Foundations
Here's a look at documents from U.S. foundations
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Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust: NHS Prostate Cancer Treatment to Cut Radiotherapy Sessions From 20 to Five
LONDON, England, June 12 -- The Royal Marsden National Health Service Foundation Trust issued the following news:
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New NHS prostate cancer treatment to cut radiotherapy sessions from 20 to five
The new treatment rollout follows evidence from the international PACE-B trial, which was led by The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
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Researchers at The Royal Marsden have welcomed the announcement that thousands of men with localised prostate cancer will now be offered a shorter course of high-precision radiotherapy on the NHS, following results from the PACE-B clinical trial led by The Royal
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LONDON, England, June 12 -- The Royal Marsden National Health Service Foundation Trust issued the following news:
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New NHS prostate cancer treatment to cut radiotherapy sessions from 20 to five
The new treatment rollout follows evidence from the international PACE-B trial, which was led by The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
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Researchers at The Royal Marsden have welcomed the announcement that thousands of men with localised prostate cancer will now be offered a shorter course of high-precision radiotherapy on the NHS, following results from the PACE-B clinical trial led by The RoyalMarsden and The Institute of Cancer Research, London (ICR).
The new NHS England policy will make stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) available to eligible men with low and intermediate-risk localised prostate cancer. The treatment uses advanced imaging and treatment planning techniques to deliver radiation with pinpoint accuracy, minimising damage to surrounding healthy tissue. It delivers five high doses of radiation to patients over one to two weeks, compared to standard radiotherapy, which delivers more moderate doses over a much longer period of time - usually around 20 sessions for patients in the UK, which can take up to one month.
The decision follows evidence from the international PACE-B trial, which was led by The Royal Marsden and the ICR. The study compared standard radiotherapy with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy in men with localised prostate cancer and found that delivering higher doses of radiation in just five treatment sessions was as safe and effective as conventional treatment, while significantly reducing the time patients spend receiving treatment.
Findings have had international impact on clinical practice for prostate cancer treatment
"We are delighted that eligible prostate cancer patients across England will now be able to benefit from this treatment following NHS England's announcement," said Chief Investigator of the PACE-B trial, Professor Nicholas van As, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Professor in Precision Prostate Radiotherapy at The Institute of Cancer Research, London.
"The news demonstrates the value of clinical research in improving cancer care. At The Royal Marsden and the ICR, we are focused on developing smarter, better and kinder treatments for patients across the UK and around the world.
"The PACE-B trial was designed to answer an important question: can we safely deliver prostate radiotherapy in far fewer treatment sessions without compromising outcomes? The results showed that we can. Delivering treatment in just five sessions was as safe and effective as conventional radiotherapy, while significantly reducing the burden of treatment for patients. The findings helped establish the evidence base for wider adoption of the treatment and have informed clinical practice internationally."
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Original text here: https://www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk/news-and-events/news/new-nhs-prostate-cancer-treatment-cut-radiotherapy-sessions-20-five
Reason Foundation Issues Commentary: Tax Reform is Essential to Restore Prosperity in Argentina
LOS ANGELES, California, June 12 -- The Reason Foundation issued the following commentary by Research Director Geoffrey Lawrence and Ivan Cachanosky, chief of economics at Fundacion Libertad y Progreso:
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Tax reform is essential to restore prosperity in Argentina
An excessive tax burden drives workers and businesses into informality, but with changes the country can regain the wealth it once had.
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Taxes in Argentina are so high that they drive workers and businesses out of the legal economy. Javier Milei was elected with the promise of ending chronic deficits, taming inflation, and restoring
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LOS ANGELES, California, June 12 -- The Reason Foundation issued the following commentary by Research Director Geoffrey Lawrence and Ivan Cachanosky, chief of economics at Fundacion Libertad y Progreso:
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Tax reform is essential to restore prosperity in Argentina
An excessive tax burden drives workers and businesses into informality, but with changes the country can regain the wealth it once had.
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Taxes in Argentina are so high that they drive workers and businesses out of the legal economy. Javier Milei was elected with the promise of ending chronic deficits, taming inflation, and restoringgrowth. He quickly delivered on the first two points of that promise. Monetary stability and fiscal balance were necessary conditions for growth, but they are not sufficient to restore Argentina's legacy as a prosperous society.
