This week, we're defending your right to talk smack about politicians online. It's what the Founding Fathers did, after all (except for the online part).
In other news you can use, one of our clients explains the difference between being a "hippy" and being a legal, registered medical marijuana patient.
Michigan News
We're not Hippies!
Thursday, the court again heard arguments in our case against a Livonia ordinance that bans medical marijuana without reaching a decision.
We believe that Michigan voters wanted seriously ill patients like Linda to be able to care for their illnesses. Treating legal, registered medical marijuana users like common criminals is cruel and illegal.
We're also fighting similar ordinances in Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and the city of Wyoming (via Fox 2 Detroit).
Talking Smack about Politicians Online? We've Got Your Back.
During the debates over the design and ratification of the United States Constitution, many of the founding fathers wrote political pamphlets and articles under a variety of pseudonyms: Cato, Cincinnatus or simply A Citizen of America.
This week, a Macomb Country court defended our country's tradition of anonymous political speech and protected the identity of a blogger who questioned the ethics of a local politician. The politician was attempting to uncover the blogger's identity in order to sue for defamation.
The First Amendment guarantees us the right to criticize public officials anonymously without having to fear reprisals. In fact, it's an American tradition (via the Michigan Messenger, Detroit Free Press, and the Detroit News).
National
America's Biggest Industry? Producing Inmates.
The numbers are so staggering, it can be difficult to understand just how quickly American's prison population is growing, how many black and latino youths are imprisoned, and just how much money our government pours into locking people up.
Check out our new infographic that tells the sad story of overincarceration in America.
Especially when so many families are struggling economically, we think that imprisoning nonviolent offenders should be last — not first — resort (via the Blog of Rights).