Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Free Speech

Commentary Questions Whether Colorado Leaders Mirror The Power They Protest
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Commentary Questions Whether Colorado Leaders Mirror The Power They Protest

By Jon Caldara | Commentary, Complete Colorado Though most of us celebrate “No Kings Day” on July 4, the Trump-deranged got a head start last weekend with rallies around the state. Attendees bravely fought oppression by blocking traffic for people with jobs. Rally-goers demanded freedom from tyranny, many right after voting to ban all but beige house paint at their HOA meetings. After pausing briefly to DoorDash something gluten-free, they returned to the barricades to secure democracy in Colorado for one more day. They risked everything, except mild discomfort, to call the guy who won both the popular vote and the electoral vote a tyrant. Yes, I’m having fun at their expense. And yes, they have a point. When you build a country on principles instead of a per...
Should professors persuade or present? Classroom neutrality questioned in Colorado
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, Local

Should professors persuade or present? Classroom neutrality questioned in Colorado

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The article at bottom details how an adjunct professor specializing in queer studies at Colorado Mesa University resigned over a dispute involving classroom neutrality. I’ll leave it to you to read up on the dispute and come to your own decisions about the facts in the matter. From my take on the article, it seems that there might be something of a disagreement as to exactly what was said and what happened. I am also open to any civil comment you’d like to add. Please feel free to toss in your two cents on the issue, whether we agree or not. Again, without saying what the professor here did or didn’t do, let’s examine two different versions of how a class discussion could go. Contrast the following: ...
Federal Disinformation Initiative Flagged For Targeting U.S. Media Despite Assurances
The Federalist, Approved, National

Federal Disinformation Initiative Flagged For Targeting U.S. Media Despite Assurances

By Margot Cleveland | The Federalist The evidence uncovered during litigation should shake Americans awake to the threat to their liberties. Staff with the Global Engagement Center (“GEC”) told a State Department official that its testbed platform “will NOT focus on US audiences,” but then proceeded to fund a trial targeting The Blaze — a Texas-based media outlet. The Federalist uncovered this detail during discovery in its lawsuit against the State Department and the GEC, which the plaintiffs settled last week after the Defendants agreed to detailed prophylactic measures to prevent similar violations of Americans’ First Amendment rights. The Federalist, along with The Daily Wire, sued the State Department and GEC in December of 2023, after learni...
Colorado lawmakers move to sidestep Supreme Court ruling on therapy speech
Sey Anything, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado lawmakers move to sidestep Supreme Court ruling on therapy speech

By Jennifer Sey | Commentary, Sey Everything The Colorado legislature is attempting to sidestep the Supreme Court ruling with a new "conversion therapy" lawsuit bill The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on March 31, 2026, in Chiles v. Salazar (8-1 decision, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting) that Colorado’s 2019 ban on “conversion therapy” for minors violates the First Amendment’s free-speech protections as applied to talk therapy. (I wrote about it here.) The Supreme Court’s ruling said the Colorado law was unconstitutional because it constituted “viewpoint discrimination.” The Supreme Court made it clear that talk therapy is protected speech, not “conduct.” But Colorado refuses to accept the Supreme Court’s ruling. Instead, the insane state that I l...
High Court Strikes Down Colorado Therapy Law in 8-1 Free Speech Ruling
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
Federal Decree Limits Government Role In Social Media Moderation
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...
CIA report flagged motherhood as extremism indicator before quiet retraction
The Christian Post, Approved, National

CIA report flagged motherhood as extremism indicator before quiet retraction

By Ryan Foley | The Christian Post The Central Intelligence Agency retracted a Biden-era internal document warning about female “racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists" that listed the prioritization of “motherhood and homemaking," raising the concern of a conservative legal group.  In a thread posted to X last week, the legal organization America First Legal, founded by Trump adviser Stephen Miller in 2021, shared screenshots of a now-retracted intelligence assessment compiled during the Biden administration. The document, titled “Women Advancing White Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists,” outlines concerns about women’s participation in “white racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism.” The intelligence assessme...
Colorado’s Ideological Regime Doubles Down
FAIR Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s Ideological Regime Doubles Down

By Laureen Boll | Commentary, FAIR Colorado HB26-1322 is a weaponized end-run around the Constitution The Supreme Court’s October 2025 oral arguments in Chiles v. Salazar exposed Colorado’s conversion-therapy ban for what it is: raw viewpoint discrimination dressed up as “child protection.” Conservative justices grilled the state on why a licensed counselor could affirm a minor’s gender identity or homosexuality but face professional ruin for exploring the opposite — neutral talk therapy aligned with a family’s faith or biology. The writing is on the wall, as the majority seems ready to apply strict scrutiny and likely strike down the ban as unconstitutional professional speech regulation. Colorado’s Democrat-majority legislature refuses to accept the likely verdict of ...
He reported election irregularities. Weeks later he was fired: Now a Colorado fire chief appeals in federal court
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...
The Friendship Test: What Happens When They Learn You’re Conservative
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

The Friendship Test: What Happens When They Learn You’re Conservative

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice I don’t have to reach back into old stories to explain why I believe the Left has become unmoored. I can simply look at the present, at what happens in ordinary human moments, and watch the evidence unfold in real time. For years, the popular narrative has been that conservatives are the ones driven by fear and hostility. That we are the ones who are “other” people. That we cannot live alongside disagreement without turning it into a moral indictment. I used to take those claims seriously, partly because I wanted to be fair, partly because I assumed good faith is the default in grown-up relationships. But something has changed. Not in headlines. Not in party platforms. In people. And the change is easiest t...