This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Shariah law, religious statutes followed by Muslims, is becoming more widely known as adherents to Islam grow in influence around the world.
But being more widely known doesn't lessen the oddities it contains.
For example, an online definition notes it calls for atrocities including amputation of a thief's hands, killing people for criticizing the Quran, killing people who deny Muhammad was a prophet, killing people who lead a Muslim away from Islam, killing a non-Muslim man who marries a Muslim woman, killing homosexuals (although sodomizing young boys is allowed), and "taqiyya" or lying to non-Muslims, is encouraged.
But now a report at Revolver criticizes news agency CNN for using and citing Shariah to try to get out of a defamation complaint.
The leftist network's arguments appear to be that its description of a man helping people leave Afghanistan after Joe Biden abruptly pulled American troops out and abandoned the entire territory to the terrorists in the Taliban as a criminal was accurate.
Because he was a "criminal" under Shariah law.
The Revolver report explained, "They're actually legitimizing (and defending) Sharia Law, which routinely abuses women, sometimes to death, in an effort to try and win that billion-dollar lawsuit. In the process, they're also branding the Navy Vet at the center of the defamation suit a 'criminal' for trying to save women's lives."
Please be aware of multiple instances of offensive language in the following:
CNN's legal arguments include that a Navy vet, who tried to help people escape Afghanistan at that time, carried out "activities he orchestrated and funded, which involved moving women out of Afghanistan, almost certainly were illegal under Taliban rule."
The response comes to a lawsuit from Zachary Young. A court recently ruled that a jury in the case would be allowed to consider punitive damages.
CNN claims it was right to suggest a criminality in Young's behavior because, "To get women out, the operators on the ground were required either to break the law directly or to find someone to break the law for them."
The report accuses CNN of trying "to weasel their way out of a $1 billion defamation suit against them."
The case developed when Young decided to help people escape Afghanistan.
Just recently, a Florida appellate court affirmed that Young, a U.S. Navy veteran, and his company, Nemex Enterprises Inc., could seek punitive damages from CNN.
The report said Young's lawyer charged that Young lost $40-60 million in economic opportunity.
At Headline USA a report said the lawsuit charges that CNN "destroyed Young's reputation and business after the network's correspondent Alex Marquardt published the report about Young."
In a move that has stunned the United Arab Emirates, Sheikha Mahra bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has publicly announced her divorce on Instagram, the New York Post reported.
Sheikha Mahra, daughter of Dubai's ruler, made a bold public declaration of her divorce from Sheikh Mana bin Mohammed using a traditional Islamic repudiation method, sparking wide-ranging reactions.
On Thursday, Sheikha Mahra, who is well-known on social media, utilized her Instagram platform to announce her separation. Her post included the phrase "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you," which is a nod to the Islamic practice of triple repudiation.
This practice, while still recognized by some traditionalists, has been controversial. Sheikha Mahra's modern twist on the method by using social media has added to the shock and discussions surrounding her announcement.
The fact that such a statement came from a member of the royal family, who are typically private about personal matters, has led to speculation, including doubts about whether her account had been compromised. However, the post remains live.
Sheikha Mahra's declaration has been met with mixed reactions across the UAE and beyond. While some questioned the authenticity of the announcement, others have praised her for the empowering message it sends to women in the region.
A supporter expressed admiration for Sheikha Mahra's actions, stating, "I find it empowering when a woman recognizes her worth and confidently stands her ground." This sentiment reflects a broader discourse on women's rights and societal norms in the Middle East.
Despite the controversy, the post has remained active on Instagram, with numerous comments and shares, illustrating the public's engagement with this unusual royal news.
Sheikha Mahra married Sheikh Mana bin Mohammed last May, and the couple welcomed a daughter two months ago. The decision to divorce so soon after the birth of their child adds another layer of complexity to the situation.
Following the announcement, Sheikha Mahra took further steps by removing all photographs of her with Sheikh Mana from her Instagram. She is also noticeably absent from Mana's social media accounts now.
The Sheikha, a noted advocate for women's rights within the UAE, commands a significant following, with nearly half a million followers on Instagram, making her one of the most visible figures in the region on social media.
Sheikha Mahra is the daughter of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and Zoe Grigorakos. Her family's considerable influence and wealth are well-documented, with an estimated net worth of $18 million.
