Kentucky Freedom of Speech
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits, in part, making laws that infringe on the freedom of speech and religion. Recently, in 2006, the First Amendment rights of a fellow blogger were placed in jeopardy. A blogger, Mr. Nickolas, who writes on Kentucky news and polictics, in one article criticized the former Governor Ernie Fletcher. This article was sited by a New York Times article which was discussing Mr. Fletcher's indictment on charges of political corruption. The next day, the state reconfigured its web capabilities and put in software that filtered and blocked all access to blogs on state computers. Mr. Nickolas sued, claiming his First Amendments rights were being violated and that it was unconstitutional to block access to his blogs when there were other sites that reported the exact same information but they were not blocked as well. He felt that his free speech was being targeted. The case eventually settled in 2008 and Mr. Nickolas won. The writer of this article also goes on to show an example of when a state was able to block certain content without violating First Amendment rights. If you have had a similar situation at work, you should contact a discrimination lawyer like Andrew S. Alitowski to discuss your case.
One's First Amendment rights are constantly being tested. The line as to what is constitutional and what is not is constantly being moved; if ever so slightly. Recently, around the country, there are parents and patrons of high school football games that are making noise in this arena. In Fort Oglethorp, Georgia, after 9/11, the school wanted to show their support and had the football team run through a sign that said "Commit to the Lord." This continued for 8 years until one recent day a parent questioned its legality and claimed that it violated the First Amendment on constitutional grounds that it did not separate enough the basic principle of separation of Church v. State. The school board agreed and thus the long standing tradition was stopped. But, what happened next was unexpected. The people from this small town of 9,600, went to the games and held up signs with passages from the Bible. Though the cheerleaders also tried to do it, this was not allowed, again on First Amendment grounds. This angered many of the parents, in that community is very religious and part of "the Bible Belt."
If you have been the victim of religious discrimination, please call and speak to a Louisville religious discrimination lawyer at the Law Offices of Andrew S. Alitowski at 888-ASK-ANDREW (275-2637) or contact us online. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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