The real obstacle preventing sustained growth is a tax system that suffocates formal activity and pushes nearly half of the workforce into informality. Of the 155 taxes that fall on businesses and families, just seven account for 87% of total revenue. The World Bank has estimated that these overlapping taxes create an average effective burden exceeding 106% of the earnings of a typical business. This is the second-highest effective corporate tax rate in the world, behind only Comoros, a tiny island nation off the southeast coast of Africa. This level of taxation destroys any incentive to invest or undertake entrepreneurship and makes full compliance impossible.
Employer and employee social security contributions together amount to between 35% and 41% of wages. On top of that, registered workers must pay income tax. These levies create a tax wedge that leads many workers to conclude they can improve their take-home pay by accepting informal arrangements and hiding their income, even if their nominal wages are lower than those of registered, taxpaying workers.
Millions of Argentines have taken refuge in the margins of society to escape these overlapping taxes, emptying the tax base. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC), 44.1% of the employed population works in the informal economy. While this may be a rational choice in the face of such perverse incentives, the resulting macroeconomic structure limits opportunities for growth. Informal or non-compliant companies have limited access to credit and few incentives to invest in machinery or train workers, since their main goal is to conceal their activity.
Our research compares INDEC household survey data with variations in provincial gross receipts taxes and shows that higher tax pressure is strongly associated with increased labor informality. In construction, for example, each additional percentage point of taxes corresponds to an 8.5% increase in informality, even after accounting for mitigating factors. This means that every tax increase generates less total revenue because people shift to informality very quickly. In theory, tax cuts could also increase public revenue if households and businesses respond by returning to compliance.
Lowering taxes does not have to be an act of faith. Lawrence, the lead author, recommends a gradual, data-driven approach to tax reform that gives the private sector time to respond before moving to subsequent phases. This approach ensures the stability of public revenue while the tax structure gradually becomes simpler and more rational.
Phase 1 would replace provincial gross receipts taxes with a simple consumer sales tax and reduce the national VAT to 10% in a revenue-neutral manner. At the same time, the revenue-sharing system should be restructured to align spending authority with the political responsibility for raising revenue. Provinces would directly administer and collect many of their own taxes, and some benefit from a transitional stabilization fund to maintain current revenue levels. Milei recently discussed this idea in broad terms.
Phase 2 would progressively eliminate distortive taxes on trade so that Argentina can integrate into global markets. Phase 3 would implement longer-term rate reductions on income tax and social security contributions.
Along with these reforms, the tax amnesty program included in the labor modernization law passed in March 2026 will be a key catalyst for bringing Argentines back into the formal economy. The amnesty allows a company that hires a new registered employee on whose behalf no social security contributions have been made in the last 12 months (an indicator of prior informality) to pay only 2% in employer contributions for up to four years of that employee's formal employment.
Together, these changes could bring Argentines out of the shadows where they hid from an unworkable tax regime. More fundamentally, they could represent a profound cultural shift, because Argentines would no longer feel compelled to conceal their lives and their income. Mutual trust could once again become a defining feature of Argentine life.
Argentina was once one of the richest countries in the world. It can be again. It only needs the right policy environment.
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Ivan Cachanosky is chief of economics at Fundacion Libertad y Progreso.
Geoffrey Lawrence is research director at Reason Foundation.
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Original text here: https://reason.org/commentary/tax-reform-is-essential-to-restore-prosperity-in-argentina/
Foundation for Economic Education Posts Commentary: Why 'Nostalgia Economics' Is the Most Dangerous Modern Ideology
DETROIT, Michigan, June 12 -- The Foundation for Economic Education issued the following commentary by research associate Mani Basharzad:
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Nostalgia
The most dangerous economic ideology.
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If someone asked me what the most dangerous economic ideology is, many would expect an Austrian to give a typical answer: Marxism, socialism, or Modern Monetary Theory. Yet I believe there is another way of thinking that is even more pervasive. It is not a coherent body of ideas like those ideologies. Rather, it is a sentiment so widespread and socially accepted that it threatens not merely economic
... Show Full Article
DETROIT, Michigan, June 12 -- The Foundation for Economic Education issued the following commentary by research associate Mani Basharzad:
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Nostalgia
The most dangerous economic ideology.
