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#firstamendment

9 posts6 participants0 posts today
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Nonilex

#FreeSpeech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights & Expression in a stmnt said #JamesComey’s post “is political speech protected by the #FirstAmendment.”

“It neither constitutes a true threat nor merits federal investigation. 86 has a lot of possible meanings, & the idea that spelling it out in seashells & posting it to IG is a true threat is quite a stretch. The admin should drop any investigation of Comey because it’s an unconstitutional waste of time.”

#law#DHS#DOJ
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Nonilex

BTWs this was the post. So threatening! #Trump is a weakling.

#SecretService spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, in a statement, said, “The Secret Service vigorously investigates anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees.”

“We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI Director [#JamesComey] & we take rhetoric like this very seriously,” Guglielmi said.

James Comey’s deleted IG post shows seashells on sand form the digits “8647”
Jack Posbiec twitter post — not deleted — from 2022 reads: “86 46”
#FreeSpeech#FirstAmendment#law
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Nonilex

#RevengePolitics

The #Trump admin on Tues canceled an additional $450 million in #grants for #Harvard University.

There were no new accusations leveled at Harvard in a statement announcing the latest cuts, issued by the admin’s task force on *antisemitism*. Instead, govt ofcls accused the school of not resolving the “pervasive race discrimination & antisemitic harassment” they described as “plaguing” the campus in Cambridge, Mass.

#law #AcademicFreedom #FirstAmendment
nytimes.com/2025/05/13/us/poli

Harvard has rejected a list of intrusive demands from the federal government and filed a lawsuit to challenge the suspension of more than $2 billion in multiyear grants.
The New York Times · Trump Administration Cuts Additional $450 Million in Grants to HarvardBy Michael C. Bender
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DoomsdaysCW

BREAKING! Turkish #TuftsUniversity student #RumeysaOzturk to be released

May 9, 2025

"A federal judge has ordered the release of a Turkish student at Tufts University who is being held in Louisiana after US immigration officials arrested her in Massachusetts.

"Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, testified virtually at a court hearing on Friday, where US District Judge William Sessions said the student met all the conditions needed for release and lambasted the government's case against her, according to BBC news partner CBS.

" 'Her continued detention chills the speech of millions in this country who are not citizens,' the judge said.

"Ms Otzurk co-authored an opinion piece in her campus newspaper that was critical of #Israel's war. Her arrest follows the White House's crackdown on what it has classified as antisemitism on US campuses.

"Earlier this week, the judge ordered that Ms Ozturk be transferred by 14 May to immigration authorities in Vermont, where she was last held before she was taken to Louisiana.

"The judge said Friday that she should be released immediately without travel restrictions, so she can go to Vermont or Massachusetts, where Tufts is located, as needed.

"Videos of Ms Ozturk's arrest, showing masked plain-clothes officers handcuffing her and taking her into an unmarked car after a Ramadan celebration, sparked nation-wide protests.

"On Friday, the judge heard from a number of witnesses in the case, including Ms Ozturk, a doctor and a Tufts University professor.

"During her testimony, Ms Ozturk told the court about her Fulbright cholarship and her PhD work. She said her asthma condition had worsened during detainment, and at one point, had to take a short break after suffering an asthma attack on camera.

"The government did not call any witnesses in the hearing.

"After hearing from witnesses for the defence, Judge Sessions said Ms Ozturk had raised 'very substantial' claims that her #FirstAmendment and #DueProcess rights were violated. He said the only evidence the administration had against Ms Ozturk was her op-ed.

" 'That literally is the case,' he said, according to court reporters. 'There is no evidence that she has engaged in violence or advocated violence.'

"Judge Sessions told the court that the government must notify him of when Ms Ozturk is freed and said he would deny any motions to block her release."

bbc.com/news/articles/cp3nd0dw

Someone holds a sign in protest with Rumeysa Ozturk's face
www.bbc.comRumeysa Ozturk: Turkish Tufts University student released on bailHer arrest followed the White House's crackdown on what it has classified as antisemitism on US campuses.
#Resist#ResistICE#Resistance
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Nonilex

#ColumbiaUniversity undergrad & activist #MohsenMahdawi can stay #free on bail, per UNANIMOUS US Court of Appeals for Second Circuit. It denies govt's stay & mandamus requests.

storage.courtlistener.com/reca

In declining the writ of mandamus, the court cites #RumeysaOzturk’s case. [see pic]

The government asks this Court, in the alternative, to issue a writ of mandamus and hold that the district court lacked authority to order Mahdawi's release and extend the TRO. "The remedy of mandamus is a drastic one, to be invoked only in extraordinary situations." Kerr o. U. S. Dist. Ct. for N. Dist. of California, 426 U.S. 394, 402 (1976). "We issue the writ only in exceptional circumstances amounting to a judicial usurpation of power or a clear abuse of discretion." In re Roman Cath. Diocese of Albany, New York, Inc., 745 F.3d 30, 35 (2d Cir. 2014) (quotation marks omitted); see also Cheney v. U.S. Dist. Ct. for D.C., 542 U.S. 367, 380 (2004). The government has shown no such exceptional circumstances. Öztürk, 2025 WL 1318154, at *14 (denying writ of mandamus because "the government's argument... that the district court lacked jurisdiction ... runs the government head into the 'general rule that appellate courts should avoid determining jurisdictional issues on a petition for mandamus'" (quoting In re lvy, 901 F.2d 7, 10 (2d Cir. 1990))). We therefore decline to issue a writ of mandamus.
#immigration#law#Trump
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Nonilex

Several #ColumbiaUniversity student #journalists are #suspended after covering #protests (while wearing #press ID) in the main library.

Their access to campus is blocked, & they can't take final exams.

Columbia's acting president is a fmr ABC journo.

#law #Trump #Universities #Constitution #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreePress #censorship #Dictatorship #tyranny #AmericanAutocracy
columbiaspectator.com/news/202

Columbia Daily SpectatorBarnard suspends WKCR and Spectator reporters who covered Butler Library protestBarnard and Columbia issued interim suspensions Thursday afternoon to four student journalists who covered a Wednesday pro-Palestinian protest in Butler Library, citing “information received” from Public Safety indicating the reporters’ alleged involvement in the protest, according to disciplinary emails obtained by Spectator.
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Nonilex

Any outcome seems likely to lead to significant cuts to #Harvard’s #research & #workforce & undermine its pre-eminence for years. Without its sprawling research apparatus, there is a fear that it could become more like a small, teaching-focused liberal arts college.

#University leaders believe the only clear options are either working w/ #Trump or somehow securing huge sums of money quickly, perhaps from private donors….

#law#democracy#Constitution
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Nonilex

…But behind the scenes, several senior officials at #Harvard & on its top governing board believe that the #university is confronting a crisis that could last until #Trump is out of power, acc/to 3 people involved in the discussions. Even if Harvard’s #legal case is successful, these officials say, the school will still face enormous troubles that may force the nation’s oldest & wealthiest university to rethink its identity & scale.

#law#democracy#Constitution
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Nonilex

#HarvardUniversity became the leader of #academia’s resistance to the #Trump admin—& soaked in acclaim from the White House’s critics—when it refused a roster of intrusive demands & took the govt to court last month.

#Legal experts saw a strong case, built by a team of elite conservative lawyers, to win back billions of #research dollars that the govt had stripped away. Supporters cheered on #Harvard’s unusually sharp public tone.

#law#democracy#Constitution
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