The marital challenges and subsequent divorce announcement come against the backdrop of her mother, Zoe, being separated from the Dubai ruler, which may have influenced public and personal perceptions of marriage and divorce within royal circles.
The Sheikha's personal journey and her actions suggest a broader narrative of challenging traditional norms and advocating for personal agency, particularly for women in high-profile positions.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election Kamala Harris has had a long career in politics – making her start as a prosecutor in San Francisco, before becoming California's attorney general, and later a California senator.
As Harris campaigns, questions have been raised about her record as a prosecutor, particularly the effect her policies had on the black community, and other minority groups.
Harris worked as a district attorney at the Alameda County district attorney's office before moving to the San Francisco city attorney's office from 2004 to 2011. There she provided legal services to the city and represented them in civil claims – heading the division on children and families.
During her time as a district attorney, securing convictions was part of Harris' focus, which built on California's tough-on-crime policies after several serial killers ran rampant during the 1970s. High-profile cases include the Night Stalker, the Zodiac Killer, the Hillside Strangler, and the Manson family.
While California's tough-on-crime image was popular politically, the black community was the most affected, with incarceration rates five times higher than their share of the total population in California, a problem that remains today. Although Harris did not write any of the laws she enforced them.
A study from Vera, showed in 2015, the prison inmate numbers for California had increased by 225% between 1983 and 2015. By 2018, California had 127,972 people in the prison system. Despite only making up 6% of California's population, blacks contributed 28% to the prison population and 20% of the jail population.
Another report from The Sentencing Project, a Washington D.C.–based research and advocacy center, found that black Americans are incarcerated at a state average of 1,240 per 100,000 residents.
In 2011, the United States Supreme Court ruled that California's prisons were so overcrowded they inflicted cruel and unusual punishment on inmates. Harris fought against this ruling and went on to oppose the early release of prisoners in 2014, citing the need for inmate firefighting labor. By the time Harris left her post as a U.S. senator in 2021, the incarceration of black men was still a huge issue, with consistent overcrowding up to 200% overcapacity in some instances. Prisons also lacked adequate medical personnel, and in some instances, up to 54 inmates were sharing one toilet at a time.
According to a report from the American Prospect, Harris spent years fighting orders to reduce prison populations.
"Working in tandem with Gov. Jerry Brown, Harris, and her legal team filed motions that were condemned by judges and legal experts as obstructionist, bad–faith, and nonsensical, at one point even suggesting that the Supreme Court lacked the jurisdiction to order a reduction in California's prison population," the report reads.
As attorney general, Harris launched the California Department of Justice's Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry, while simultaneously resisting releasing thousands of non-violent inmates with a low risk of recidivism, according to the American Project.
"Observers worried that the behavior of Harris's office had undermined the very ability of federal judges to enforce their legal orders at the state level, pushing the federal court system to the brink of a constitutional crisis. This extreme resistance to a Supreme Court ruling was done to prevent the release of fewer than 5,000 nonviolent offenders, whom multiple courts had cleared as presenting next to no risk of recidivism or threat to public safety," the report states.
Harris's record for wrongful conviction during her time as San Francisco's D.A. was also heavily criticized. A self–described "progressive prosecutor," Harris wrote in her 2019 memoir "The Truths We Hold," that her role was to protect people from the inequality that leads that person to commit crimes.
"The job of a progressive prosecutor is to look out for those who are overlooked, to speak up for those whose voices aren't being heard, to see and address the causes of crime, not just their consequences, and to shine a light on the inequality and unfairness that lead to injustice. It is to recognize that not everyone needs punishment, that what many need, quite obviously, is help," Harris wrote in her memoir.
An African-American man from San Francisco, Jamal Trulove, had a different experience while Harris was a D.A. Trulove was wrongfully convicted, and spent six years of his life in prison.
"I never talked to no detective, no police officer, no D.A., nobody," Trulove said, adding he was simply arrested and charged with murder.
Trulove stated in an interview with Vice Harris was present at his sentencing to "celebrate" his conviction.
"She [Harris] showed up at the two most pivotal times in this first trial, me being convicted, and me being sentenced. She wanted to be present for a celebration of a conviction," Trulove said.
Trulove comes from the Sunnydale projects and stated the police were keeping tabs on himself and his brothers from a young age and were watching others in their neighborhood.
