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Tag: First amendment

Tina Peters convictions upheld, sentence thrown out and case sent back to Mesa County court
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Tina Peters convictions upheld, sentence thrown out and case sent back to Mesa County court

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Tina Peters remains convicted—but the case that made her a national figure isn’t over. A Colorado appeals court upheld every conviction against the former Mesa County clerk Thursday, while also throwing out her sentence and ordering resentencing after finding the trial judge improperly weighed her speech about election fraud. The court laid it out over 78 pages—and shut down almost every major argument Peters brought forward. Judges rejected her claim that a presidential pardon could wipe out state convictions. They also rejected her argument that she was acting under federal authority. The convictions stayed. But the sentence didn’t. The ruling leaves Peters’ criminal convictions fully intact while reopening one of the m...
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High Court Strikes Down Colorado Therapy Law in 8-1 Free Speech Ruling
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The Daily Signal, Approved, State

High Court Strikes Down Colorado Therapy Law in 8-1 Free Speech Ruling

By Fred Lucas | The Daily Signal The Supreme Court held in an 8-1 ruling on Tuesday that a Colorado ban on “conversion therapy” for counselors unlawfully regulates speech and is viewpoint discrimination.  Justice Neil Gorsuch, a President Donald Trump appointee, issued the majority opinion. Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor—both appointees of President Barack Obama—issued concurring opinions.  Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson—an appointee of President Joe Biden—dissented.  The Chiles v. Salazar case involved a challenge to a Colorado law that allows licensed counselors to address issues of sexuality and gender only from the state’s approved perspective.  READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE DAILY SIGNAL
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Federal Decree Limits Government Role In Social Media Moderation
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Just The News, Approved, National

Federal Decree Limits Government Role In Social Media Moderation

By Greg Piper | Just the News 10-year agreement binds surgeon general, CDC, DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Feds agree not to stop Louisiana, Missouri and individual plaintiffs from seeking attorney's fees as "prevailing parties." Nearly two years after the Supreme Court killed free speech, in the telling of future National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, by letting the Biden administration resume pressuring tech platforms to censor disfavored narratives on COVID-19, elections and Hunter Biden, the Trump administration has made the plaintiffs' wildest dreams come true. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who imposed the sweeping preliminary injunction on the feds before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals n...
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He reported election irregularities. Weeks later he was fired: Now a Colorado fire chief appeals in federal court
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

He reported election irregularities. Weeks later he was fired: Now a Colorado fire chief appeals in federal court

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Erik Holt says he didn’t expect reviewing surveillance footage from a polling location inside the Florissant fire station would cost him his career. Holt says the fallout came quickly. Within weeks of providing investigators the footage he believed showed election rule violations, he was out of a job. The dispute that began inside the Florissant fire station is now before the federal appeals court. Judges will review whether reporting suspected wrongdoing can cost a public employee his job. Holt is no longer fighting the appeal alone. Mountain States Legal Foundation has joined the case and is now representing him. “Public employees do not surrender their First Amendment rights when they take a government job,” said Grad...
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“Apologize to the Constitution”: House rejects amendment on 3D gun bill
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

“Apologize to the Constitution”: House rejects amendment on 3D gun bill

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice The debate over 3D-printed firearms took an unexpected turn Friday when Rep. Scott Bottoms stepped forward with a constitutional warning. House Bill 26-1144 would ban the 3D printing of firearms and certain gun parts. Bottoms said if it violates the Constitution, it should fall. His amendment would have required the entire measure to rise or fall as one. The amendment failed after a standing division vote. “I would like to apologize to the Constitution for what we just did to it,” Bottoms said. The vote marked the most dramatic moment in a lengthy second reading debate over a bill that would make it illegal to 3D print firearms and certain gun parts, and restrict the sharing of digital files used to produce th...
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Vermont Drops Requirement To Affirm Gender Identity For Foster License Approval
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Just The News, Approved, National

Vermont Drops Requirement To Affirm Gender Identity For Foster License Approval

By Greg Piper | Just the News Vermont settles two lawsuits before appeals court can strike down policy conditioning foster placements, renewals on affirming gender ideology. "We must ban" removals and transitions against parents' will "immediately," Trump says. Solidly Democratic states are coming to the realization that excluding foster-care applicants based on their refusal to treat children as the opposite sex may not be a wise choice.   Vermont gave up its policy of scrutinizing would-be and current foster parents' religious beliefs for inconsistency with gender ideology to settle two First Amendment lawsuits before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could rule, issuing sweeping new guidance last week that protects applicants from violating their conscien...
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The question no court has answered: Was Tina Peters jailed for speech?
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The question no court has answered: Was Tina Peters jailed for speech?

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Despite months and months of litigation in both state and federal courts, no appellate court has ruled on whether Tina Peters’ speech was constitutionally protected—or whether it was improperly used to justify keeping her behind bars. Her bond challenge stalled in Colorado’s appellate court, which dismissed it as untimely. She's also turned to federal court, where her habeas petition was rejected under the Younger abstention doctrine. Even after a certificate of appealability was denied at the district court level, her case now proceeds forward in the Tenth Circuit—still without an answer to the First Amendment question at its core. Peters’ case is now moving through two separate court systems.  Peters’ conviction is b...
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Speech or statute? Appeals court weighs bond denial in Tina Peters case
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Speech or statute? Appeals court weighs bond denial in Tina Peters case

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice The Colorado Court of Appeals is being asked to decide whether Tina Peters was denied bond because of her speech—or whether the issue is already foreclosed by appellate rules. Was her bond denied because of her speech? The Attorney General’s office argues the court does not need to answer that question. In its view, Peters’ petition is untimely, successive and barred under Colorado’s appellate rules. The dispute now before the court centers on bond pending appeal. The defense says a district judge treated Peters’ public criticism of Mesa County’s voting system as a public danger. The state says the bond statute independently supports denial and that the petition should be dismissed on procedural grounds. 2026-01-30 A...
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Police Arrest 13 After Anti-ICE Protest Turns Destructive in Maple Grove, MN
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Fox News, Approved, National

Police Arrest 13 After Anti-ICE Protest Turns Destructive in Maple Grove, MN

By Adam Sabes | Fox News Several of the agitators arrested outside a Minnesota hotel where they believed Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino was staying have criminal records, with one arrestee openly embracing a "disrupt disturb resist" slogan on Instagram. The agitators were outside the SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Maple Grove, Minnesota, on Monday night where they had thought Bovino was staying. Arrests were made after authorities said the demonstration was "no longer considered peaceful," and declared it an unlawful assembly. Maple Grove police said its officers were responding to reports of a protest at the hotel, adding that it escalated when agitators allegedly began damaging property and throwing objects at officers. Several people ...
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A closet, a camera and a setup: Tina Peters assaulted in prison then thrown into solitary
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

A closet, a camera and a setup: Tina Peters assaulted in prison then thrown into solitary

By A.L. Goodwin | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice On the evening of January 18, just after 9:00 p.m., Tina Peters was assaulted inside the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, Colorado—not in a yard or a common area, but in a narrow janitor’s closet, out of view of surveillance cameras. Peters had been filling a portable swamp cooler, a task other inmates routinely refuse to do, even as the prison overheats in the dead of winter due to a failing HVAC system. To access the water tank, she pulled the unit into the cramped closet, positioning her head and upper body between the door and the cooler—leaving her physically pinned in a space barely wider than the machine itself. As Peters maneuvered the unit, another inmate approached in an agitated state. The wom...
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