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If someone asked me what the most dangerous economic ideology is, many would expect an Austrian to give a typical answer: Marxism, socialism, or Modern Monetary Theory. Yet I believe there is another way of thinking that is even more pervasive. It is not a coherent body of ideas like those ideologies. Rather, it is a sentiment so widespread and socially accepted that it threatens not merely economicfreedom, but our very understanding of progress itself. I call it "nostalgia economics."
Recently, the singer Sting suggested that the rise of toxic masculinity is partly the result of the "loss of manual jobs," claiming that because many men no longer use their hands and physical strength in their daily work, unhealthy masculine traits are on the rise. Like many commentators on the political left, he also blamed Margaret Thatcher for Britain's economic transformation. "Britain's wealth was created in the coalfields and the steel towns and the mill towns and the shipyards," Sting said. "All of those skill sets were thrown on the scrapheap... for Thatcher's dream of a service economy."
This is nostalgia economics in action. A global celebrity whose music can be streamed instantly on another continent, who earns income through digital platforms, and whose career depends on modern communications and services, criticizes the very service economy that makes his success possible.
A person in thrall to nostalgia economics will take the blessings of progress for granted while romanticizing a past that never truly existed. Imagine living in the world of Charles Dickens: you would not have had access to a typewriter for much of your life, if at all, since it was only commercialized in the late 19th century. More importantly, you would not have had access to electricity. The conveniences we now consider basic would have been unimaginable luxuries.
The economic historian Norman Stone illustrated the extraordinary pace of modern progress through the experience of the novelist Henry James:
In 1895 the novelist Henry James acquired electric lighting; in 1896 he rode a bicycle; in 1897 he wrote on a typewriter; in 1898 he saw a cinematograph. Within very few years, he could have had a Freudian analysis, travelled in an aircraft, understood the principles of the jet-engine or even of space-travel.
Had Sting been alive in 1890, a world tour would have looked very different. A journey from London to New York would have taken more than a week rather than a few hours. International audiences, instant communication, and global entertainment markets would have been beyond imagination.
The glorification of manual labor is one of the most overrated ideas in modern political discourse. This tendency is not confined to the left. Ambitions to revive manufacturing employment through government policy often draw on the same nostalgic impulse. But what exactly are we trying to return to?
Perhaps literature offers a more honest answer than politics. Oscar Wilde observed that "all unintellectual labour, all monotonous, dull labour" involved unpleasant conditions. He went even further, commenting that "there is nothing necessarily dignified about manual labour at all, and most of it is absolutely degrading."
The reality of industrial labor was far harsher than many modern observers imagine. In Britain, workplace fatalities have fallen dramatically over the last century: fatal injuries to employees dropped from around 4,400 a year early in the 20th century to around 200 a year by the end of the century. Coal mining, one of the occupations most frequently romanticized today and the first industry Sting evoked, exposed workers to constant danger and disease. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, coal workers' pneumoconiosis ("black lung") claimed well over a thousand lives annually. What would a laborer enduring dangerous conditions, long hours, and chronic health risks have given for an air-conditioned office job?
One reason nostalgia economics is so persuasive is that we view the past through the lens of the present. That's why all the characters in historical dramas have healthy teeth! As the historian Niall Ferguson recently remarked, one of his pieces of advice to aspiring historians is never to watch historical dramas.
The same mistake occurs in economics. We imagine that the comforts of modern life existed in the past, minus the anxieties of the present. We recall a perceived community of earlier eras while forgetting the poverty, danger, and limitations that accompanied it. Human beings seem naturally inclined to recall the best aspects of the past and focus on the threats of the present. This tendency helps explain much of the hostility toward markets.
Friedrich Hayek argued that Adam Smith's great insight was that civilization advanced when people moved beyond the face-to-face relationships of small communities. In tribal societies, individuals primarily served those they knew personally. In a market society, however, people respond to price signals that connect them with millions of strangers. As Hayek wrote:
The practices by which the great commercial centres had become rich were shown to enable the individual to do much more good and to serve much greater needs than if he let himself be guided by the observed needs and capacities of his neighbours.
