“It is alarming… the #Trump administration would punish #AP for its independent #journalism… Limiting our access to the #OvalOffice based on the content of AP’s #speech not only severely impedes the #PublicAccess to independent #news, it plainly violates the #FirstAmendment.”

The Amendment to the #constitution protects #FreedomOfReligion, #FreeSpeech, #FreePress, #Assembly, & right to #petition the #government. Adopted in 1791, it’s part of the #BillOfRights

https://apnews.com/article/trump-ap-journalism-first-amendment-8a83d8b506053249598e807f8e91e1ae

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The Constitution Study podcast: 459 - Paying for Police Damage https://buff.ly/4gsgxa5 #Constitution #BillOfRights #PropertyRights #police

Jan 2025 https://inthesetimes.com/article/new-orleans-workers-bill-rights-step-up-louisiana

July 2024
https://inthesetimes.com/article/new-orleans-workers-bill-rights

Step Up Louisiana
https://www.stepuplouisiana.org/wbor

#BillOfRights
#labormovement #Louisiana #newOrleans

“…missing from the revamped White House website…: pages explaining the #Constitution & #BillOfRights, …tourism, #equity, internships & info about fmr American presidents of both political parties.

“…Visitors to a Spanish-language version of the WH site also received a 404-error that told them the page could not be found.

“…When Trump entered the WH in 2017, his team took down pages about #LGBTQ+ rights & #ClimateChange, as it proverbially cleaned house.”

#USpol
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/01/21/trump-white-house-website-removes-presidential-webpages/77851785007/

Wow. Thanks to FourthAmendment.com for reminding us that today is Bill of Rights Day.

Fourth Amendment, established December 15, 1791.

December 15, 1791:
The Bill of Rights became law when Virginia ratified the first 10 Amendments to the United States Constitution.
#BillOfRights #LetFreedomRing

Today in Labor History December 15, 1792: The U.S. Bill of Rights was adopted promising freedom of speech, religion, the press, and "the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

190 years later, the Clash rewrote them into plain English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxl3PRmaXUU

Mistodon: today AdeptApril notes in #ANSIart that on this date 233 (!) years ago, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, also known as the #BillOfRights, were ratified.

Today is National Bill of Rights Day.
#billofrights

As people are seeking to place blame fort the outcome of #Election2024 why is everyone ignoring the elephant in the room? Russian disinformation and #trolling by Putin's minions were a huge part of the problem. Of course they were aided by corporate social media who were complicit in spreading the lies and #disinformation, but without the Russian troll farms actively working to destroy America from the inside there might have been far less contentiousness on those platforms.

If we tried to influence a Russian election the way they influenced ours I'm sure there would be hell to pay. But the worst part is that our government knew it was happening and could do little about it because, you know, freedom of speech and all that. I have thought for a long time that the "free speech absolutists" have their heads up their asses when it comes to how free speech should work, particularly in the days when everyone has a world-wide megaphone.

The problem is, how do you allow individuals to express their ideas and beliefs without letting huge corporations and even foreign entities have a MUCH BIGGER megaphone that actually stifles the individual free speech that the Bill of Rights attempted to protect? It doesn't do much good for an individual to have freedom of speech if a huge corporation can block or censor their posts, or a thousand trolls can shout at them that they are crazy and wrong. The writers of the Bill of Rights could never have anticipated a day like today, When I was a child the huge newspapers and broadcast networks already had something of a monopoly on speech but at least they weren't under the influence of foreign governments to the degree social media is today.

I think there was a time, even up to a decade ago, when we could have preserved freedom of speech for individuals, while still preventing foreign governments and huge corporations from drowning out the voice of the common person, but I don't see our current corrupt Supreme Court allowing the current situation to change. I wish the free speech absolutists would have been a little more open to the idea that maybe there really should be some limits on speech, particularly for foreign actors that are seeking to destabilize your country.

Russia, China, North Korea, and similar countries have no broblem limiting what their citizens can read, and no I am not saying we should emulate them, but is it really fair to allow nations like that to infulence our citizens while at the same time their citizens have a much harder time even getting factual information from the western nations, let alone being subjected to a constant barrage of lies and #propaganda ? And yes, I know many "free" nations also use propaganda, my point is we're not allowed to just constantly send it to their citizens via social media.

Just something to think about, if we somehow manage to survive the mess we're in now.