Author: Robert Sarwark
Roseanne and the NFL: Free Speech in the Free Market
Do the NFL’s new no-kneel policy and the sudden cancellation of ABC’s ‘Roseanne’ reboot cancel each other out? What are the limits of free speech in a free market?
Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the Banned Booksellers’ Plight
Even since 1997, that tradition of free speech has endured. An entire cottage industry of publishing content banned throughout Mainland China emerged to a point of (semi-)national notoriety in Hong Kong, if not actual pride.
A Few Thoughts on Book Challenges and Book Banning in America
By: Robert Sarwark Trends Last week, the Top 10 Challenged Books of 2017 were announced by the Office for Intellectual Freedom. Following that announcement, the Banned Books Week Coalition posted a […]
Dickey Part Two…Now What’s the Deal?
Though he threatened to veto it, President Donald Trump signed the consolidated appropriations bill, H.R. 1625, into law on Friday, March 23rd, 2018. The essential text of the original Dickey Amendment from 1996 remains. So where is the change that was reported?
Dickey: How One Congressman Helped Ban Research on America’s Gun Problem…and Lived to Regret It
Question: How is the United States’ preeminent body tasked with preventing disease and poor public health to accomplish its mandate if it is barred from doing so?
![Index des livres interdits [Index of Prohibited Books], Vol. XI (1600-1966), Edited by J.M. de Bujanda, with Marcella Richter, 2002](https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/index-des-livres-interdits.jpg)
The Catholic Index of Forbidden Books: A Brief History
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of books banned for lay Roman Catholic readership. Officially — though the Church was never fully explicit in its means of prosecution of such rules — any individual who dared read any books included on this list risked excommunication and, thus, spiritual damnation.
‘The Post,’ the Pentagon Papers, and the Era of Fake News
The First Amendment has been front and center in the press under President Donald Trump’s administration. That’s what makes Steven Spielberg’s new movie so incredibly timely. The director’s latest drama, The Post, chronicles The Washington Post’s 1971 effort to publish the legendary Pentagon Papers.
The Seven Words You Can’t Say at the CDC…?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has banned a list of seven terms. Among them: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.” The terms are not to be included by employees in any official documents supporting the CDC’s 2019 budget.