The market order makes what Adam Smith called the "Great Society" possible. Through prices and the division of labor, individuals cooperate with countless others whom they have never met and probably will never meet. Prosperity emerges not because anyone planned it, but because millions of people respond to signals that coordinate their activities.
The tension is that our brains evolved for and within small, face-to-face communities, while modern prosperity depends on participation in a vast and impersonal market order--what Roger Scruton called a "society of strangers." We are naturally drawn toward the world we can see and understand directly, even when that world was poorer, less healthy, and offered fewer opportunities.
The irony, of course, is that those who actually worked in mines, mills, and factories often welcomed the opportunity to leave them. The movement from rural to urban areas is an example of that. Yet many of the loudest critics of the service economy are people whose prosperity--even their capacity to criticize it in the first place--depends entirely upon it.
Nostalgia economics invites us to look backward. The market economy, by contrast, is the engine that has enabled humanity to move forward. The greatest danger is not that we fail to appreciate the past, but that we romanticize it so much that we forget how much progress has already been achieved.
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Mani Basharzad is a Research Associate at the Institute of Economic Affairs and an Asia Freedom Fellow at the London School of Economics. His work has been published by the New York Post, National Review, The Spectator, and Daily Express.
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Original text here: https://fee.org/articles/nostalgia/
RSE Fellows Recognised in King's Birthday Honours 2026
EDINBURGH, Scotland, June 11 -- The Royal Society of Edinburgh issued the following news:
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RSE Fellows recognised in King's Birthday Honours 2026
Three Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows have been honoured by King Charles III in the 2026 Birthday Honours.
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RSE President Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli has congratulated three Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows who have been honoured by the King this week.
Sir James MacMillan FRSE, KT, CBE and Sir Jim McDonald FRSE, KT, GBE, have been appointed to the Order of the Thistle, while Baroness Katherine Grainger HonFRSE CBE has been appointed
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EDINBURGH, Scotland, June 11 -- The Royal Society of Edinburgh issued the following news:
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RSE Fellows recognised in King's Birthday Honours 2026
Three Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows have been honoured by King Charles III in the 2026 Birthday Honours.
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RSE President Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli has congratulated three Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows who have been honoured by the King this week.
Sir James MacMillan FRSE, KT, CBE and Sir Jim McDonald FRSE, KT, GBE, have been appointed to the Order of the Thistle, while Baroness Katherine Grainger HonFRSE CBE has been appointedUsher of the Green Rod.
Sir James MacMillan is a world-renowned composer who was made a Fellow of the RSE in 2007. His choral anthem Who Shall Separate Us? was commissioned for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
He said: "It was a huge surprise when I was contacted about this and I am honoured to be appointed to the Order of the Thistle. I'm not sure whether someone from The Arts has been selected before and I see this as a recognition of the pivotal place of music in the cultural life of Scotland."
Sir Jim McDonald was elected as a Fellow in 2003. He is one of Scotland's most accomplished engineers. Among a raft of senior business appointments, he served as President of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2019 until 2024.
Sir Jim said: "I am deeply honoured to receive this appointment to the Order of the Thistle. Education, research and innovation have been central to my academic and industrial activities, and I have sought to place engineering and applied sciences in the service of society.
"This recognition is one I accept with sincere gratitude, humility and as a reflection of the many colleagues, friends, partners and students with whom I have had the privilege to work with over the years, not least the many Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh I have enjoyed working with across my career."
Baroness Katherine Grainger is Team GB's joint most-decorated woman Olympian, having won four silver medals and one gold medal across five separate Olympic Games. She is now a Member of the House of Lords and holds a Phd in Law. She was appointed Usher of the Green Rod.
RSE President Sir Anton Muscatelli added: "News of the further recognition of three of our Fellows is deeply heartening. The reputation of Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Sir James MacMillan and Baroness Katherine Grainger precedes each of them.
"It is so encouraging to see each of these hugely accomplished Fellows continue to work so diligently and receive their due recognition for it.
"On behalf of all of the Fellows of Scotland's National Academy, I congratulate them all."
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Original text here: https://rse.org.uk/rse-fellows-recognised-in-kings-birthday-honours-2026/
Foundation for Economic Education Posts Commentary: Japan Looks East
DETROIT, Michigan, June 11 -- The Foundation for Economic Education issued the following commentary by political theorist Jake Scott:
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Japan Looks East
A new deal would cement trading partnerships across the Pacific.
