First Amendment

Are The Feds Unfairly Targeting Muslim Students Who Oppose Israel?

In Washington D.C. today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a probe of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), following reports that the IRS was unfairly targeting conservative non-profit groups affiliated with the Tea Party movement. Closer to home, the California chapter of the Counc ... More >>

Appeals Court Finds Costa Mesa City Council Law Barring Disruptions Unconstitutional

Benito Acosta, who as a Latino rights activist goes by Coyotl Tezcatlipoca, won a partial victory from the state's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday.The court upheld previous rulings finding Acosta was legally removed from a 2006 Costa Mesa City Council meeting, but the city's law against "disor ... More >>

Gustavo on The Tom Leykis Show THIS WEDNESDAY for Monthly ¡Ask a Mexican! Hour!

If it's the last Wednesday of the month, it means that it's time for me to trek up to Burbank and spend the afternoon with Tom Leykis. Lemme explain how it goes, as it's now part of the show's tradition. The first hour (starting at 3 p.m. PST) is devoted to Tom and I shooting the shit, on conver ... More >>

Dave Hester, Ex-Costa Mesa Thrift King, Losing Early Rounds of His Suit Against Storage Wars

The A&E network and the Storage Wars production company are reportedly winning the early rounds in the lawsuit brought against them by former cast member and Costa Mesa thrift store king Dave Hester.The ballcap-wearing hoarder known for his "YUUUP!" calls at storage locker auctions claims he was ... More >>

Erwin Chemerinsky and Rick Hasen of UCI Law Weigh in Far and Wide on Voting Rights Act

Something more supremely has overshadowed the news that UC Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky has been named a new endowed chair in First Amendment Law through a $1.5 million gift from Raymond Pryke, owner and publisher of the Valleywide Newspapers chain based in Hesperia. Chemerinsky and ... More >>

Christopher Dorner Ditched Cops' Favorite Tool

[Moxley Confidential] The Ex-LAPD cop and suspected serial killer denied his pursuers their favorite tracking device: his cell phone

Garden Grove City Council to Seek Limiting Public Comments at Meeting Tomorrow

Forget pension reform: if you want the ultimate indicator of how bloated city government is, look no further than item 7B on tomorrow's agenda for the Garden Grove City Council meeting. The item calls for the council to pass a resolution that would limit public comments from five minutes to person t ... More >>

Pat Oliphant Exhibit at the Fullerton Museum Through This Sunday!

By Dave BartonThat instantly recognizable signature. The O an open mouth yawping in protest. The dot of the I like a projectile being thrown. The remaining letters leaning forward to attack. You don't even have to know his work to recognize political cartoonist Pat Oliphant is a confrontational indi ... More >>

Your Chris Kluwe OC Weekly Cover Story Extra Credit Reading Assignment

Andy Mannix's excellent cover story on Chris Kluwe, the pride of Los Alamitos High School, shows how a Minnesota Vikings punter managed to eclipse his NFL career by becoming perhaps the nation's leading straight proponent for marriage equality. The story mentions a video Baltimore Ravens linebacker ... More >>

South Coast Plaza Sued by Animal Activists

The Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL) contends in a lawsuit that tony South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa violates constitutionally protected free speech.The San Diego nonprofit's suit filed in Orange County Superior Court accuses California's largest mall of violating the First Amendment by re ... More >>

California Assemblywoman Targets Anti-Israel Campus Activism, Or: Five Criticisms of Israel that Are Inherently Not Anti-Semitic

The California Assembly recently passed a resolution that calls upon college and university leadership to condemn anti-Semitism on campus. Assemblywoman Linda Halderman (R-Fresno) authored the resolution, which demands "no public resources will be allowed to be used for any anti-Semitic or any ... More >>

Long Beach City Attorney Threatens LB Post Over Negative MedPot Coverage

On June 19, Long Beach police officers raided the THC Collective, a medical marijuana dispensary, for suspicion of operating in violation of the city's hotly-contested pot ordinance. During the raid, a camera captured one officer stepping on the neck of an employee who was lying face down on the gro ... More >>

The Horror In Uniform of 'The Invisible War'

Kirby Dick's documentary reveals a military that is 'target rich' for sexual predators

Panties and Popery at Religious Freedom Rally in Santa Ana

Hundreds of Roman Catholics and their leaders gathered Friday in downtown Santa Ana to rally against what they say is the erosion of religious liberty in the United States. The Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally took aim at the usual suspects, including President Barack Obama and Planned Pare ... More >>

Gary Stein, Teabaggy Camp Pendleton Marine Who Trashed Obama, Kicked Out of Corps

A Camp Pendleton Marine and Tea Party member who trashed President Barack Obama on Facebook remains in the service as he deals with a medical condition, but following treatment Sgt. Gary Stein will be involuntarily discharged, base officials announced. Oorah! A teabagger gets to suck down more taxpa ... More >>

Dave Mustaine's Latest Comments and The First Amendment

​Dave Mustaine has been making news--and not for Megadeth's latest record. A staunch and outspoken Republican, the metal icon is reigniting the birther dispute. He told a Canadian radio host that he had a lot of questions about President Obama's birthplace. The exchange went like this: "[I have] ... More >>

Where the Rubbers Meet the Road to Rome: Rick Warren Willing to Go to Jail in Support of Catholic Stance on Obama Mandate

​Rick Warren took a break from humblebragging on his Twitter page last week to say he would go to jail before caving to President Barack Obama's mandate that employers with religious affiliations -- such as Catholic hospitals -- cover contraceptives in their health insurance plans.

