Judge Hands Student Banned From Wearing Trump Shirt to School a Big Win

An Oregon teenager got in trouble with his high school after he wore a T-shirt bearing a message of support for President Donald Trump’s proposal for a wall on the southern border. On Thursday, a federal judge handed him a big win in what had become a fight over free speech.

According to KGW, 18-year-old senior Addison Barnes faced a ten-day suspension in January after he refused to cover or remove his shirt which read “Donald J. Trump Border Wall Construction Company,” and featured the famous Trump quote, “The wall just got 10 feet taller.”

A teacher and at least one student at Hillsboro’s Liberty High School claimed they were offended by Barne’s shirt, and an assistant principal asked that he cover it up, which he initially did.

He later uncovered the shirt though, as he believed the school was suppressing his First Amendment right to free speech. This resulted in a choice of covering the shirt again or a ten-day suspension for “defiance” and alleged violation of the school’s dress code, as the shirt was deemed “disruptive” to the school setting.

Barnes viewed that as unfair censorship of his political views, as he noted that other political views in opposition to his own were permitted to be expressed in the school by both teachers and other students.

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“I had a teacher who had a pro-sanctuary city poster in her room which was up all year, yet as I wear a pro-border wall shirt I get silenced and suspended for wearing that,” Barnes told KGW.

He filed a lawsuit which argued that the school had violated his First Amendment rights. Even the ACLU of Oregon said Barnes was in the right and the school was wrong to censor him, even as they disapproved of the message conveyed by his “mean-spirited” shirt.

The Oregonian reported this weke that Barnes has now been vindicated by a federal judge who issued a temporary restraining order against Liberty High School that prevents it from enforcing its prohibition against Barnes wearing the disputed shirt.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman, after weighing the school’s concern over what they viewed as “disruptive” to an orderly school setting, ruled that the school couldn’t justify censoring the student’s free political speech.

Do you agree that T-shirts with political messages are protected speech under the First Amendment?

The school had argued that since roughly one-third of the school’s population was Hispanic, the shirt could create a “hostile learning environment,” unlike in other school’s with smaller minority populations.

They also noted how some students had previously engaged in walk-outs and sit-ins in opposition to the president and his immigration policies, which should grant them deference in prohibiting the “disruptive” shirt from being worn, as it might offend those other students.

But the judge countered by asking rhetorically if the First Amendment and the speech it protected varied depending upon the make-up of a particular school.

Attorneys for Barnes argued that the shirt should be considered “pure political speech” and noted that it wasn’t obscene or vulgar, nor did it promote illegal activity or cause any sort of disruption or interference with the school — even if the message was considered “controversial or unpopular” and made other students and teachers feel “uncomfortable.”

The judge ultimately ruled that the shirt constituted “core protected speech” and was no more “substantially disruptive” to an orderly school setting than walk-outs and sit-ins had been.

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“There’s not enough to go on here to show that sort of legitimate concern justifying censorship of this core political speech,”Judge Mosman ruled.

It is worth noting that the school had already rescinded the suspension after Barnes’ father had complained, but now their prohibition against his wearing of the T-shirt has been knocked down in a court of law as well, handing both Barnes and pro-Trump students everywhere a major First Amendment victory.

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Protesters Pull Fire Alarm at Portland State Free Speech Event

Student protesters tried to derail a free speech event at Portland State on Thursday featuring YouTube commentator Sargon of Akkad and Professor Peter Boghossian by pulling the fire alarm during the event.

A student protester pulled the fire alarm Thursday night at Portland State University in an attempt to derail an event featuring Sargon of Akkad and Professor Peter Boghossian. After the fire alarm went off, Boghossian attempted to continue the event so that the protesters would not be successful in their mission to shut the event down.

“I’m not evacuating. If the campus safety police and tells me to evacuate, I am going to obey the law and evacuate. Short of that, I am not going to evacuate,” Boghossian said. Shortly after Boghossian said this, he was informed by campus police that they were required to evacuate the building.

