Tag: freedom

Artists Against Book Bans: 170+ Celebrities Sign Petition Defending the Freedom to Read

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“A threat to one form of art is a threat to us all.” That’s what LeVar Burton, the former host of “Reading Rainbow” and executive producer of the 2023 documentary “The Right to Read,” believes, and it’s why he’s partnered with MoveOn to launch a campaign with creative leaders to bring heightened awareness to this dangerous form of censorship and exclusion. With a new school year just beginning, this letter is a timely response to Republicans banning a record number of books in the last school year, despite backlash and…

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Second Key GOP Senator Announces Support for Religious Freedom Amendment to Respect for Marriage Act

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A second senator who voted for the Respect for Marriage Act will support Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s amendment protecting religious freedom, though she did not say whether she would insist on the amendment’s adoption as a condition for supporting cloture on the legislation. Republican Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis will support the Lee amendment if it is brought to the floor as an amendment to the Respect for Marriage Act, spokeswoman Stacey Daniels said Saturday, noting that Lummis previously cosponsored Lee’s First Amendment Defense Act while she served in Congress.…

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C. J. Rice’s Narrow Path to Freedom

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Last week, The Atlantic published its November cover story, “Good Luck, Mr. Rice,” in which Jake Tapper investigates the case of a Philadelphia teenager who was convicted of attempted murder after a 2011 shooting that left four injured. C. J. Rice, now 28, has maintained his innocence. No physical evidence tied him (or anyone) to the crime, and the single eyewitness who identified him as the perpetrator had told police three times that she did not recognize the shooter before ultimately changing her story. Rice’s pediatrician, who happened to be…

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From Football Field to Supreme Court: Meet the Coach Who’s Fighting for Freedom to Pray

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BREMERTON, Washington—It’s the final play of coach Joe Kennedy’s seven-year legal battle.  The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Monday in Kennedy’s case, and ultimately decide whether a public school employee is allowed to participate in silent prayer in view of students while on the clock.  “The only thing I’m asking the Supreme Court is that I get to be a coach, and I get to thank God afterwards,” Kennedy says.  In 2015, Kennedy lost his job as an assistant football coach at a high school in Washington state after…

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New Zealand’s COVID-19 Related Crackdown on Economic Freedom Lingers On

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New Zealand has long been considered an economically free country. The government’s stringent, almost straight-jacket-like COVID-19 restrictions, however, run counter to New Zealand’s multi-decade history of strong and robust economic freedom. New Zealand fell two ranks in The Heritage Foundation’s 2022 Index of Economic Freedom released last week, from No. 2 to down to No. 4 in the world. The government, under Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, may be governing over a relative swan song in economic freedom now, as it seems to be steering the country toward more dark and…

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