"They already had me labeled because I'm from this community as a potential gang member, potential killer, potential drug dealer. You gotta wake up to the fact that you know, things are set up against us…places like this have been developed for predominantly African-American people to not be able to succeed beyond it," Trulove said.
Trulove said the sentiment in his community about having a black female district attorney, Harris actually is Indian and Jamaican, was one of hope – that Harris would have a "more sympathetic way" of prosecuting people in the black community.
In 2007, Trulove's friend Seu Kuka was killed. After a year, no one had been arrested, and no one had interviewed Trulove.
"The police were still, you know, trying to get a conviction by all means necessary. When I was arrested for it, the community knew I didn't do it, and it was a 'here we go again.' See, this is why we don't trust, you know, law enforcement because it gets to a point where somebody didn't do something, and someone goes to jail for it," Trulove said, adding he never had a history of crime up until that point.
Ultimately Trulove's conviction was overturned, however, Harris has yet to answer for what her office did to an innocent man.
Despite Harris' tough–on–crime rhetoric, a 2014 law passed during Harris' tenure as AG – in which she played a key role – is so unpopular a movement has now begun to have the laws undone, and showed how Harris consistently flip-flopped on her policies.
Proposition 47, also known as the "Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act," reclassified certain non-violent felonies, reduced theft under $950 to a misdemeanor, and converted narcotics possession from a felony to a misdemeanor.
The law has caused a huge amount of crime on California streets, turning downtown San Francisco into a homeless encampment, with open-air drug use and theft becoming a frequent issue. Retailers are barely able to stay afloat after gangs of thieves easily walk out of stores with hundreds of dollars of inventory.
A new ballot initiative is gaining popularity from both Republicans and Democrats, called the Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act, or Prop 36. The act would amend Prop 47 and will be included on the ballot this coming November.
If the reform passes, narcotics like cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl will be illegal to possess while carrying a firearm – penalties would also increase for selling deadly quantities, with traffickers potentially facing murder charges if the drug trafficking results in a fatality.
Harris was responsible for writing up the ballot initiative when Prop 47 was first introduced, stating the law change would reduce prison populations, saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars per year – of which the savings would be used to pay for mental health services, K-12 education, and truancy programs.
Drug treatment programs, however, have been underutilized, and petty crime has skyrocketed because there are no consequences for crime. Republicans have accused Harris of misrepresenting the bill.
A Los Angeles–based criminal defense lawyer, Nicole Castronovo, told Fox News Digital in an interview that Harris' past actions as a prosecutor will cause trouble for her in the future.
"She's one of these people who've talked out of both sides of her mouth, and she's going to have trouble with both the left and the right with the stances she's taken over the years," Castronovo told Fox News Digital.
Harris also acknowledged during an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union" in 2019 that a state truancy law she sponsored in 2010 resulted in some parents being arrested and jailed. Prosecutors were given the authority to fine and/or jail a parent for up to one year and a $2,000 fine if their child's school attendance was not satisfactory.
MSNBC reported Sunday that no parents were jailed because of the 2010 law. However, a bill sponsored by Harris in 2014 – Senate Bill 1317 – which was modeled on her previous truancy law for San Francisco, resulted in some parents being jailed. Harris further stated in 2011 that she would be putting parents on notice if their children were not attending school.
Harris' 2020 report card as a U.S. senator was not much better, with GovTrack.US stating her record showed she joined the least amount of bipartisan bills, with only 14% of her support going to bills introduced by a lawmaker not part of the Democratic Party.
Harris also ranked more left than her Democrat colleagues, wrote the fewest laws, got bills out of committee the least often, held the fewest committee positions, and was second most absent during congressional votes.
Sexual abuse victims were also let down by Harris in her prosecutor role after she failed to take action against a Catholic priest who had abused students. Furthermore, Harris went as far as to keep documents regarding clergy sex abuse from lawyers and reporters to protect victim identities, according to CBS.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Joe Biden has been panned by many, including historians, as one of the worst, or the worst president of the United States.
High inflation, a loss of America's reputation around the world, a vast slide into transgenderism and abortion promotions. And they are the highlights of his tenure.
All this exacerbated by an obvious decline in mental faculties, so much so that it was cited by a prosecutor for a reason not to charge Biden with mishandling government records.
But not for ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who tried twice, and failed twice, on impeach-and-remove schemes against President Donald Trump.