“Listen up. We are going to leave until this is clear because we are law abiding citizens unlike the people who did this,” Boghossian said, referring to the protesters who pulled the fire alarm.

The event resumed shortly thereafter. After they returned, Boghossian condemned the university’s bias response team. “What is bias? ‘Bias is a state of mind,’” Boghossian said, referring to university documents. “Through the bias response team, you can be reported and those reports go to our friends at our campus police department who have truly been wonderful at our past events and I am grateful for that.”

“That’s what language control is about,” Sargon of Akkad interjected. “It’s eventually controlling thought, exactly as the party wanted to do in 1984. I hate to keep coming back to this example because it feels hackneyed to do it but they are literally saying that you can’t use certain words and the reasons they do that is so that you can’t properly express certain concepts.”

Before the event concluded, a student stood up and told the speakers that she identifies as “far-left.” She went on to announce that she was hosting an upcoming event at the local city hall for those interested in sharing their political perspective with others with opposing views. The student was cheered by the audience before she sat down.

 

 

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WSJ: Tech Giants Are Heading Towards Monopoly Status

A new column the Wall Street Journal argues that companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon are heading towards monopoly status in their respective industries.

A Thursday column in the Wall Street Journal by Christopher Mims argues that several Silicon Valley giants are gaining monopoly-sized market shares in their respective industries. Mims explained that modern monopolies look much different than monopolies of the past. Mims cited the example of monopolist Andrew Carnegie using armed guards against his striking workers.

One way today’s monopolists are different from the robber barons of old is that they’re not exactly ​behaving like, for example, Andrew Carnegie, who turned armed guards on striking workers. And regulators don’t particularly care if a company is a monopoly unless it harms the public or hampers innovation. But on those counts, many argue we’re close. Take the way both Google and Facebook dominate the harvesting of user data, or Facebook’s ethically dubious decision to release vast quantities of personal information to developers.

According to the column, Google and Facebook take in a vast majority of U.S. digital advertising. Amazon accounts for a whopping 44 percent of e-commerce sales.

Together, Google and Facebook take in 73% of U.S. digital advertising. It may not be something you think about often, but that success rests largely on the fact that both have spent so much money building data centers and filling them with hardware and software designed by an elite, in-demand set of engineers. In this way they resemble the telegraph giants, with investments in physical infrastructure so large no upstart could match them.

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TOM FITTON: FBI Delays Release of 16 Pages of Clinton-Lynch Tarmac Meeting Docs AGAIN

The FBI once again delayed the release of 16 pages of Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting docs which were supposed to be given to government watchdog groups Thursday.

As previously reported, after twice-denying their existence, the Deep State admitted to Jay Sekulow and Tom Fitton it magically found more Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting docs and will be forced to turn them over to the ACLJ and Judicial Watch by the end of May.

These Clinton-Lynch tarmac documents were located after a THIRD ‘search’. The new documents consist of 16 pages and 2 Strzok-Page text messages.

The text messages were already released to the public; we are still waiting for the FBI to release the other 16 pages of documents.

It is now June 1st and the FBI is stonewalling and slow-walking documents AGAIN.

President of Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton was furious on Friday after he found out the FBI wanted another week to turn over the 16 pages of Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting docs.

Fitton called on President Trump to ask what is going on with the FBI stonewalling.

Fitton tweeted: FBI told @JudicialWatch (and the court) they would turn over “newly found” Clinton-Lynch tarmac docs yesterday, but now they want another week! We already caught FBI lying about hidden records once before! @RealDonaldTrump should ask what is going on!

At the end of November, Judicial Watch released 29 pages of Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting docs which revealed the FBI wasn’t even concerned about the scandalous meeting, all they cared about was hiding the details from the public!

