Latest news with #viewpointDiscrimination
BreakingNews.ie
30-05-2025
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
PBS sues Trump administration over defunding
PBS has filed a legal claim against US President Donald Trump and other administration officials to block his order stripping funding from the American broadcaster, three days after NPR did the same for its radio network. In the claim, PBS relies on similar arguments, saying Mr Trump was overstepping his authority and engaging in 'viewpoint discrimination' because of his claim that PBS' news coverage is biased against conservatives. Advertisement 'PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms,' lawyer Z W Julius Chen wrote in the case, filed in a US court in Washington. One of the control rooms at the Arizona PBS offices at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix (Katie Oyan/AP) 'But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our constitution and laws forbid the president from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS's programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.' It was the latest of many legal actions taken against the administration for its moves, including several by media organisations impacted by Mr Trump's orders. A PBS spokesman said that 'after careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television's editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations'. Advertisement Mr Trump's order 'would have profound impacts on the ability of PBS and PBS member stations to provide a rich tapestry of programming to all Americans,' Mr Chen wrote. PBS said the US Department of Education has cancelled a 78 million dollar grant to the system for educational programming, used to make children's shows like Sesame Street, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Reading Rainbow. Besides Mr Trump, the claim names other administration officials as defendants, including US education secretary Linda McMahon, treasury secretary Scott Bessent and homeland security secretary Kristi Noem. PBS says its technology is used as a backup for the nationwide wireless emergency alert system. Advertisement The administration has fought with several media organisations. Government-run news services like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are also struggling, The Associated Press has battled with the White House over press access and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating television news divisions.
Wall Street Journal
27-05-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
‘There Are CENSORED Genders'
Student speech at public schools is a thorny topic, but what happened to a seventh-grader in Middleborough, Mass., isn't complicated. He was pulled from class for wearing a t-shirt saying, 'There Are Only Two Genders.' The school also banned, 'There Are CENSORED Genders.' Yet it encouraged others to wear 'Pride gear to celebrate Pride Month.' The student, known as L. M., needed the Supreme Court to vindicate his free speech, but on Tuesday it refused to hear his case, over two conservative dissents. 'We should reaffirm the bedrock principle that a school may not engage in viewpoint discrimination when it regulates student speech,' Justice Samuel Alito writes, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. He also says lower-court judges 'watered down the test' for when schools may prohibit speech to avoid disruptions.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
15 state attorneys general condemn Rep. Libby's censure as 'attack on Legislature' in letter
May 9—Fifteen Republican attorneys general filed a friend of the court brief in support of Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, charging that her censure in the Maine Legislature was politically motivated and amounts to viewpoint discrimination. The group, led by West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey, called in a Friday filing for the U.S. Supreme Court to grant Libby an injunction restoring her ability to vote and speak on the State House floor. They charge that Libby's censure is an "attack" on the Legislature's ability to function and represent Mainers. "Perhaps a little too often, applicants come to this Court warning that some decision being challenged is poised to undermine (or even end) our republican form of government," the group wrote. "This time, though, the shoe fits." Maine House Democrats voted to censure Libby in February over her Facebook post that featured the first name and photos of a transgender high school athlete. Libby filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court late last month, asking that her speaking rights be restored while a federal court in Maine considers a lawsuit she filed against House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, which argues that the censure violates her — and her constituents' — First Amendment Right to free speech. Lower courts have already ruled against Libby's request, citing Fecteau's right to legislative immunity — the legal doctrine that prevents lawmakers from being sued for their legislative acts. But the attorneys general argue in their filing that censuring Libby does not qualify as a legislative act, and it is therefore not subject to immunity. "Even if one could say this suspension was a legislative act, it is of such extraordinary character that it cannot be protected," the group argues. "Representative Libby's suspension disenfranchises all of District 90's voters. And it does so as retribution for the very sort of speech that a legislator must offer — speech on one of the important issues of the day." They add that the issue of whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in girls and women's sports is the subject of active debate across the country, and they note that Libby's comments were made outside the Legislature. McCuskey was joined by 14 other Republican attorneys general, including those from Florida, Iowa and Louisiana. Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey has repeatedly stated that it was Libby's conduct, not her views, that earned her the censure, including in a court brief filed Thursday. "Like other censures of Maine House members, the censure resolution required Rep. Libby to apologize for her conduct — not recant her views," Frey wrote. Libby, who has refused to apologize, said in a response to Frey filed Friday that critics demanding she do so are exacerbating the harm against her. "The Speaker cannot insist on an apology to his satisfaction," Libby wrote, "any more than Speaker Johnson could insist on congressmembers' declaring 'Trump is Making America Great Again' as a condition of voting." She further charges that legislative immunity does not apply to her censure vote, and claims that Frey's "version of legislative immunity is limitless," and could, for example, be used to ban legislators who did not attend a certain university from voting. Copy the Story Link
