FACEBOOK “SUPREME COURT” UPHOLDS TRUMP BAN: But says the decision must be reviewed in six months. That “time limit” is a clever way of trying to limit his reach while recognizing a reality that social media companies and the political establishment will have to face, but that nobody talks about. If Trump decides to run again in 2024, they keep him banned from their platforms, and he loses, there will be no way to convince his supporters that the election was fair — because it wouldn’t be. And if he were to win in spite of the bans, they would have to expect severe revenge from his supporters. This is a very dangerous game they’re playing, and I see no evidence that they are even aware of it. But self-awareness is not Silicon Valley’s strong point.

IN AMERICA, YOU VISIT SPACE STATION. In Communist China, SPACE STATION VISITS YOU!

(Apologies to Yakov Smirnoff.)

U. OF PENNSYLVANIA CAPITULATES; APPROVES HUNTING, ARCHERY, AND SHOOTING CLUB. Penn’s bogus COVID holdup of approving even remote meetings for the new group was ultimately shot down by pressure from FIRE and attorney Patricia Hamill. Its efforts clicked on an open chamber. Penn’s quiver of excuses ran dry. This attempt at viewpoint discrimination misfired. I have lots more of these, folks.

MUSK SAYS “A BUNCH OF PEOPLE WILL PROBABLY DIE” GETTING TO MARS; BUNCH OF NINNIES ON EARTH UPSET. There is absolutely no way to make a trip to Mars, or living on Mars, “safe,” at least at the beginning. Exploration never has been safe – but it’s still worth it. I’d guess that proportionally, far fewer people will die exploring the Final Frontier than any frontier on Earth. (And before you ask, yes, I’d go to Mars if they’d let me!)

GOING ON ALL DAY: CHECK OUT STUDENT FREE SPEECH DEBATES FROM ARIZONA’S PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES. Live all day today starting at noon Eastern, both Oxford- and storytelling-style. At 3:30 PM ET, catch the keynote address, where I interview Prof. Keith Whittington of Princeton and the Academic Freedom Alliance. (I’m also one of the judges.) And kudos to Arizona’s public universities, all of which have a green light for free speech policies from FIRE, and to the Arizona regents for the unique Regents’ Cup competition.

HM ROYAL CANADIAN CONSTABULARY IS GETTING WEAPONS OF WAR OFF THE STREETS! The US needs this kind of common sense gun control.

OK, OK, cheap shot, I guess. Toronto authorities also show off the more modern weapons they seize.

For once, the Twitter comments on these posts are actually kinda worth reading…

YOU CAN’T STOP THE SIGNAL (MESSENGER PROGRAM): Cellebrite creates some of the software governments use to spy on all of us. The makers of Signal are pushing back hard by hacking them right back. If only literally any other tech company or organization would have this kind of spine!

This tech dystopia has been extremely disappointing. We were promised The Matrix or Person of Interest or, at the very least, Sneakers, and instead we got Nextdoor telling you it’s racist to post “Blue Lives Matter” as though it’s 1. not cartoonishly arrogant to do so and 2. a totally normal thing to insult your customers and decide their political views are any of your damn business.

USD PROF SUGGESTS CHINESE GOVERNMENT MIGHT BE LYING ABOUT COVID, INVESTIGATION RESULTS. Of the American professor, of course, not the Chinese government, even though the University of San Diego promises free expression. If you’d like, you can help FIRE hold USD accountable by emailing to remind it to live up to its own promises.

“GHOST GUN” RESTRICTIONS ARE A SICK JOKE: While the Biden Administration frets over the supposed problem of “ghost guns” (This heavy-breathing ABA report on how DIY guns are so dangerous is shockingly light on violence actually committed with such guns), for many years gun owners have known that the feds treat the actual felony crime of lying on the background check form as a total joke. To be clear, dealers won’t run the check at all if you check one of the boxes that would make you ineligible, such as “have you been convicted of a felony?” Yet here are the stats from a GAO report on how this was treated in 2017:

Federal “NICS” Instant Background Check Transactions: 8,606,286
Denials: 112,090 (These are not necessarily always correct, and one can appeal, but most of these are because the person is legally ineligible and lied on the form.)
ATF Field Division Investigations: 12,710 (This happens when the local ATF is so concerned about you trying to buy a gun that they actually investigate it.)
United States Attorney’s Offices Prosecutions: 12.

That’s not a typo. In the entire United States of America in all of 2017, the feds prosecuted 12 people TOTAL out of probably more than 100,000 people who illegally tried to buy a gun, committing a felony crime while doing so for which the government already has all of the evidence necessary to convict — with 12,710 of those alarming enough that local ATF agents spent even more time on them.

Here’s a thought: if the government is so concerned about the “epidemic of gun violence,” how about it prosecute 100% of the people who signed a form evidencing their felonious attempt to get a gun (it’s not even a trap; the form itself warns you about this more than once) and see what happens? Instead, we are left to ponder what kind of sick people running our “justice” system see this kind of low-hanging fruit that could easily be used to clean up our streets and say, “eh, who cares?”

IT’S PROBABLY TIME TO STOP USING GOOGLE CHROME: EFF reports that a new kind of ad targeting is being released to random users, and the only solution to opt out is a bad one. (If you want to opt in, you conveniently need do nothing.) Probably the most mainstream drop-in replacement is Brave, which is what I use, and which works perfectly with most Chrome extensions, but there are other options as well. Note: you may want to avoid using Firefox after its maker, Mozilla, came out in favor of even “more than deplatforming” on the Internet earlier this year.

