Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/free-speech/)
Orange County’s five elected supervisors preside over $6 billion in public spending and pressing issues like homelessness, mental health and drug treatment, and how to balance spending between those programs and county jails, the Sheriff’s Department, and District Attorney’s Office.
County Counsel Leon Page is defending a ban on public commenters addressing supervisors by name, among other the ACLU claims is illegal. In response, ACLU officials say county supervisors will be set straight by the courts if they don’t change their policies.
In recent months, Orange County supervisors put tighter and tighter restrictions on speakers who try to address them at public board meetings. The ACLU’s letter is prompting county officials to consider possible policy changes.
While the citizens of Orange County were casting ballots on Election Day, the county’s elected Board of Supervisors voted to restrict how often and how long people can speak at public meetings.
Saying he was offended by a commenter who referenced an off-color scene from one of the TV show’s episodes, Supervisor Andrew Do asked his colleagues to enact a policy to further restrict speakers.
William Denis Fitzgerald has for years hurled criticisms and insults at City Council members. Now a public fighting and battery case against him could mean his banishment from the council chambers.
Santa Ana City Council meetings in recent weeks have become flash points for long-simmering tensions among residents and city leaders — tonight could be more of the same.
Mayor Mark Schwing told a speaker at this week’s City Council
meeting that he must give his name. Not so, says our First
Amendment expert.
The one-year suspension of the Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine following the disruption of the Israeli ambassador’s speech raises two important First Amendment issues.