When Can Private Entities Censor Speech?
The Atlantic’s Garrett Epps writes about the First Amendment’s ability to protect Americans from censorship. The Supreme Court of Georgia recently ruled that a parishioner could not be convicted of threatening the pastor of 12Stone church, after the churchgoer raised his middle finger at him. Epps compares the 12Stone case to NFL protests, in which players are kneeling during the anthem. Columbia Law Professor Tim Wu said, “It has been a signature move of this administration – to order this or that private entity to fire someone for their speech, or begin [to] enforce the President’s preferred speech rules, etc. It is sort of outsourcing censorship, or censorship by proxy and I think it has begun to reach constitutional concern.”