FBI officials were also scrambling to find the whistleblower, via Judicial Watch:

The previously released documents showed FBI officials were concerned about a leak that Bill Clinton delayed his aircraft taking off in order to “maneuver” a meeting with the attorney general. The resulting story in the Observer is seemingly confirmed and causes a flurry of emails about the source of the article. FBI official(s) write “we need to find that guy” and that the Phoenix FBI office was contacted “in an attempt to stem any further damage.” Another FBI official, working on AG Lynch’s security detail, suggests instituting non-disclosure agreements. The names of the emails authors are redacted. There are no documents showing concern about the meeting itself.

Once again Judicial Watch is doing the heavy lifting. You can donate to the watchdog group by clicking here.

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott Reveals Innovative Plan To Stop School Shootings

No sane person wants more school shootings. This is true no matter where someone falls on the political spectrum, although the mainstream media often implies otherwise.

Despite being smeared by activists like David Hogg as monsters who don’t care what happens to children, the reality is that conservatives and gun owners alike are fed up with these types of tragedies… and they simply want to find solutions that don’t involve tearing up self-defense rights or the Constitution in the process.

Greg Abbott fits into that category. The Republican governor of Texas is a supporter of Second Amendment rights, but like most of America was deeply impacted when the Santa Fe High School shooting occurred in his state in May.

On Wednesday, the governor unveiled his security plan to help minimize these tragedies, and it includes some innovative solutions to safeguard students while keeping American rights intact.

One of those unique proposals calls for police officers to spend more time at schools during their shifts. As anybody who has ever gone on a ride-along with police knows, cops spend a significant amount of time filling out paperwork and completing reports while on duty — and Abbott wants to use that on-duty “slow time” as an advantage.

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“This includes having officers use schools as a stop for ‘breaks, lunch, or to file reports,’” Breitbart News reported.

“Abbott’s plan also asks schools ‘to provide office space for a local or state law enforcement official to work from.’ He is asking the state to consider grants to help school’s offset the cost of providing such space and accommodating a great law enforcement presence,” the news outlet continued.

It’s a smart solution, and one that would put more uniformed police near schools with fairly minimal costs, at least compared to having districts hire countless more officers.

The governor is also keen on putting trained, vetted security professionals to work to help protect kids. Retired police officers and qualified veterans would become part of an overall safety strategy.

Do you agree with Gov. Abbott’s proposed plan?

“Texas public schools are permitted to hire any person who is a licensed peace officer to provide campus security. Texas retired and off-duty peace officers already have extensive firearms and emergency response training, and many would be willing and able to protect Texas campuses,” Abbott’s proposal explained.

“In addition, the state should create a pathway for our veterans – many of whom have extensive firearm training – to help protect our schools through a modified school marshal program that ensures they have the appropriate training to transition their expertise into the campus environment,” the governor continued.

“Veterans who complete tailored training and background checks should have the ability to once again serve their communities in times of need,” he wrote.

The governor is also open to arming teachers. According to Breitbart, around 170 of Texas’ 1,000 school districts — or 17 percent — allow school staff members to be legally armed. Abbott would like to increase those numbers.

Recent events have shown that armed civilians can make a difference in an emergency scenario. Just last week, two legally armed citizens stopped a mass shooter in Oklahoma City, after the criminal entered a restaurant.

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Juan Carlos Nazario, 35, and 39-year-old Bryan Whittle ran back to their vehicles to retrieve their firearms in order to stop the rampage, because the restaurant was considered a “gun free zone.” Apparently that sign didn’t stop the murderous criminal, but the armed citizens did stop him.

Crime will never disappear, but it can be dramatically reduced. Staging “die-ins” on supermarket floors while holding a megaphone like Hogg is not the answer, however.

Putting brave, prepared and properly equipped officers and civilians in the right positions will make a difference — and it’s about time that someone like the Texas governor said so.

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More Winning: Costco Raising Hourly Wages For Over 130,000 Employees Because Of Tax Cuts

Via Daily Wire:

On Thursday, Costco announced it would raise the hourly wage for 130,000 of its American employees. CEO Richard Galanti, while discussing the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings, said that starting wages for employees would be raised $1 an hour to $14.50 an hour while other hourly wages would be hiked 25 to 50 cents an hour.

