Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by stevenalowe 5 days ago
Cannot read paywalled article but lede photo is the lead author of the critical article

If they were peacefully handing out copies of an article, the conference runners should get their free-speech suppressing asses sued off

2 comments

That’s not what free speech is.

The actual free speech violation is the federal government withholding research funding based upon what the organizations and people receiving the funding say publicly. This person was pointing out what the Republicans are doing right now.

but unfortunately, due to deficiencies and how the American legal system works, this person can’t actually sue the government for mass violation of constitutional rights. Despite all of us being harmed by what the Republicans are doing, we wouldn’t actually be able to show “standing” to have our suit be heard.

Of course, we run up into the larger, structural problem in American law: we’d have to be obscenely rich to even be able to sue. In such a Court) case could take years before any action could even start.

The American Diabetes Association is not a state actor here. If the conference runners could be sued, the lawsuit would be over a contract violation (if there is one) by the ADA regarding the conditions for attending the conference, not about freedom of speech. If the ADA did violate its contract in removing the researchers, then the police would have violated the researchers' 1st Amendment rights, but qualified immunity likely applies.