She thinks Biden should be on Mt. Rushmore.
The interviewer, Lesley Stahl, looks stunned as Pelosi, discussing Biden's "accomplishments," cited a recent NATO summit and said, "He was in a good place to make whatever decisions. … Top of his game. … Such a consequential president of the United States of America. A Mt. Rushmore kind of president of the United States."
Stunned, Stahl, wonders if Biden really should be there with Abraham Lincoln.
Pelosi: "But you got Teddy Roosevelt up there and he's wonderful. I don't say take him down but you can add Biden."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Joe Biden has been known to brag, to boast, to claim he's done things that just haven't happened.
Closing the border? He's claimed that's a done deal, yet it's anything but.
Now Biden has unleashed a real doozy.
He said he's "cured" the economy.
This claim came not even a week before a global financial meltdown heading into the weekend and continuing Monday essentially vaporized some $2 TRILLION.
It was, in fact, only days ago a reporter asked Biden, "What do you want your legacy for Gen Z to be?"
Biden's claim: "That I cured the economy. And the environment. And a few other small things."
The RNC Research team that posted the video said, "(His 'legacy' will be his obvious cognitive decline – which Kamala covered up. Scandal of the century!")
A commenter responded, "His legacy will be as a traitor to this country when it's all said and done."
And another, "He needs to cure his dementia."
The Gateway Pundit said Japan's Nikkei lost 4,451 points on Monday, its biggest single day loss since 1987.
And, "The DOW tumbled more than 1,000 points on Monday."
The Western Journal in a commentary said, "Sometimes events prove overwhelming, and otherwise capable presidents suffer unfairly at the hands of posterity. At other times, however, a lying swindler of a politician finds himself on the precipice of well-deserved infamy."
It continued, "For those watching in trepidation as global markets have plummeted on Monday, President Joe Biden's comments on the state of the economy as recently as six days ago should serve as a reminder that the calamitous 46th president belongs in latter category."
Biden's comments were only last Tuesday following a trip to Texas.
President Donald Trump said, "STOCK MARKETS ARE CRASHING, JOBS NUMBERS ARE TERRIBLE, WE ARE HEADING TO WORLD WAR III, AND WE HAVE TWO OF THE MOST INCOMPETENT 'LEADERS' IN HISTORY. THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!"
Reports from sources close to the British royal family say that King Charles has not been taking his son Harry's calls since Harry published a memoir, "Spare," in 2023 that made Queen Consort Camilla Parker Bowles into a villainess.
"When Harry branded his stepmother Camilla a ‘villain’ in his book and revealed that both he and William initially begged their father not to marry her, Harry committed what Charles regards as a cardinal sin," Christopher Andersen, author of "The King," told Fox News Digital.
"No one disses Camilla in royal circles and gets away with it – not even a son of the king," Andersen said.
People magazine also reported that King Charles, who is battling an unknown form of cancer, has refused to talk to his son, who earlier renounced his royal title and moved to the United States with his wife Meghan Markle.
The pair are still called the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but not Prince Harry and Princess Meghan, by their own choice.
People said that King Charles and Harry had a meeting in February that seemed positive, but that Harry is being told the King is "unavailable" now when he calls.
Harry's letters to his father have also gone unanswered.
King Charles does not carry a cell phone, so it's hard to know whether the calls are being intercepted unbeknownst to him.
It's possible his staff are trying to protect the King from the drama that often accompanies Harry and Meghan at a time when his health is more delicate than it has been.
Sources have also said that Harry's brother William, next in line for the throne, has taken sides with his father, making any hope for reconciliation slim.
Harry has made the issue about the lack of security provided by the Crown after he stepped down as prince, saying he wrote the book to make money for his own security detail.
Harry obviously has no love lost for his stepmother, who his beloved mother Princess Diana described as a "third person" in her marriage to then-Prince Charles.
The two carried on a long-term affair while he was married to Princess Diana, and he married Camilla a few years after she tragically died in a car accident.
But it's one thing to privately carry animosity toward a family member, however unwanted, and quite another to air one's dirty laundry for all to see like Harry did in the book.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch said on "Fox News Sunday" that there are too many federal laws on the books in the United States and that the sheer amount of laws "impair" Americans' freedoms.
