scottleadingham.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

From last year, our guide to Christian Nationalism: "government imposing any one belief system on others – and taking away someone’s freedom to practice their own religion or choose not to – brings church and state closer than the First Amendment allows." #1A ⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/what-is-chri...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Important to stop phrasing & headlining things as "Trump does XXX" (e.g. "Trump fires all USPS heads and integrates it under Commerce"); we can simply say he is purporting to do XXX, or claiming the power to do XXX. Mere fact of a president saying he did something doesn't will it into existence.

submitted 2 days ago • 10 comments

Mississippi judge orders a newspaper to remove an editorial criticizing town officials. Press freedom advocates blow the whistle and call a First Amendment flagrant foul. #1A apnews.com/article/miss...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

“I do not know of any salvation for society except through eccentrics, misfits, dissenters, people who protest.” - William O. Douglas, US Supreme Court justice More quotes about using your First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly and petition to speak out ⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/protest-quot...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

The big press freedom news of late is whether White House blocking Associated Press reporters from events violates the First Amendment. And the answer is... murkier than Mississippi River delta blending into the Gulf of Mexico and/or America #1A ⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/trump-white-...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

We have been examining why Los Angeles had so many fire engines out of service when the city needed them most. Among the reasons: A profit-chasing industry has frustrated departments nationwide, with soaring prices and years-long backlogs. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/u...

submitted 6 days ago • 4 comments

“This government was founded on protest.” - Thurgood Marshall, US Supreme Court justice More quotes about protest and the First Amendment right to speech, assembly and "to petition the government for a redress of grievances" #1A ⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/protest-quot...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

A very relevant free press question and analysis from my @1stforall.bsky.social colleague Gene Policinski: Does the White House blocking the Associated Press from events violate the First Amendment? It's a meaty one #1A ⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/trump-white-...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

National Park Service removes references to transgender on Stonewall National Monument website. This is one of those weird moments where 1st Amendment protected "government speech" rubs against erasing actual history. @zachstafford.bsky.social @samsanders.bsky.social abcnews.go.com/US/transgend...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

"Where the Needful Things Are"

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Legendary First Amendment lawyer James Goodale pleads with the press to fight back against Trump:

submitted 10 days ago • 4 comments

Interesting read from @joshuabenton.com at @niemanlab.org re Gulf of Mexico/America: "Now it’s up to individual news organizations to decide the name they’ll use. ... At least that’s how it’s supposed to go in a country with a First Amendment." www.niemanlab.org/2025/02/trum...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Under the First Amendment, public officials (from president to governors to mayors) can't restrict speech they don't like. There's a lot of precedent of folks trying - and courts saying, "um, yeah, NOPE!" Here's a deep explainer on viewpoint discrimination #1A ⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/viewpoint-di...

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

NEW: Alberto Rojas fled from Nicaragua after his uncle was shot, with a target on his back. He came to Spokane, had children, loved soccer and stayed quiet with no criminal record. He was picked up by ICE on Saturday. His family is terrified. www.spokesman.com/stories/2025...

submitted 11 days ago • 5 comments

Neat story (with plenty of First Amendment themes) from @texastribune.org on UT-Dallas students who launched their own newspaper after clashing with university admin over the official student paper. #1A ⬇️ www.texastribune.org/2025/02/07/u...

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

Presented without comment: "Before you rush to cancel me, try to remember the mayor made lots of promises ... yes, he said that he was going to use napalm on every grocery store, but, as I said, he also promised he was going to fix the old bowling alley." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/vot...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Wait, the US was giving funds to the IRA? Sinn Féin is more powerful than I thought!?! (Yes, I know that was just a typo, but still funny.)

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Good overview of First Amendment (religion, speech, press, assembly, petition) issues popping up in this presidential term, and what various 1A groups are saying about them. by @douglassoule.bsky.social ⬇️ www.tallahassee.com/story/news/p...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” - Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Winner More quotes about your First Amendment right to gather and dissent #1A ⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/protest-quot...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

“When an individual is protesting society’s refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.” - Bayard Rustin, gay Civil Rights Movement leader More protest quotes for exercising your First Amendment right #1A ⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/protest-quot...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

A worthwhile (but disturbing) read: WA woman says she was raped. City got a 15-year protection order + charged her with a crime after years of emails and calls. Interesting 1st Amendment issue at play. Kudos to @investigatewest.bsky.social on tough story. ⬇️ www.investigatewest.org/investigatew...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

We talk a lot about biases - Confirmation Bias, Recency Bias, Ideological Bias, Media Bias, etc. But to me, a humble and bleary-eyed West Coast type, am here to say the most pernicious is the Eastern Time Zone Bias. 😴 #WestCoastBestCoast

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

The First Amendment permits identifying and harshly criticizing government workers, even when the world’s richest person doesn’t like it. We shouldn’t have to remind sitting U.S. attorneys of that, but here we are.

submitted 18 days ago • 14 comments

Feels funny posting this given the topic, but it's worth a read. (Echoes of smart things @theferocity.bsky.social @zachstafford.bsky.social + @samsanders.bsky.social have said on #VibeCheck pod). www.404media.co/you-cant-pos...

