harvey silverglate

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Uncovering the sins of Joe McGinniss

Joe McFinniss's 1983 bestseller Fatal Vision offered up Jeffrey MacDonald as a modern exemplar of evil: a narcissistic, remorseless monster who beat to death his wife and five-year-old daughter in a diet-pill-fueled frenzy, then coolly killed the only
Don't quote me: Vision quest
By DAN KENNEDY | September 23, 2011

How the Arroyo jury got it right

Rarely has a Boston jury had to suffer as much ridicule as the 12 citizens who acquitted former Boston firefighter Albert Arroyo of pension fraud.
Law-abiding citizens
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | August 19, 2011

Frank talk

I was pleased to see Harvey Silverglate's story about the collaboration between myself and Ron Paul in the effort to remove all federal criminal restrictions on personal marijuana use.
Letters to the Boston editors, August 12, 2011
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | August 12, 2011

Are Civil (Liberties) Unions America's Best Hope?

Ron Paul and Barney Frank make odd bedfellows, but one hopes theirs is more than a one-night-stand.
Freedom Watch
By HARVEY A. SILVERGLATE AND DANIEL R. SCHWARTZ | July 15, 2011

Turning on Turner - Letters

By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | February 11, 2011

The 13th Annual Muzzle Awards

A year and a half into the Age of Obama, we are learning a lesson we should have figured out long ago — that repression, once in place, is rarely rolled back all the way, and that liberals no less than conservatives are reluctant to give up power.
A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England
By DAN KENNEDY | July 02, 2010

2010 Muzzle Awards on campus

Harvard and Yale universities felt the sting of the global economic collapse firsthand in 2009, as the endowments of these stalwart New England Ivy League members dropped by nearly a third. The schools didn’t fare much better in the free marketplace of
Harvard and Yale once again lead the way . . . for academic censorship
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | July 02, 2010

Elena Kagan’s shaky record

As a potential Obama nominee for Supreme Court justice, Elena Kagan has liberal bona fides and the likely support of the right. But if her record is any indication, she’s more likely to side with the conservative bloc on matters of executive power and wa
What a Kagan appointment to the Supreme Court could mean for civil liberties
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND KYLE SMEALLIE | April 23, 2010

Bully pulpit

While I understand, appreciate, and respect the First Amendment and our right to speak freely, in the case of bullying, Harvey Silverglate makes a dangerous assumption that “civilized people, even teenagers can intuit the difference between protected spe
Letters to the Boston editor, April 23, 2010
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | April 23, 2010

Will Beacon Hill be bullied into enacting a politically correct law?

A case of high-school bullying in South Hadley ended in tragedy this past January when the alleged victim, a freshman girl, committed suicide. Now, ramped up by the outrage over the case, Massachusetts legislators are in danger of enacting a politically
Freedom watch
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | April 09, 2010

The Phoenix cleans up at NENPA

Was 2009 a good year for newspapers?
Tooting Our Own Horn Dept.
By LANCE GOULD | February 12, 2010

Free speech for me, but not for thee

Last Thursday's Supreme Court opinion striking down corporate campaign advertising restrictions might as well have been divorce papers in the rocky marriage between the political left and the First Amendment.
Freedom Watch
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | January 29, 2010

Critical Mass

If free speech is what gives value to the campus "marketplace of ideas," UMass Amherst would long ago have gone bankrupt.
Over the years, UMass Amherst has proven to be a reliable hotbed for political hypocrisy and squelching of free speech
By KYLE SMEALLIE AND HARVEY SILVERGLATE | November 20, 2009

Injustice everywhere

Thank you for the timely interview with Harvey Silverglate.
Letters to the Portland Editor, October 9, 2009
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | October 09, 2009

Injustice department

Thank you Harvey Silverglate for shining a light on our criminal-injustice system with your new book Three Felonies a Day. And thank you Peter Kadzis for a great interview.
Letters to the Boston editor, October 2, 2009
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | October 02, 2009

You're all guilty!

Silverglate's thesis is as provocative as it is simple: justice has become sufficiently perverted in this nation that federal prosecutors, if they put their minds to it, could find a way to indict almost any one of us for almost anything. It is a truly r
In his new book, Three Felonies a Day , Harvey Silverglate dissects the corrupt justice practiced by federal prosecutors
By PETER KADZIS | September 25, 2009

Gates-Gate lives on

Harvey Silverglate is right.
Letters to the Boston editor, August 13, 2009
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | August 14, 2009

The Gates case isn't about race

The weeks-long hubbub over the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. by the Cambridge Police Department has centered on race, understandably, for two reasons: 1) the African-American population has suffered inequitably in its relat
Doesn't Matter If You're Black or White Dept.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | August 07, 2009

Muzzle Awards: Collegiate Division

In a 1957 Supreme Court decision upholding the free-speech rights of university professors ( Sweezy v. New Hampshire ), Justice Felix Frankfurter quoted prominent South African scholars on the importance of academic freedom.
New England campuses muzzle free speech
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | July 10, 2009

The 12th Annual Muzzle Awards

With the era of repression and secrecy fostered by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney finally over, this should be the best of times for freedom of expression, open government, and civil liberties. Yet change comes slowly.
A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England.
By DAN KENNEDY | July 10, 2009

Guilty until proven guilty

The US Supreme Court's June 18 decision denying prisoners access to DNA testing — a procedure that could reliably prove innocence — adds to the high court's decades-long shameful record on criminal-justice issues.
Freedom Watch
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 26, 2009

Robojudge

Judge Stephen Breyer, Bill Clinton's latest pick for the Supreme Court, has attracted support so broad that it spans ideological and political differences.
Stephen Breyer may be the right man at the wrong time
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 05, 2009

Sotomayor's mixed message on free speech

Minutes after President Barack Obama announced that he was nominating appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, battle lines were drawn on the pre-scripted questions of "post-racial" America.
Freedom Watch
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 05, 2009

Sunshine on the ACLU: a mea culpa

"Standing up to your political enemies is easy, fun, and often profitable," writes Barney Frank, on the lead jacket blurb for Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity, and the ACLU.
Freedom Watch
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | May 08, 2009

Phoenix group harvests 17 regional press prizes

The New England Press Association (NEPA) annual newspaper contest has always been good to us.
Bragging-Rights Night at NEPA
By CLIF GARBODEN | February 11, 2009

The recording industry vs. free speech

Download of Nonsense
This past week, US District Judge Nancy Gertner granted the industry's request to postpone the trial, originally scheduled to begin January 22, until February 24.
By KYLE SMEALLIE AND HARVEY SILVERGLATE | February 04, 2009

Speak no evil?

Anthony Lewis's free-speech credentials are impeccable: among other things, the former New York Times columnist is James Madison Visiting Professor of First Amendment Issues at Columbia University's Journalism School
Why tightening up on anti-Obama speech is a bad idea
By ADAM REILLY | January 14, 2009

Freedom watch: Jailhouse bloc

With aromatic puffs of change, Bay State stoners rejoiced on Election Day.
Want to know the real reason the law-and-order set backs mandatory-minimum sentencing? They get their pockets lined by the 'prison-industrial complex.'
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND KYLE SMEALLIE | December 03, 2008

The Impeachinator

From Caligula to Bush...er Obama: Bruce Fein watches them all.
Watchdog Fein
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | November 19, 2008

Letters

Harvey Silverglate’s " The Gray Lady in Shadow " (January 6) was excellent and raised extraordinary concerns.
GUNNING FOR THE TIMES
By | October 27, 2008

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