The Hill: Free speech rights don’t stop at the voting booth

Free speech may be one of our nation’s bedrock civil liberties under the First Amendment, but some states appear to have decided it has no place in the voting booth.

Erin Wilcox tells us why Texas—with its stringent polling place speech restrictions—is a case in point.

Read More

Reason: A Michigan man underpaid his property taxes by $8.41. The county seized his property, sold it—and kept the profits

Uri Rafaeli, an 83-year-old retired engineer in Michigan, underpaid his property taxes by $8.41. In response, Oakland County seized his property, auctioned it off to settle the debt, and pocketed nearly $24,500 in excess revenue from the sale.

As our friends at Reason explain in their in-depth expose on home equity theft, under Michigan law, it was all legal, and hardly uncommon.

Read More

The NCAA’s new rule lets athletes get paid; some athletes should have been allowed all along

The NCAA recently shocked the sports world when it announced it was modifying its rules to allow college athletes to profit from their names, images, and likenesses “in a manner consistent with the collegiate model.”

The NCAA’s rule change will unquestionably have major implications for college athletics, and the internet is swarming with people debating whether student athletes should be paid or not.

But Erin Wilcox explains how underneath all this chatter there’s a key point that’s often overlooked: Regardless of how anyone feels about paying student athletes, our First Amendment freedom of expression means that public universities can’t prevent their athletes from being paid for their speech.

Read More

The Detroit News: Government should not be able to take a home as payment for an $8 debt

“Oakland County seized and sold my rental home for an $8 tax debt. Now I’m fighting back.”

Writing for The Detroit News in his own words, Uri Rafaeli reflects on his case that took center stage this week at the Michigan Supreme Court, where PLF challenged the law on Uri’s behalf.

Read More