FUTILITARIANISM: That feeling when you have to judge a man who is accused of a crime but who doesn’t appear to be guilty but the elites and the mob want him dead so you decide to kill him anyway because it seems like it will pacify the mob and make the problem go away but then he comes back after three days and 2000 years later 2,300,000,000 people are still worshipping him.

Another Bible story with a lesson and reminder that work outside the religious context, too — and one that our “judges” at all levels need today more than ever. And Happy Easter, everyone!

FACEBOOK BAN ON PRESIDENT TRUMP EXTENDS TO INTERVIEWS OF TRUMP: At least if you are a member of “Team Trump,” affiliated with some campaign, or even a “former surrogate” (like there aren’t plenty of those hostile to the former president). And you will be punished if you don’t comply. This is an extremely bad idea in every way and it’s gonna get real weird if Trump runs for office (or is elected!) again. If you can imagine a world where such a situation doesn’t lead to an overreaching regulatory backlash by governments to prevent this, you have a better imagination than I do. Just imagine how this conversation’s going to go:

2024 Democrat Voter: “Trump loses again! The people have spoken!”
2024 Trump Voter: “You are telling me that this was a fair election and that I should think that this represents the will of the people when three giant companies colluded to ban my candidate from even appearing on the platforms where I get most of my news?”

How does that conversation end with any kind of agreement or shared sense of legitimacy of the U.S. government? Back away from the brink, folks!

HOSANNA! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD. For Christians, Palm Sunday marks Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Yet in only 5 days, he would die in the the most infamous unfair trial in all of history. Lots of lessons in this, of course, but it’s noteworthy how 2000-year-old repression and injustice doesn’t look all that different from today. Even on Palm Sunday itself, those representing the authorities of the time demanded Jesus stop his followers from spreading the word about “the mighty works” they had seen: “And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.'” He refused: “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

An example worth following.

6TH CIRCUIT RULES FOR PROF WHO REFUSED TO USE PREFERRED PRONOUNS. I am still reading the opinion, but looks like very good news for free speech on campus. (Judge Thapar, who authored the opinion and has been great on campus speech and due process, went to my high school in Toledo, though a few years before I did. Hometown pride!)

IOWA STATE GIVES THE CORRECT ANSWER TO COMPLAINT ABOUT 3D PRINTED FIREARM EVENT. A few years back, FIRE sued Iowa State over censorship of a marijuana legalization student group; seems (for now) like it got the message. Free speech is for everyone!

AP: FOUR-STORY, 50-TON MARBLE TABLET OF FIRST AMENDMENT FINDS NEW HOME IN PHILLY. Written so big that government bureaucrats can read it without their spectacles. Bonus: right across Independence Mall from FIRE HQ!

MSNBC: HEY, NO BIGGIE, JUST AN ARMED REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT THAT WANTS A BLACK ETHNOSTATE. They keep saying it’s for “defense,” but the leader literally says the end goal is an ethnostate with “our own government, our own country.” I have lots of questions, such as: what happens to any non-black people who happen to live inside the ethnostate’s borders? If MSNBC asked, they sure didn’t show the response. Puts the events of January 6 in some real perspective, doesn’t it?

PROFESSOR STOPS RESEARCHING COVID BECAUSE OF POLITICAL HOSTILITY. How many people will die because we have scared this and other faculty members away from researching anything remotely controversial? We’ll never know what the unnecessary death toll is from chilling campus research, but it’s much higher than zero. All decisions have tradeoffs, of course, but the political censors (both official and self-appointed) need to stop pretending their political preening has no costs. They reap the benefits of back-pats and a smug sense of satisfaction, while we (and our kids) pay the price.

‘FOWL PLAY’ AS PENN DENIES HUNTING CLUB RECOGNITION. Their recognition has been on hold for a year for supposed COVID reasons, even though they would meet virtually, as other clubs are doing. Plus, other new clubs (such as the Penn Surf Club) have been recognized during the pandemic. It’s almost like there’s another reason for this Ivy League school’s hostility…

A GOFUNDME FOR WILLIAM CLARK, THE NEVADA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT SUING OVER BEING MADE TO ADMIT HIS WHITE PRIVILEGE IN CLASS. Compelled speech violates freedom of conscience and the First Amendment, and is morally grotesque.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): I donated.

EBAY BANNING SALES OF NOW-FORBIDDEN DR. SEUSS BOOKS. This isn’t normal or reasonable and don’t let them gaslight you into thinking it is. This is warped and un-American and the people pushing it should be ashamed.

IF YOU OUTLAW DR. SEUSS BOOKS, ONLY OUTLAWS WILL HAVE DR. SEUSS BOOKS. Or rich people. I had this book when I was a kid. Now the only copy available on Amazon is $1600. Bright side: if my mom can find this and my other childhood books, at this rate I’ll have retirement all taken care of soon.

FIRE LAWSUIT: STUDENT REPORTER SUES UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT FOR FORBIDDING JOURNALISM. Plot twist: Haskell Indian Nations University is run by none other than… the federal government! Can you believe it?

JUST OUT: THE 10 WORST COLLEGES FOR FREE SPEECH, 2021 EDITION. Is your college on the list?

ZOOM AND GLOOM ON CAMPUS: Between censoring doctors’ talk about COVID and using a platform that folds to the Chinese communists, the pandemic has been hard on campus speech.