Host Shannon Bream said, “I think it will be eye opening to the American people, the idea that so pretty much of our conduct is over regulated and over criminalized many cases. Apparently you and are committing felonies every day without possibly even knowing it.”
Gorsuch answered, “I think that might be true. Some professors say there are now so many federal laws on the books that every American over the age of 18 commits one felony a day. That’s happened in my lifetime."
Gorsuch pointed out that from "1970 to the present we’ve seen maybe a doubling the number of federal crimes on the books. And this just counts within the U.S. code passed by Congress and the tip of the iceberg because federal agencies have been busy.”
Gorsuch just released a new book "Overruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law," which explains in greater detail the impact of having too many laws.
He said, “On the one hand we need laws to keep us free and safe, on the other hand, if you have too many laws you impair the same freedoms and our aspirations for equality too are because who can deal with a world with so much law?”
Gorsuch suggested, in the words of James Madison, that only people with money and connections would be able to do so.
Gorsuch said, “As a judge for 18 years, I just came to see him case after case in which ordinary Americans just trying to live their lives, raise their families are just getting whacked by laws unexpectedly.”
As an example, he pointed to the IRS hotline, which was found to give wrong answers to tax questions about a third of the time. When asked why it did so, officials said it was because the tax code was so complex.
Rather than settling everything in the courts or relying on courts to determine the rules for society, Gorsuch pointed to trust between people as an important part of being able to act fairly and get things done independently of the courts.
Disagreements coupled with a lack of trust lead to division and that leads to people running to the courts to settle their differences, he said.
In situations where court intervention might be required, Gorsuch said the Constitution is the decider.
He advocated "listening as much as talking" and "trusting the person with whom you disagree loves his country as much as you do."
That would be nice to see in this country right now.
Hunter Biden is set to be sentenced on Nov. 13 after being convicted of three felonies in connection with a gun purchase, The Hill reported. The hearing will take place one week after the election that determines who will replace his father, President Joe Biden, in the White House.
U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika set the date for the sentencing hearing on Friday. Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.
As a first-time offender, Hunter Biden is unlikely to get the maximum sentence. Instead, he will probably be sentenced to between 15 months and 21 months in prison, if at all, after meeting with a federal probation officer.
The sentencing comes after he was found guilty in June of lying about his drug use on an application to obtain a firearm and his subsequent unlawful ownership of the weapon. Hunter Biden's conviction marked a first for the child of a sitting president.
In 2018, Hunter Biden purchased a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver in Delaware. As per the law, he filled out an application that included a question about whether the applicant used or was addicted to drugs.
At that time, Hunter Biden struggled with addiction to crack cocaine following the death of his brother, Beau Biden, from a brain tumor in 2015, CBS News reported. Despite this fact, he checked off "no" to that question on the application in violation of federal law.
His lie allowed him to purchase the firearm, which he had in his possession for 11 days. When his then-girlfriend Hallie Biden, who was his late brother's widow, found the firearm in his truck, she threw it in the trash.
"I panicked. I realize it was a stupid idea now. But I was panicking," Hallie Biden said in her testimony.
Two felony convictions come from charges related to the application, including making a false statement on the application and lying to the gun dealer. A third stemmed from being in possession of the gun despite being a drug user.
Unfortunately for Hunter Biden, his legal woes won't end with the gun crimes. The president's son is facing a trial Sept. 5 for tax evasion and filing false tax returns after he skipped out on a $1.4 million tax liability between 2016 and 2019, Fox News reported.
During that time, he allegedly spent that money on a debaucherous and luxurious lifestyle. Hallie Biden will once again be called to the stand against her ex-lover.
She was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony against Hunter Biden, just as she was in the gun trial. U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi promised her that "no testimony or other information compelled under this order, or any information directly or indirectly derived from such testimony or information, shall be used against Hallie Biden in any criminal case" except her own perjury.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden, who has abandoned his reelection bid, has said that he will not commute his son's sentence or pardon him. "I am satisfied that I’m not going to do anything — I said I’d abide by the jury decision. I will do that. And I will not pardon him," the president said in June after Hunter Biden's conviction.
Hunter Biden is finally facing consequences for his criminal behavior. However, with Joe Biden no longer up for reelection, it's doubtful that his powerful father won't do anything about it before leaving office despite the promises made.
Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush have announced that they will be collaborating for America's 250th anniversary in 2026.
