Lathan Watts

VICTORY in Chiles v. Salazar! Tune to our full breakdown of the decision at 1pm ET! "Colorado’s law banning conversion therapy, as applied to Ms. Chiles’s talk therapy, regulates speech based on viewpoint, and the lower courts erred by failing to apply sufficiently rigorous First Amendment scrutiny."

I can’t express how enraging and unjust this decision is. No one ever filed a complaint about her pamphlet written 20 years ago. The prosecutors only found out because of a witch hunt after her Bible tweet, dredging anything they could up. 11 judges over three levels of courts over 5 years looked at her case. 8 would fully acquit, but 3 decided that a handful of lines were “too” offensive. So Paivi must be made a criminal. How is that in any way justice? On top of that, they order the pamphlet destroyed and removed from the internet. Truly Year Zero, Orwellian thinking. Conservative Christian beliefs made a perpetual crime. Through it all, Paivi has exemplified a truly Christlike spirit. This ordeal should have been over today, but it isn’t. This decision should outrage the world over how extreme the European “hate speech” regime has become.

I am appalled that—while Päivi Räsänen was thankfully acquitted for her 2019 Bible verse tweet—the Finnish Supreme Court has convicted her of criminal “hate speech” for a church pamphlet she wrote in 2004, long before the law in question was passed. Her Lutheran bishop, Juhana Pohjola, was also convicted for publishing the pamphlet, when all they did was share their beliefs in the public square. In its 3-2 ruling, the Court ordered the pamphlet to be “removed from public access and destroyed.” This is a dark day for freedom in Europe and across the Western world. Punishing peaceful expression undermines the very foundation of free societies. The right to speak freely, including on matters of faith and morality, is firmly protected under international law. We will continue to stand with Dr. Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola as they consider an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The Western world has aggressively adopted more and more restrictions on speech. This case makes clear beyond doubt that now is the time for the governments of Europe to repeal unjust “hate speech laws” and commit to a free speech reset.

Woke Ninth Circuit decides Korean spas have to let biological men swing their gear in front of women and children. The dissent is pure gold:

BREAKING: An Indiana school district has settled with former music teacher John Kluge, to the tune of $650K, after it wrongfully revoked his religious accommodation and forced him to resign for declining to refer to students using transgender terms.