Galanti added that the new wage increases would be probably be added to the company’s regular wage hikes. He acknowledged that the tax cuts would garner Costco an added $300 million each year.

Keep reading…

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Dick’s Says Firearms Policy Hurt Their Hunting Business, Will Continue to Hurt Going Forward

And the customers have gone elsewhere.

Via Free Beacon:

Dick’s Sporting Goods announced on Wednesday that their recent endorsement of gun control policies and hiring of gun control lobbyists has hurt their sales of firearms and hunting accessories.

The company did not reveal specifics about how much their firearms business had fallen during their first quarter earnings call but said it was directly connected to their decision to embrace certain gun control policies. “As expected, our firearms policy changes impacted our hunt business which saw an accelerated decline in an already challenged category,” Dick’s CFO Lee Belitsky told analysts. “We expect these businesses to remain under significant pressure throughout the remainder of the year.”

The store announced in February it would be reinstituting a ban on sales of AR-15s and similar rifles as well as certain firearms magazines after abandoning a nearly identical policy it announced in 2012. The company then embraced gun control, banning the sale of firearms to adults under 21 years of age and hiring lobbyists to advocate for stricter gun laws.

When asked by an analyst whether he believed Dick’s firearms business could rebound later in the year, CEO Edward Stack said the company does not see that segment of the business improving any time soon.

Keep reading…

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EXCLUSIVE – Jackie Mason: Pro-Trump Comedians ‘Fearful of Every Word We Say’

NEW YORK — Legendary stand-up comic Jackie Mason contended that in the age of progressive activism seemingly targeting the right-wing, comedians are “fearful of every word we say” out of concern that comments can “somehow be connected to something that sounds conservative.”

Mason contended that there is a double standard between the way the entertainment industry approaches liberal comedians and those who espouse any conservative views, especially comedy figures who appear to support President Donald Trump.

“Roseanne Barr is thrown out immediately because she supports Trump,” Mason argued. “But if you are a leftist lowlife you can say or do whatever you want.”

Mason was speaking in a pre-taped interview scheduled to air on this reporter’s Sunday night talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.”

Regarding ABC’s swift firing of Barr following her racist Twitter remark, Mason stated: “Let’s be honest about it. If she was in favor of Trump, do you think they would kick her out at all? As soon as she said, ‘I like Trump’, they wanted her to drop dead. If she has a job, 10-minutes later she’s not working.”

Mason, however, did not have many kind words for Barr, taking issue with some of the comedian’s past support for the Occupy movement and for the 9/11 truther conspiracy in addition to numerous other controversial remarks and views. “She pretends she is a conservative because that is how they pay her on the show,” Mason claimed.

Still, while panning her remarks, Mason questioned why Barr was so quickly fired despite an apology as opposed to liberal comedians who committed similar offenses, like Joy Behar’s mocking of Vice President Mike Pence over his religious convictions. Behar waited several weeks before finally apologizing in that case.

And Mason sounded off about the continued backing for TBS talk show host and comedian Samantha Bee, who called Ivanka Trump a “feckless c—” during a segment on her show and issued an apology after the comments sparked an outcry.

“Not only does Samantha Bee still have a job, she is being celebrated all over the country because she apologized,” he said.

Mason quipped that “this yenta” – referring to Bee – “has about as much talent as a shoehorn.”

“She deserves to be on the air like I deserve to be in charge of the plumbing in your building,” he added.

Mason said comedians need to restrict themselves when it comes to espousing conservative views:

It has not only gone insane, but we are restricted with every word we say, and every comedian is fearful of saying the wrong word because it can somehow be connected to something that sounds conservative. Or they can be accused of all sorts of things. You don’t know what to say or where to go.

Because if they find out that there is one conservative. Even if he is in the audience. A conservative is not allowed to be in any part of the building during a comedy show. Even when they put up the building, if they find out the people working in the plumbing department are conservative he will be thrown out.  Otherwise you will install a conservative toilet.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

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