Charges were dropped this week regarding Christian street preacher Damon Atkins who was arrested for speaking negatively about an LGBTQ pride-flag-raising he attended at Reading, Pennsylvania City Hall on Saturday.
“After review of the video of the incident, including body-worn cameras, and a review of the case law, we did not believe we could prove a criminal case of disorderly conduct,” Berks County’s District Attorney’s office said in a statement.
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A federal court on Wednesday ruled that local authorities wrongly forbade political activists from gathering candidate-petition signatures at Fort Hunter Park in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Last June, the Keystone Party of Pennsylvania’s candidate for state House District 104 Dave Kocur worked alongside party board member Kevin Gaughen in asking park visitors to sign petitions to get Kocur on the ballot. Park security guards directed them to stop. After the activists refused, citing their constitutional right to free expression in a public forum, Dauphin County Parks Director Anthea Stebbins ordered them to desist, explaining that the county disallows any political activity at Fort Hunter.
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A Pennsylvania legislator is asking her colleagues cosponsor a measure to police “unwelcome” speech on social-media platforms.
In a memorandum describing her emerging bill, state Representative Darisha Parker (D-Philadelphia) wrote that her policy “would require social media network companies to establish and maintain effective and transparent complaint procedures for reporting hate speech content.” She further stated the legislation would “mak[e] it clear that hate speech is unwelcome on social media in Pennsylvania.”
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On Wednesday, hundreds stopped by Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) tables on 9th Street in South Philadelphia this weekend for two things Philadelphia has generated lots of over the years: cheesesteaks and liberty.
FIRE, a Philadelphia-based institution since its founding in 1999, held the “Free Cheesesteaks for Free Speech” event as part of a larger $3.1-million pro-free-expression campaign featuring broadcast ads, billboards and digital promotions. The group, which initially focused on fighting speech restrictions on college campuses and recently broadened its mission to include other forums, hopes the effort will raise awareness of ongoing battles to honor the text and the spirit of the First Amendment.
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After two Pennsylvania lawmakers last week called for cancelling upcoming conservative appearances at the University of Pittsburgh, a politically diverse array of voices are responding in favor of free speech.
Representatives Jessica Benham (D-Carrick) and Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia), who co-chair the state House LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, denounced the state-related university for permitting the presence of speakers who oppose liberal views of transgenderism. The guests they find objectionable include Cabot Phillips, senior editor of the The Daily Wire news organization, who is scheduled to speak this Friday; Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer and critic of biological males competing in women’s sports, who will appear on March 27; and Michael Knowles, a Daily Wire commentator, who will debate transgender economist Deirdre McCloskey on April 18. All speakers are being sponsored by student-led associations.
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Pennsylvania state Rep. Mike Puskaric (R-Jefferson Hills) indicated Wednesday he will urge state agencies to ditch social-media platforms he says engage in censorship.
In a memorandum asking fellow representatives to cosponsor his upcoming resolution, the Pittsburgh-area legislator argued that especially large information-technology companies violate the state and federal constitutions when they make politicized publishing decisions. He insisted government institutions and officials should respond by cancelling their accounts on such sites and signing onto more permissive online venues instead.
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