Freedom Of Speech

For Awatif Ahmed Isshag, covering Darfur is the story of her life. Nearly a decade ago, at 14, Isshag started publishing a handwritten community newsletter about local events, arts and religion. Once a month she'd paste decorated pages to a large piece of wood and hang it from a tree outside her family's home for passersby to read.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to suspend a high school dress code that was challenged by a student who had worn a T-shirt with anti-gay language. Tyler Chase Harper sued the Poway Unified School District in 2004 to overturn a policy calling for schools to reduce or prevent "hate behavior," including threats and attacks based on sexual orientation. Harper had been pulled from class for wearing a T-shirt that read "Homosexuality is shameful" on the front and "Be ashamed.

Investigators said Wednesday that there was not enough evidence to show that Yahoo Inc.'s Hong Kong branch provided private information that helped convict a Chinese reporter accused of leaking state secrets. The case raised questions about whether Internet companies should cooperate with governments that deny freedom of speech and frequently crack down on journalists.

As he walked with his young children through the Texas Capitol in Austin this week, state Rep. Borris Miles stopped short in front of an unfamiliar painting: It showed a black man hanging from a tree by a rope -- part of an art exhibit organized by a group opposed to the death penalty. Miles scanned the other images and spotted a black-and-white rendering of a man tied to an electric chair. "Doing God's Work," read the title. "I was shocked. It was appalling," said Miles, a Houston Democrat.

Administrators at a Los Angeles charter school forbade students from reciting a poem about civil rights icon Emmett Till during a Black History Month program recently, saying his story was unsuitable for an assembly of young children.

High school students may have a right to free speech, but that does not include the freedom to unfurl a banner promoting "bong hits" during a school activity, the Supreme Court was told Monday. An unusual case from Alaska tests whether principals and teachers can punish students for banners, buttons or other messages that conflict with the goals and policies set by school officials. During Monday's argument, former U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth W.

Software filters work much better than a 1998 federal law designed to keep pornography away from children on the Internet, a federal judge ruled Thursday in striking down the measure on free-speech grounds. Senior U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed Jr. also said the Child Online Protection Act fails to address threats that have emerged since the law was written, including online predators on social-networking sites such as News Corp.'s MySpace, because it targets only commercial Web publishers.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider reviving part of a new federal law that makes it a crime to send computer messages that offer child pornography, even when no pornography exists. Last year, a federal appeals court in Atlanta struck down the provision on free-speech grounds and said it reached too far.

A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus was canceled after Cardinal Edward Egan and other Roman Catholics expressed outrage. The "My Sweet Lord" display was shut down by the Roger Smith Hotel, which houses the Lab Gallery in Manhattan. Hotel President James Knowles cited the public outcry for his decision. Matt Semler, the gallery's creative director, resigned in protest.

A man arrested on Veterans Day in 2004 while using a bullhorn to publicly recite the names of military casualties in Iraq has reached a $17,000 settlement in his lawsuit against the Santa Barbara Police Department. The city will pay the damages to Michael Tocher, 37, who was arrested Nov. 11, 2004, at a downtown plaza while reading a Defense Department list of U.S. and allied casualties. The city also will pay $87,000 for his attorneys' fees.