Today the Nevada Supreme Court agreed with the ACLU of Nevada in a case involving personalized license plates. The Court reached out to the ACLU and invited us to submit a “friend of the court” brief to discuss the appropriate standards by which the DMV decides which license plates are vulgar or obscene. The question in the case was whether the DMV had used improper discretion to determine what kind of speech is inappropriate when it vetoed a license plate just because of how the word was definied in the online Urban Dictionary.

The United States Attorney’s office is attempting to dismiss the ACLU of Nevada's case seeking to quash the subpoena seeking information about two anonymous commenters on a Las Vegas Review-Journal article. The government filed the motion ex parte and under seal, meaning that neither the public nor the ACLU and its clients were given a copy.

The Assistant United States Attorney has submitted a narrower subpoena to the Las Vegas Review-Journal seeking information about only two individuals who commented anonymously on a story the paper ran about a federal criminal trial. The original subpoena sought information about every commenter to the story.

Although the Review-Journal is now considering turning over the information, the ACLU of Nevada is fighting the subpoena and is urging the Review-Journal to refuse or delay complying with the request.

The ACLU of Nevada is very concerned about the chilling effect of subpoenas issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office seeking to unmask the government’s critics. People have the right to criticize the government, including anonymously, even if they do so in fiery terms. While true threats do not merit First Amendment protection, none of the comments posted on the Review-Journal’s website rise to that level. The Nevada ACLU feels strongly that the U.S. Attorney’s Office should not obtain information identifying any of the anonymous commenters, and is committed to fighting the subpoenas. Click here for a copy of the motion the ACLU of Nevada filed to quash the subpoena.

The proposed “Policy on Bias Incidents/Hate Crimes” put forward by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas would limit severely restrict free speech and academic freedom on campus.

Free speech unplugged, unfettered. With a handheld camera, Anthony Romero, director of the ACLU, documented the debate for and against same-sex marriage. While legal arguments were made inside the California Supreme Court, the crowd gathered outside made their public opinion arguments known. It's a true First Amendment moment, where all points of view are defended by the ACLU.