Jamie Kalven: The president is using a civil rights-era tactic to suppress free speech
The federal government is using the threat of disorder in Chicago as a rationale for suppressing protests.
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Jamie Kalven: Is it time for the University of Chicago to abandon cherished neutrality and join the fight?
Students and faculty have come to regard the Chicago Principles as a tool of censorship rather than a guarantor of free speech.
Jamie Kalven: Ten years after Laquan McDonald’s murder, the old status quo threatens police reform
Since Laquan McDonald's murder in 2014, it has become clear that when public attention turns elsewhere, the reform process loses momentum.
Jamie Kalven: Retaliation against student leaders of jail program is a free speech assault
The retaliation against two University of Chicago students for exercising their First Amendment rights has ramifications that extend beyond them.
Jamie Kalven: Chicago police disciplinary policies are an unfinished conversation
COPA works to make operational the reforms that CPD has formally adopted but does not always realize in practice.
Craig B. Futterman and Jamie Kalven: Chicago police’s pending contract will subvert advances in accountability
A defining moment is at hand for the administration of Mayor Brandon Johnson. Having campaigned as a strong advocate for reimagining public safety, the mayor now confronts a test of...
Jamie Kalven: Mayor Brandon Johnson must make explicit commitments to transparency
Among the final acts of Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration was the denial of a mother's request for information in the city's possession about the circumstances of her son's death. A...
Jamie Kalven: Bookstores are a refuge for freedom of speech while censors on both sides wage battle
Freedom of speech is forever embattled. That is its nature. Easy to assent to in the abstract, the principle becomes more challenging when the speech at issue assails one's most...
Jamie Kalven: No one can erase the time Charles Green spent in prison, but Pritzker can pardon him
When he was 16, Charles Green stood before a judge who found him guilty of participating in a gruesome 1985 quadruple murder and sentenced him to life in prison without...
Jamie Kalven: Abuses by ex-Chicago cop Ronald Watts are a gross injustice that has ripped a hole in our city
Next month, seven years will have passed since the video of the police murder of Laquan McDonald was released, precipitating a cascade of events that transformed the civic life of...