The Vandals' Joe Escalante on SOPA: How the Daily Variety Lawsuit Proves it Will Ruin the Internet

​ We all know about the Daily Variety suit that plagues the Vandals, but yesteday bassist Joe Escalante published a column over at Huffington Post that talks about SOPA and how it bodes ill for the Internet...using their case as an example. Read an excerpt after the jump. (That case, by the way, i ... More >>

5 Most Important Video Game-Related News Stories of 2011

​2011 has come and gone, and the year that seemingly slipped right past us was full of major events--some of which may very change the landscape of the video gaming industry forever. Everything from new a new Nintendo console to the death of a computer pioneer was all crammed into the previous yea ... More >>

[UPDATED: Occupy Irvine to end Encampment] Occupy Santa Ana Backs off Occupation

UPDATE, DEC. 20, 5:07 P.M.:  And then there were none. A week after Occupy Santa Ana ended its formal occupation of the Civic Center, Occupy Irvine has decided to do the same. According to activist D'Marie Mulattieri, who was responsible for setting up the original Occupy Orange County Fac ... More >>

Four Santa Ana Occupiers Face Judge

Kevin Liu​Before Occupiers from Santa Ana were getting arrested in Los Angeles, they were getting arrested...in Santa Ana. Yesterday, the Orange County Register reported that four defendants--Timothy Craven, Anthony Velloza, Shay Palmer and Sam Aresheh, all arrested on Oct. 22--went before Or ... More >>

[UPDATED: Jones To Take Legal Action] Rev. Terry Jones Rally Blocked at UCI Amid Security Concerns, 'Free Speech' Area Shut Down

​UPDATE, DEC. 2, 3:06 P.M.:  Rev. Terry Jones told us by phone that the arrest threat he received by UCI police on Thursday is "an absolute outrage and a violation of our First Amendment rights.""We are definitely going to take legal action against the UC Irvine police department," he sa ... More >>

'Barbershop Punk' Makes the Case for Net Neutrality

Information wants to be free, etc.

[UPDATED with Long Beach Journo's Take:] ACLU Sues Sheriff's Deputies for Hassling LA and Long Beach Photographers Under Anti-Terror Policy

ACLU/SCGreggory Moore shares with the media his brushes with sheriff's deputies.​UPDATE, OCT. 28, 9:54 P.M.: The Long Beach Post's Greggory Moore has graciously agreed to share with Weekly readers his real-time coverage of moves officers from two separate police agencies made against him and colle ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

[UPDATED with Responses:] Irvine 11 Verdict: Guilty

Christopher Victorio/OC WeeklySee updates at the end of this post. ORIGINAL POST, SEPT 23, 12:04 P.M.: Cries and wails erupted in the Santa Ana courtroom as the verdict was read. All 10 defendants in the Irvine 11 case have been found guilty of ​disturbing a public meeting and engaging ... More >>

Who's Gagging Whom In the Irvine 11 Case?

The First Amendment, academic freedom and Islamophobia collide in an OC courtroom

[UPDATED with Hate Crimes Down In OC, Or Are They?:]African-Americans Were Victims of One-Third of OC's 2010 Hate Crimes: Report

​UPDATED, AUGUST 18, 4:48 P.M.: Update by Marisa Gerber.Statistics show that hate crimes are down in OC, but nobody's overly convinced. There was a buzzword at this morning's event, where last year' hate crime report was released. What was the word? Underreporting. The report, which was ... More >>

Complaint or No, Expect a Prayer to Begin Tonight's Yorba Linda City Council Meeting

​The Yorba Linda City Council, which in the recent past was blasted for allowing an Islamic charity to rent community center space for a gala that teabaggy types likened to an al Qaeda monster truck jam, is now getting criticized for its own religulousness."Local governments should not be in the b ... More >>

Dream Team Assembled at UCI Law School Squeezes Boring Right Out of 2010-11 U.S. Supreme Court Term

​For the UC Irvine School of Law's first-ever Supreme Court Review Wednesday, the assembled panel was saddled with a reportedly "boring" 2010-2011 term. Fortunately, the legal all-stars who enlightened about 170 lunching students, lawyers and professors on campus (and an equal number watching the ... More >>

[UPDATED with NMA Video:] Supreme Court Overturns State Ban on Sales and Rentals of Violent Video Games to Kids

