Brown v Board Moot Court

            There was a moot court a few weeks ago over the Brown v Board case concerning integration. 

One group was the Brown side and they were arguing for integration. This group used the legal 

argument of the Civil Rights Act saying that people should have equal treatment in public 

accommodations. They also said that separate but equal is unable to be used because it should be 

illegal, that black people are now citizens just like white people and should have equal everything 

including opportunities like education, and that public schools should be considered public 

accommodations and treated the same as them.

            The other group was the Board of Education and was arguing against integration in the 

schools. They used the arguments that putting blacks are citizens but would feel inferior and not as 

good if they were put into schools with whites, that blacks and whites may hurt each other because of 

anger from the past and keeping them separate is better for everybody’s safety, that blacks are not as 

educated as whites and would feel dumb if they were expected to come into the same school and 

perform at the same levels, the KKK would be furious and more active if integration happened, and 

finally that schools have always been separate so why integrate them now?

            The court in real life and in our moot court agreed and sided with the Brown side to integrate 

the public school system. There was good moral reasoning to side with the Board of Education side, 

yet the law required that integration must take place to be constitutional and follow the law correctly.

No Social Media for Texas Inmates

            The Texas Department of Criminal Justice monitors letters and visits by prisoners with their 

family or friends and since they don’t have internet access while incarcerated, this is their only form 

of communication. So prisoners have active social media accounts that their family and friends post 

for them on to ask for help, advice, or just vent about their life on which often helps them with their 

adjustment back into society after being released from prison. But the TDCJ wants to prohibit this 

from happening anymore.

            Not only does this violate the prisoners First Amendment rights, but also the First 

Amendment rights of those running the accounts for the prisoners. The TDCJ claims that inmates 

through social media “sell items over the internet based on the notoriety of their crime, harass victims 

or victim’s families, and continue their criminal activity.” They have even made it so that the 

prisoners can be punished for the activities of the third parties and can take away any contact with 

outside people meaning they couldn’t have the social media account through them anymore anyways. 

Many people are starting to speak out against this because the government is overreaching it’s power 

and this is unconstitutional.

To read more visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wallis-nader/texas-wants-to-prevent-in_b_9742846.html

Who Does the First Amendment Protect You From?

            Curt Schilling, a former baseball pitcher and now ESPN commentator, was recently fired for 

speaking out about his opinion on the new law being passed in North Carolina. Thinking it was his 

First Amendment right to speak out about his personal opinions on TV, like many before him. 

Schilling said that he supported the transgender bathroom law that says people who are transgender 

must use the bathroom that matches their biological sex. Because of this announcement, ESPN 

proceeded to fire Schilling from his commentator job.

            Many important figures, like Ted Cruz, have spoken out in support of Schilling and his 

actions. One article gives an example of Tony Kornheiser, another ESPN commentator, who 

reportedly speaks about very liberal ideas that he outwardly agrees with on the job, yet has not been 

fired. The firing of Schilling showed that his First Amendment right protected him from government 

penalty but not from ESPN’s.