Welcome to Light On Light Through, Episode 63:  Sonia Sotomayor vs. the First Amendment: An Interview with Avery and Lauren Doninger.  The First Amendment has almost never been under greater fire.   Broadcasters are being fined record amounts and the FCC and Congress are calling out for more.   Students are being taught the wrong lessons about freedom of expression in some of our schools, and courts are supporting these schools.  One of those cases - involving a 16-year old high school student, Avery Doninger - made its way to the Second Circuit Appeals Court, where Sonia Sotomayor and two colleague justices supported the school.   Judge Sotomayor now seems likely to be confirmed by the US Senate to serve a lifetime position on the United States Supreme Court.

In this special episode of Light On Light Through, I interview Avery Doninger and her mother, Lauren Doninger.  You can hear in their own voices what was at stake in Avery's case - what the case was all about - and their reaction to the adverse decision of the Sotomayor court.   The case may well reach the U.S. Supreme Court...


Helpful links and contacts:

1. my blog posts: Sotomayor's Anti-First Amendment Decision and Why One Strike Against 1st Amendment Should Rule You Out
   
2. Andy Thibault blog and Aldon Hynes blog about Doninger case
   
3. Avery Doninger's Scales of Justice paper
   
4. Lauren Doninger's email:  LaurenDoninger@comcast.net
5. Iolta Fund for Avery Doninger, c/o John Schoenhorn, 108 Oak Street, Hartford, CT 06106
6. First Amendment documentary on HBO June 2009; my review
   
7. my 2005 Keynote Address at Fordham University:  "The Flouting of the First Amendment,"  transcript and video
   

home page: http://paullevinson.info
more blogs: http://InfiniteRegress.tv and http://open.salon.com/blog/paul_levinson                      
more podcasts: http://Levinsonnewsclips.com                                           videoclips: http://www.youtube.com/user/PLev20062006

                                                                          

coming in Summer 2009:  New New Media

my latest novel: The Plot to Save Socrates
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