The collaboration is intended to showcase bipartisan action in an era of extreme political polarization. Of course, for conservatives seeing George Bush and Barack Obama, two figures who are remarkably similar politically, doesn't exactly scream bipartisan.
First Ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush will also be participating as honorary national co-chairs of America250.
America250 was created by Congress in 2016 to oversee the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
There has been an increasing focus on bipartisanship among Democrats, especially in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. Democrats have spent the past decade calling conservatives Nazis and heightening division but they are now trying to cover themselves.
The commission's leadership wants to bring two recent Democratic and Republican presidents together to serve as an example of bipartisan cooperation in a country where political polarization continues to get more extreme.
Of course, for conservatives who have been repeatedly sold out by the Bush family, it's unlikely that this bipartisan initiative will do much to soothe tempers.
After decades of vicious attacks by leftists on conservatives, it will take a lot to reduce polarization. More importantly, it will take apologies for the racial politics and the radical ideology that Obama himself pushed while in office.
While it's unlikely any real recognition will be had, the commission is forging ahead and championing its inclusive goals.
Rosie Rios, a former U.S. treasurer, who is working with the commission said, "This is a grassroots effort that all Americans feel like they can be a part of from Guam to Alaska, Fairbanks to Philadelphia, and everything in between. This is about celebrating and commemorating that we’re the oldest democracy in the world"
America250 will hold events in all 50 states and six U.S. territories. It was formally launched July 4, 2023, during a baseball game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
Even though it has been less than a month since Donald Trump was shot, the Democrat Party is already debuting its newest strategy of demeaning Republicans by calling everything Trump-related "weird."
Thanks to a support base of terminally online Generation Z supporters, Harris's campaign is fully embracing calling Republicans "weird." That is the tamest of the Democrat's insults as accusations of fascism and Nazism fly like bullets from leftists.
Republicans have also had to stand by while radical leftists burned down cities and took over college campuses in support of literal terrorists. It's going to take real apologies and real condemnation from Democrat politicians before reconciliation and bipartisanship can happen.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
In what George Washington University law professor and constitutional expert Jonathan Turley calls "the most dangerous movement in our history," Americans more and more are starting to believe in radical censorship of speech.
At this point, polling shows that more than half say the First Amendment goes too far in protecting free speech and there's even a movement afoot to change that constitutional protection so that people have the right to speak, but also have the right "to be shut up."
In an online column he notes he addresses the "global anti-free speech movement" in his book, "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage."
"It is in my view the most dangerous movement in our history due to an unprecedented alliance of government, corporate, academic, and media forces. That fear was amplified this week with polling showing that years of attacking free speech as harmful has begun to change the views of citizens," he explained.
It's all the rage in academia, he said, so it now is "not surprising to see the new Knight Foundation-Ipsos study revealing a further a decline in students' views concerning the state of free speech on college campuses. The study shows that 70 percent of students 'believe that speech can be as damaging as physical violence.' It also shows the impact of speech codes and regulations with two out of three students reporting that they 'self-censor' during classroom discussions."
Nearly two out of three on campus say, "[t]he climate at my school or on my campus prevents some people from saying things they believe, because others might find it offensive."
And worse, where it used to be 78% a few years ago, now only 54% of students say colleges should allow students to be exposed to speech even if its "offensive."
And, he noted, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression found 53% of Americans believe that the First Amendment goes too far in protecting rights."
Forebodingly, 40% now "trust" the government to censor speech.
"We have created a generation of speech phobics who are willing to turn their backs on centuries of struggle against censorship and speech codes," he noted.
Leaders of the movement include University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade who has called free speech the "Achilles Heel" of the nation, and Joe Biden, who has claimed corporations that don't censor are "killing people."
It is Mary Anne Franks, of George Washington University, who is pushing for a rewrite of the First Amendment, so that would demand speech conflicts "be resolved in accordance with the principle of equality and dignity of all persons."
But he explained Antifa has been one of the "most dangerous" censorship groups around.
"Antifa continues to attack those with opposing views and anti-free speech allies continue to 'deplatform' speakers on campuses and public forums. 'Your speech is violence' is now a common mantra heard around the country.
Faculty continue to lead students in attacking pro-life and other demonstrators."
In fact, he cited one Antifa activist whose ideology is: "You have the right to speak but you also have the right to be shut up."