Ron Paul’s supporters were burning up Twitter yesterday to emphasize he’s the only presidential candidate to not support SOPA or PIPA. Their claims are false - Buddy Roemer blacked out his site in support of the protest - but that’s beside the point. If you make a video in support of Ron Paul, and he doesn’t like your message, he’ll take your ass to federal court. 

Seriously:

Ron Paul Trademark and Defamation claim

How does this jive with his image as a defender of liberty again? Isn’t the right to speak out on the internet anonymously - no matter how vile the message - something a defender of liberty should protect? In this case, a supporter of Ron Paul uploaded a racist, offensive video which questioned Jon Huntsman’s values based on his speaking Chinese, and slammed him for adopting two daughters from China and India. 

The Ron Paul campaign condemned the video quickly. However, this lawsuit brings the video to the forefront again, though Huntsman has left the race, and the suit itself seems to contradict several principles for which Paul claims to champion.

(Source: cognitivedissonance)

A well-known attorney said the police in Denver are going too far in their response to the Occupy Denver protests.

David Lane said that includes one man who was cited for honking his car horn in a show of support for the protesters.

Protesters told CBS4 Stan Bush they believe police in Denver are starting to take the protest personally. They claim officers are focusing on minor issues because of a grudge.

Lane is a great attorney and a champion of civil liberties. I should know - he was my attorney in my suit against the University of Wyoming. Here’s details and a copy of the filing on behalf of Occupy Denver. Lane’s taking a broader approach than just the honking: 

​In contrast, he feels he has plenty of options in regard to filing an injunction. Over the weekend, the Denver Post reported that Lane’s actions were spurred by TV station pieces about ticketing for honks in support of Occupy Denver - items that followed Westword staffer Kelsey Whipple’s coverage of that subject and a previous offering about citations for people who pull over to drop off donations. But Lane’s efforts are broader than that.

“We’re going after three, and possibly four, issues in this lawsuit,” he reveals. “One is honking. One is ticketing people who stop to give money, food or clothing. The third is going after people who put any items down on the sidewalk in this five-foot swath that the police say has to be completely clear. And we’re looking into whether or not we can go after the curfew in the park. It’s absurd that after 11 p.m., if anyone sets one foot in the park, they get arrested and everyone’s got to stay on the sidewalk at that point.”

In addition, Lane has a strong point of view on the question of whether or not the Occupy Denver tents banned by the DPD constitute speech. “If you look back through this country’s history, back to the bonus army that marched on Washington in the Depression era, tents have long been part of protest,” he notes. “A tent is a symbol that ‘we’re in this for the duration. We’re not going away.’ So it is a form of speech.”

I wish Occupy Denver and the attorneys of Killmer, Lane, & Newman the best and thank them for their dedication to free speech. I’ll be following this case closely.

This video is positively horrifying. Right now, police are doing this to peacefully assembled people exercising their First Amendment rights in the United States of America. 

Thursday’s No Justice No BART protest–which shut down Powell Street Station in San Francisco–turned into an ugly attack on free speech and freedom of the press when BART police arrested over 30 people, over a dozen of whom are reported to be journalists, including student journalists from San Francisco State University and the Chronicle’s Vivian Ho. Ho and others were cited for interfering with transit.Protesters and the press stayed outside the platform areas of the station; No Justice No BART had called for the demonstration to take place in front of the fare gates.

Also on hand, the Department of Homeland Security.

BART police cited the local ABC and CBS news crews reporting on the protests, and some journalists had their San Francisco Police Department-issued credentials confiscated by the SFPD, who aided the BART cops.

Here’s what happens when people join with Anonymous and say that enough is enough. No justice, no peace. Keep the protests rolling. 

This states very clearly that not only is it a right of citizens to record public officials, but makes the case that such activity should be actually encouraged to maintain democracy. Without our First Amendment we are nothing. Having an elected official that you cannot petition or that you cannot have First Amendment rights when around is like being a sports player and hiring an agent who you have never met and will never talk to.

But perhaps we deserve it. I mean, how did we become so complacent as a nation that the majority of people have little to no understanding of the First Amendment? We have decades of unconstitutional policies and we must all stand up across the country to protect our Freedom of Speech.

Read the decision here. At today’s #opBART protests in San Francisco, protesters reported being told to not film police because it’s illegal. I refer you to the court’s decision, which is quite a big deal.