In 2004, Wal-Mart announced plans to build a store in Yelm, Washington. Many residents were concerned about the impact this might have on local businesses, and urged the city council to declare a moratorium on "big-box stores" until city zoning laws could be reexamined. The city council responded by restricting public comment, refusing to allow anyone who used the word "Wal-Mart" or the phrase "big-box stores" to speak at their meetings. Apparently, members of the Yelm City Council consider their power to override that of the First Amendment's guarantee that citizens have the freedom to petition their government "for redress of grievances."
Under federal guidelines, the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) prohibits air marshals from "using speech, writing, or other expression to criticize or ridicule FAMS ... policy or other employees." When air marshal Frank Terreri spotted an article in
People magazine that he felt revealed too much about air safety protocols and voiced his concerns to his coworkers, he was taken off flight duty and investigated--despite the fact that he had not disclosed any classified information. The Terreri case makes it clear that, through FAMS, the Department of Homeland Security is using the anti-criticism clause to protect its own reputation above the interests of national security.
At the trial of U.S. Army sergeant Hasan Akbar, charged with killing two of his colleagues and wounding 14 others in March 2003, the media presence was, to put it gently, limited. This is not necessarily inappropriate in military trials where national security issues might be discussed, but there was no attempt by the Fort Bragg command authority to follow proper channels and get a judge's order to restrict press coverage. Evidently, the military command authority at the base felt that they were also qualified to issue judicial rulings.
The 10th place Muzzle award is shared by administrators at three public high schools, who blatantly violated the First Amendment rights of students:
- In January 2005, officials at Troy High School in Fullerton, California fired student newspaper editor Ann Long for writing an article supportive of gay students.
- In February 2005, Cheryl Alligood--principal of Wellington High School in Wellington, Florida--censored a school newspaper article advocating abstinence because she feared it could be seen as "disruptive."
- In November 2005, principal Becky Ervin of Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee recalled 1,800 copies of the school newspaper--which had already been approved by the faculty and distributed--because she found its discussion of birth control, tattoos, and body piercings to be offensive.
In August 2005, Ron Blocker--school superintendent for Orange County, Florida--suspended longtime teacher Jan P. Hall for writing a private letter to several congressmen (later leaked to the press) in which she expressed anti-immigrant views.
Also in August 2005, administrators at William Paterson University suspended a Muslim teaching assistant for describing homosexuality as a "perversion" in a private email to a colleague.
In June 2005, Rep. Barton abused his power as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to sent a threatening letter to a group of environmental scientists in which he demanded punitively overwhelming amounts of paperwork, including personal data. The demand appears to be based on Barton's view as a non-scientist that global warming is not a real phenomenon, and his frustration at scientists who had researched the subject.
