By William H. Freivogel >> Updated Dec. 22: A state judge ruled Dec. 20 that Missouri’s strict law redacting the names of witnesses and victims from court records violated both the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Open Courts provision of the Missouri Constitution. Judge Aaron J. Martin, ruling out of Cole County
By William H. Freivogel >> If President-elect Donald Trump follows through on the threats and actions he directed at the press during the election campaign and his first administration, an already weakened press could suffer further harm over the next four years. A weaker press, in turn, weakens an important constitutional check on government, one
By William H. Freivogel The purpose of a newspaper endorsement of a president or other political candidate is to pull together the information about the candidates, measure the candidates against the news organization’s and the nation’s values and then cogently explain to readers/voters why a particular candidate deserves their vote. That’s why my decade of
By William H. Freivogel One reform that grew out of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 was that recalcitrant states with strong police unions passed decertification laws to take away peace officer licenses from those with a track record of seriously abusing citizens. California and Massachusetts, two states with strong police unions,
By William H. Freivogel Ten years after the Ferguson uprising, five years after “The 1619 Project” and four years after the murder of George Floyd, the racial reckoning that seemed at hand has largely dissipated amidst a political and legal backlash — laws outlawing “DEI,” attacks on a “DEI vice president” and bans on books