NMA.TV​UPDATE, JUNE 28, 2:50 P.M.: Next Media Animation, the largest full-service animation studio in Asia and subsidiary of Hong Kong's largest publicly listed print media company, is getting faster at turning around animated video on news stories around the world.Take Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ... More >>

George Saieg, Anaheim Muslim-to-Christian Evangelist, Wins Free Speech Ruling

​Somehow we missed this one from a couple weeks ago, but George Saieg recently won an appellate court decision regarding his free-speech rights and mistreatment by the city of Dearborn, Michigan, which had barred the Anaheim evangelist from passing out pamphlets urging Muslims to convert to Christ ... More >>

Tommy Russo, FOW (Friend of the Weekly) and Maui Time Publisher, Gets Support in Legal Fight with Cops

FacebookTommy Russo​Longtime readers may recall the Anthony Pignataro byline from OC Weekly print editions of past. Foes, friends and close readers know that the investigative reporter left our little slice of paradise for an island paradise, Maui, where he was editor of the Maui Time Weekly.Pigna ... More >>

School Daze At UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton

While CSUF students find an administration that applaud their protests, UCI coeds deal with heavier-handed officials

"Irvine 11" Are Not Sole UCI Activists to Draw Heat from DA; Meet the "Irvine 19" (or 17 2)

​As last year's surge of student activism fades from the public eye, the memory remains fresh among those who participated on the UC Irvine campus, as they prepare for their upcoming court hearings, more than a year after the actions for which they are being charged.Campus activism has kept Or ... More >>

Supreme Court Rules for Reverend Fred Phelps' 'God Hates Fags' Picketing Outside Military Funerals

​The Reverend Fred Phelps' God-Hates-Faggetry that plays out outside military funerals, political conventions and Rent productions at Corona del Mar High School won U.S. Supreme Court protection this morning.Justices voted 8-1 to uphold an appeals-court ruling that threw out a $5 million judgment ... More >>

Dervaes Family Sends Out Ridiculous Press Release Claiming They're Not Trying to Shut Up Urban Homesteaders

Say what you will about the dingbat Dervaeses of Pasadena, the family that stirred a national controversy when they decided to trademark the terms "urban homstead" and "urban homesteading," but at least they're remaining consistent. They've maintained their innocence from the start, blaming a conspi ... More >>

Supreme Court Smacks Down Local Armenian Genocide Deniers

​This week, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of Griswold v. Driscoll, a Massachusetts-based case in which a group of plaintiffs sued the State Board of Education because it didn't include references to Armenian-genocide deniers in school curricula covering the Armenian ge ... More >>

Where Are #WikiLeaks' Media Friends? [UPDATED]

​UPDATED: WikiLeaks Betrayed by Amazon, Visa, Mastercard--And Worst of All, the MediaWhere are the First Amendment's establishment warriors as government-spooked businesses try to shut down Wikileaks?Hackers with computers, not hacks with press passes, have been the first line of resistance.More t ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Nativo Lopez Cries 'Racist,' Appeals Court Cries 'Defamation'

[Moxley Confidential] Split decision in Overhill Farms case has chilling free-speech implications, dissenting justice asserts

9 UC Irvine Students Detained for "Chalking"

​ Update: A UC Irvine spokesperson denies that there were any detentions and says that campus police have only been taking reports. Nine UC Irvine students were detained by campus police in the past week for chalking--that is, writing messages on outdoor ground surfaces with sidewalk chalk. The fi ... More >>

UPDATED: OC-Born Judge Throws Out 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

Anti-DADT activist and fired soldier Dan ChoiUpdate, Oct. 12, 1:02 p.m.: Riverside federal judge Virginia Phillips has double-downed on her initial ruling against Don't Ask, Don't Tell, issuing a worldwide injunction barring enforcement of the rule. The government has sixty days to appeal, but ... More >>

Animal Research Protesters Face Terrorism Charges

A Long Beach couple could do five years in federal prison for aggressively protesting animal research at UC schools up north

America's Most-Corrupt Sheriff Joe Arpaio Returning to OC to Pal Around with Bill Hunt

Hunt and Arpaio: Two of hearts...photo by Beth Stirnaman.​I really want to like sheriff's candidate Bill Hunt, I really do. The OC Republican establishment despises him, and anyone those Carona apologists hate, I at the very least appreciate. But no way on Earth can I say anything nice about Hunt ... More >>

Man Hater from Irvine Nudist Dr. Phil = Lawsuit!

Hitspinner @ FreakingNews.com​Irvine resident Shirley Rae Dieu wants to sue the pants off of Dr. Phil and CBS Television for making her face a pants-less man--and a Superior Court judge in Los Angeles is all for it.Today, Judge Elizabeth Allen White rejected a defense motion alleging Dieu's lawsui ... More >>

Gwar

The Glass House

[¡Ask a Mexican!] Arpayaso Claims the Know Nothing Crown

Tony's Bizarro World

DA wages war on Santa Ana gang, prohibits pastel clothing