Commentary Inside the First Amendment By Gene Policinski First Amendment Center vice president/executive director When the poetic line “Oh what a tangled web we weave …” was penned a few centuries ago, Sir Walter Scott had no idea what irony those words might have when applied to the 21st century’s[Read More…]

Commentary by Eric Boehlert If you’ve been under the impression that right-wing radio host Michael Savage, who claims Barack Obama was born in Kenya, was schooled at a radical Islamic madrassa, and is now "raping America," was a hate merchant who operated on the edges of common decency, and represented[Read More…]

Commentary To be fair, I am neither a “birther” or a “deather.” Birthers are struggling like anything to prove that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. “Deathers,” a relatively new term, are those who are trying to convince seniors that the health care plan before Congress will[Read More…]

Commentary Inside the First Amendment  By Charles C. Haynes  First Amendment Center senior scholar Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski breathed new life into an old debate when he signed a law on July 16 protecting religious freedom for all workers — except for teachers in public schools. Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Seventh-day[Read More…]

Commentary by Eric Boehlert I can think of three (inadvertent) positives that came out of Lou Dobbs’ ill-advised embrace of the birther movement: The CNN host has permanently tarnished his reputation The birther movement is officially kaput (like, stick-a-fork-in-it done) Rush Limbaugh is afraid to talk about birthers. Talk about[Read More…]

Inside the First Amendment By Gene Policinski First Amendment Center vice president/executive director OK, so Memorial Day and July 4th have gone by, it’s about six weeks until Constitution Day, the anniversary of the Bill of Rights doesn’t arrive until Dec. 15 … and it’s the middle of summer. None[Read More…]

Commentary Inside the First Amendment By Charles C. Haynes First Amendment Center senior scholar The latest wrangle over religion and schools is in New York City, where the City Council recently voted to add two Muslim holy days to the schools’ holiday calendar. It may not happen, because Mayor Michael[Read More…]

Commentary By Jamison Foser Most people waiting anxiously for real health care reform probably haven’t thought much about whether insurance covers abortion. They’re too busy thinking about how great it would be to have insurance in the first place, or to not have to worry about losing it if they[Read More…]

Commentary by Eric Boehlert If James von Brunn weren’t in a locked security ward at Southeast General Hospital in Washington, D.C., and awaiting trial for the murder of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the 88-year-old racist and neo-Nazi might have taken comfort from listening to Lou[Read More…]