the regulation to cover what a student does off campus, on her own time and in her own home.
   One wonders whether the school board would have taken similar action if a boy had posted angry profanities over losing a spot on the football team.
   Three cheers for free speech.

He's Back
30 June 2021

   Ex-president Donald Trump is still speaking at rallies of supporters, talking about a possible return to office. Followers remain adamant that the election was "stolen," despite some 50 court rulings -- including two at the Supreme Court (which has three of his nominees) -- that there is no evidence to support the allegations.
   Danger: The Jan. 6 insurrection may be repeated.

Indicted
1 July 2021

   As expected, the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer were indicted today on multiple charges, including tax fraud. The ex-president himself was not named in the indictment. There is speculation that authorities are using the indictment of other officials of the company partly as leverage to get the CFO -- Allen Weisselberg -- to testify against Donald Trump in return for a lesser sentence.
   Trump himself called the move by prosecutors "a witch hunt."

Frivolity
8 July 2021

   The ex-president sued Facebook, Twitter and Google in a demand that they restore his accounts, which were dropped because of falsehoods and comments that escalated the potential for violence. In the lawsuit, Donald Trump claimed the bans were unconstitutional censorship of his right to free speech.
   Observers noted that the claims were likely a publicity stunt to raise money for the ex-president. And before Trump was done speaking at his golf course about his plans, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent text messages asking for contributions, according to a New York Times report. Soon after, Trump's political action committee also sent its solicitation, the Times said.
   News media have long been protected from government censorship by the First Amendment to the Constitution, and are free to publish -- or not publish -- information about anything or anyone, as long as it is not libelous. The Trump lawsuit claims the tech firms are, in a way, government firms because of a federal law protecting them and therefore the First Amendment does not apply.
   Earlier, Trump failed in his attempt to set up his own web site, so he is now demanding that he get back on the commercial services. Meanwhile, there is the danger that if this demand is successful, similar demands would be made to print and broadcast media, insisting that they publish unedited commentary by government officials. This would mean government control of the press, a clear violation of the First Amendment.
   Unless the Constitution be suspended.