Jamie Kalven: Retaliation against student leaders of jail program is a free speech assault

Cook County Jail detainees look out from a recreation area of Division 9 on Oct. 3, 2022. The presumptive Republican candidate for president, who enjoys the support of tens of millions of his fellow citizens, has drafted plans to invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office, thereby enabling him to deploy the military on U.S. soil to suppress protests.

Against this background, a local case demands attention. Two University of Chicago students — Harley Pomper and Ethan Ostrow — have filed a lawsuit in federal court against Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart claiming that he violated their First Amendment rights by retaliating against them for publishing an opinion piece critical of policies he had instituted at Cook County Jail.

“A ban on paper products,” they wrote, “is a ban on education, expression and exploration — harms that far outweigh the protection against drug abuse officials hope to provide.”titled “Drug-laced paper secretly brought into Cook County Jail is dangerous for inmates.” Although he did not mention Pomper and Ostrow by name, his piece was clearly a response to theirs.

That is how public discourse is supposed to work in an open society. The sheriff’s department apparently does not see it that way, however. This fall, Pomper and Ostrow were informed that Cook County Jail had denied them security clearances and so they would not be allowed to participate in the writing program they help lead. They were the only students in the program denied clearance.

Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)

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