Tag Archives: Connecticut

May 7, 2012, 5:05 pm

Is Freedom of Assembly a Dead Letter?

James Madison, rabble-rouser in chief? (Portrait from Wikipedia)

It’s now routine for police to disperse Occupy encampments, to confine demonstrators inside metal fences, corral them in plastic, and sequester them in “free speech zones” far removed from gatherings they want to influence, or denounce, or otherwise communicate with or about. Public spaces are treated as if they belong to the government, to be doled out by the spoonful, and not to the people, even though the First Amendment is quite explicit that what is forbidden is “abridging…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

In 1791 (originalists, please note), the right to assemble was considered important enough to include in the first, foundational supplement to the…

October 22, 2010, 4:06 pm

So Just How Charming Are Drooling Misogynists? (Part 1)

By Gina Barreca

On Monday, October 18, 2010, the Yale Daily News ran an editorial titled “The right kind of feminism.” They weren’t making a play on the word “right” but it would have been better if they were; actually, almost anything would have been better than what they wrote.

And because you might accuse me of taking words or phrases out of context (not that you would, of course), I think it’s best if I quote directly from the YDN editorial itself:

“Feminists at Yale should remember that, on a campus as progressive as ours, most of their battles are already won: All of us agree on gender equality. The provocateurs knew their audience’s sensibilities and how to offend them for a childish laugh. They went too far. But the Women’s Center should have known better than to paint them as misogynistic strangers and attackers among us, instead of members of our community; after all…