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

If T1 was "malevolence tempered by incompetence" (ht @benjaminwittes.bsky.social), it seems like T2 is shaping up as vengeance aided by compliance.

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

The Supreme Court's TikTok case took a lot of news attention, but there was another big First Amendment case a few days earlier: Free Speech Coalition v Paxton, about age verification laws for "adult content." Here's a helpful breakdown of what's going on #1A ⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/age-verifica...

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

New WA bills aim to make clergy mandatory child abuse reporters, sparking debate over confessional seal. Catholic Diocese of Spokane's Bishop Daly vows to protect confession "even to the point of going to jail." House hearing today. bit.ly/3Eyn9GC #ClergyAbuse #WAleg #WApol #ChildSafety

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Just in case anyone is thinking of using their First Amendment freedoms of assembly/speech/petition in the near term for whatever reason... Here's a handy guide from @1stforall.bsky.social on how to organize a protest #1A ⬇️⬇️⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/how-to-organ...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Many think of Columbine as the first school shooting that "started a trend" or at least made big news. For me it was 3 years earlier, 1996, in Moses Lake. I was near the same age and an hour away, and it still hangs in my memory as defining. Good remembrance here from @historylink.bsky.social ⬇️⬇️⬇️

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

PSA: There are practical reasons not related to trans/DEI issues for people to have pronouns on emails...like if your name is commonly used by men or women. eg: -Andy -Alex(is) -Aubrey -Cameron -Charlie -Chris -Dakota -Jesse -Jordan -Ryan -Shannon -Skyler -Taylor I've even heard of a boy named Sue!

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Documenting 2025’s first journalist arrest, limits on reporter access in Kansas, and more in this month’s newsletter by managing editor @kamccudden.bsky.social:

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Neat to see my employer @1stforall.bsky.social working with America's Finest News Source @theonion.com to share the important message of self-censorship and the First Amendment. (Seriously, good work here. Well done @bencollins.bsky.social + team!) Message : mailchi.mp/email/the-on...

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

How does a case get to the Supreme Court? Seems like an easy answer, but it's one many people don't (but want to) know. The court is in the news all the time (for First Amendment + many other reasons). Here's a good explainer from @1stforall.bsky.social ⬇️⬇️⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/how-does-a-c...

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Interesting look from @investigatewest.bsky.social at where policy meets reality on the undocumented worker front in Idaho - and the intra-party differences of opinion for GOP lawmakers and farm operators who are part of the party's base ⬇️ www.investigatewest.org/investigatew...

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

This is a great idea. Either put Mariners in NL West and move Dodgers to AL West or put Rockies in AL West and return (cheating) Astros to NL. Perfect!

submitted 26 days ago • 1 comment

Group of Quaker congregations is suing over Trump admin's policy reversal to allow immigration raids in churches + other "sensitive locations." Quakers say the policy change infringes on their religious freedom / First Amendment rights. #1A www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

Great piece by @leahsottile.bsky.social on an old school far right, anti-LGBTQ from the late 1980s and early 1990s who is now publishing/editing a local newspaper that shows up for free in the mailboxes of 14,000 people in Clackamas County in the outskirts of Portland. www.opb.org/article/2025...

submitted 27 days ago • 4 comments

One revealing thing about many high-profile journalists going independent and switching to subscription newsletters is you quickly learn how behind many "award-winning" writers/reporters/columnists are heroic editors.

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

Ran across an old Q&A I did with one of my go-to legal journalists, @chrisgeidner.bsky.social in his Buzzfeed days. Times have changed, as have jobs, but still greatly appreciate + value his reporting and insights (and kind words) with @lawdorknews.bsky.social www.quillmag.com/2016/02/18/t...

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

With all the TikTok news (and noise) of late, it's been hard to keep up with the core legal issue: the First Amendment + free speech. Here's a good breakdown from my @1stforall.bsky.social colleague Kevin Goldberg #1A ⬇️⬇️⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/tiktok-ban-f...

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

Dang, I'm happy for Ichiro. And gosh darn I'm bummed the Mariners leadership is dead set on leaning into past vibes nostalgia for fans. They'll trot out Edgar's '95 double, 2001 season, Felix's perfect game + Cal's home run all year on the big screen while doing jack squat to make a WS run.

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

Not the point, but I'm legit confused. Framing in this makes it seem like Pete Hegseth's former sister-in-law is the sister of his ex-wife, and for some reason that sister has HIS last name. But that'd be weird (right?). Maybe she used to be married to his brother? www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

To mark Ichiro's (inevitable) baseball hall of fame selection today, and to ward off feelings of impending existential dread about, well, everything, here's a lovely piece about Ichiro in the words of those who played with him, for fellow long-suffering Mariners fans ⬇️ www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/...

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

President Trump didn't put his hand on the Bible when taking the oath - and that's OK. The First Amendment means it's not required. From @1stforall.bsky.social: The Establishment Clause and oaths of office for government officials #1A ⬇️⬇️⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/swear-bible-...

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

It's a day that ends in y so that must mean there's news of national significance and intrigue that's connected to something @leahsottile.bsky.social has deftly reported on (in this case the "Burn Wild" podcast). lamag.com/crimeinla/fb...

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

Brought to you by the First Amendment: "Somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right." -Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, 4/3/68 #1A

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments