Home : Free Speech

> ACLU Challenges Patents On Breast Cancer Genes Protest and the President For years, the ACLU has fought the White House policy of shielding the president from dissent. The First Amendment protects the right to free speech, but that right is undermined if protesters can't be heard. More >> > WV: ACLU Calls Government Settlement in Anti-Bush T-Shirt Case a Victory for Free Speech > CO: White House Staffers Sued for Ejecting Denver Residents from Bush Event > NM: Protestors Should be Seen and Heard FCC v. Fox Television Stations and "Fleeting Expletives" The ACLU has filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of several creative arts, media and free speech organizations criticizing the Federal Communication Commission's regulation of "indecent speech" as arbitrary, inconsistent, and irreconcilable with core First Amendment values. More >> Federal Court Upholds Ban on Internet Censorship Law The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a federal district court decision that the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) violates the First and Fifth Amendments. Read the decision >>

ACLU and Amnesty International Settle Lawsuit Stemming From 2003 FTAA Protests (7/1/2009)
MIAMI – The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and Amnesty International USA today announced that they have entered into a settlement agreement with Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami and individual defendants, effectively ending the lawsuit filed on behalf of Amnesty International by the ACLU in 2006.

ACLU of Hawaii Invokes Media Shield Law in Defense of Documentary Filmmaker (6/30/2009)
HONOLULU – The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii ("ACLU") and Honolulu attorney James J. Bickerton (of Bickerton Lee Dang & Sullivan) announced today that they will use Hawaii's new "media shield" law to protect a documentary filmmaker's work from sweeping subpoenas issued by a private homeowner over a land-use dispute on Kauai.

ACLU Secures Victory For Freedom Of Speech (6/18/2009)
Today Johnny Duncan and the ACLU Foundation of Louisiana entered a settlement with the City of Amite, which detained and ticketed Mr. Duncan because there was a sign on his car reading "You Might be a Nigger!." Mr. Duncan, aka "Johnny UnBlackWorthy," an African-American veteran and a resident of Amite, is the author of a book of political and social commentary entitled "You Might be a Nigger!" The sign on his car was to advertise the book.