Ethics

Judge Sotomayor and Free Speech

By Ed Brayton

Freedom of speech is one of the most important issues for me so one of the first things I look for in a judge is their approach to that issue. I've already written about one case, Pappas v Giuliani, in which Judge Sotomayor came down strongly in favor of free speech. In that case, she dissented from an opinion that allowed the NYPD to fire a desk employee for mailing out racist material. That is encouraging.

Less encouraging is her ruling in Doninger v. Niehoff, a case involving the authority of a school to punish a student for saying disparaging things about school officials on her personal blog. After school officials canceled a battle of the bands that she had organized, the plaintiff referred to them as "douchbags" on her blog and was then punished by the school by preventing her from running for student government.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on June 02, 2009 (boomark / email).