Category: First Amendment Issues

Bill Would Ban Swearing in Bars
AP
January 8, 2008

St. Charles, Mo. — What the …? A St. Louis-area town is considering a bill that would ban swearing in bars, along with table-dancing, drinking contests and profane music. City officials contend the bill is needed to keep rowdy crowds under control because the historic downtown area gets a little too lively on some nights.

City Councilman Richard Veit said he was prompted to propose the bill after complaints about bad bar behavior. He says it will give police some rules to enforce when things get too rowdy.

But some bar owners worry the bill is too vague and restrictive, saying it may be a violation of their civil rights.

Marc Rousseau, who owns bar R.T. Weilers, said he thinks the bill needs revision.

“We’re dealing with adults here once again and I don’t think it’s the city’s job or the government’s job to determine what we can and cannot play in our restaurant,” Rousseau said.

The proposal would ban indecent, profane or obscene language, songs, entertainment and literature at bars.

A meeting to discuss the proposal is set for Jan. 14.

Photo: John Cleese from The Age

Va. Teacher Fired for Buttocks Art Sues
by Bob Lewis
October 4, 2007

Richmond, Va. (AP) — A high school art teacher fired after officials learned he moonlighted by creating paintings using his bare buttocks and other body parts sued his former employers on Thursday.

Stephen [Stan] Murmer was fired in January after Chesterfield County Public Schools officials saw a YouTube video of Murmer wearing a swim thong and a Groucho Marx mask, demonstrating how he applies paint to his backside, then presses it onto a canvas.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond by the American Civil Liberties Union, said Murmer’s firing violates his First Amendment rights. It also alleges that after he was suspended from teaching in December, school officials ordered him not to discuss his suspension even as they commented on it in news interviews. Continue reading “Stan Murmur: Butt Artist”

Adorable Orwellian Cartoon Cops Patrol Beijing’s Internet
by Walaika Haskins
TechNewsWorld
August 29, 2007

Web users in Beijing will soon have company — even when they surf alone. The Chinese government has deployed two cartoon cops to make appearances on users’ screens every half-hour, reminding them of China’s laws regarding “objectionable” content on the Web and asking whether they’d care to report any possibly illicit activity.

In an attempt to combat what it views as illicit activities, the Chinese government announced Tuesday it will deploy two virtual police officers to patrol the Internet, according to reports from the state-run China Daily.

The cartoon cops, one male and one female, will hit their beat Saturday and will be on duty 24/7, safeguarding Beijing’s gateway Web sites and accepting cybercrime complaints concerning online pornography and other so-called malicious content.

Fending off objectionable content is the duty of the Chinese government and its citizens, according to Zhao Hongzhi, deputy chief of China’s Ministry of Information Industry’s bureau of Internet Surveillance Center. The animated cops, he said, will protect Web surfers from content that does public harm and disrupts social order, as well as listen to suggestions of Internet users. Continue reading “Chinese Big Brother”