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In mid-June, on the margins of the G7 France summit, Japanese premier Sanae Takaichi will tell Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, that Japan wishes to begin negotiating an economic partnership agreement with the Southern Common Market--or, Mercosur, the South American customs union comprised of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The overture
... Show Full Article
DETROIT, Michigan, June 11 -- The Foundation for Economic Education issued the following commentary by political theorist Jake Scott:
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Japan Looks East
A new deal would cement trading partnerships across the Pacific.
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In mid-June, on the margins of the G7 France summit, Japanese premier Sanae Takaichi will tell Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, that Japan wishes to begin negotiating an economic partnership agreement with the Southern Common Market--or, Mercosur, the South American customs union comprised of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The overtureto the South American trade bloc, confirmed in the last week of May by Japanese officials familiar with the plan, would be the first large-scale trade negotiation launched under Takaichi's administration.
The potential for Japan is enormous--not just for international trade, but also for buttressing its free-market economic mission at home. Composed of some 300 million people across the bulk of South America, the nations that form Mercosur have a combined GDP of $4.7 trillion as of 2025, which is marginally higher than Japan's own GDP of $4.4 trillion.
Tokyo, according to Jiji Press, is moving to diversify its sources of critical minerals as it absorbs three simultaneous pressures: President Donald Trump's high tariffs (a minimum of 15% for automotives, for example); China's restrictions on rare-earth exports; and the ongoing impact of the Middle East crisis. While each factor on its own acts like a chokepoint, all of them act together to create a particular pressure on Japan's already vulnerable critical minerals industry. Engaging with Mercosur, however, offers Japan a route out of this.
The promise of access to the natural resources many Mercosur nations possess--Brazilian iron ore, Argentine and Bolivian lithium, Andean copper--will be a major appeal for Japan in seeking to deepen connections with Latin America and shore up future supplies of critical materials. Likewise, the member nations are major food producers, especially of soybeans, beef, and corn, which are popular in Japan and capable of being shipped in bulk across the Pacific Ocean.
These commodities, already directly identified in December 2025 in the Strategic Partnership Framework between Japan and Mercosur, are vital to Japan's interests. Tariff removal does its real work at the level of particular industries, with one particular benefit that no single growth figure can capture: resilience. A standing channel to South American minerals and grain is insurance against the next disruption, something that has taken on a currency all its own in an era of just-in-time supply chains vulnerable to disruption, and the increasing geopolitical use of supply lines as a tool of statecraft.
The minerals question, moreover, is really a China question. The rare-earth curbs squeezing Tokyo are Beijing's, and China's grip reaches well beyond its borders: it processes most of the world's lithium and the overwhelming share of its rare-earths. In 2023 alone, it absorbed roughly a third of all Latin American mineral exports. Chinese capital is already embedded across the region's lithium fields, and Brazil has signaled Mercosur's openness to a free-trade agreement with Beijing of its own.
For Japan to gain access to Argentine lithium and Brazilian rare-earths is as much about countering Chinese hegemony over supply. Diversification here means seeking alternative supply lines.
Japan's agreement with the European Union, negotiated in 2018--later projected to produce long-run welfare benefits of $18 billion for Japan--was highly instructive for Japan's global engagement policies and the potential benefit a single trade deal can produce domestically. Mercosur is, therefore, an obvious and attractive opportunity for Japan; not only this, but the South American nations fit the rare niche of being both large enough to matter, and unaligned enough to deal with. It might not match the level of economic benefit that the 2018 Japan-EU deal could create; but it is still worth pursuing.
But the appeal for a potential deal is not one-directional, and Japan's hand is actually stronger than the headline economics might suggest. Mercosur's external tariff is steep exactly where Japan is competitive, such as automobiles, machinery, electronics, and electrical equipment, and there are already nearly a thousand locations operated by Japanese firms from these industries inside the bloc. As a joint appeal from a collection of Japanese-Uruguayan companies, from 2024, urging the deal on, said, "Japan and Mercosur have a mutually complementary relationship and are strategically vital economic partners."
The deal offers, therefore, not new demand but liberated demand. Goods that Japanese companies already sell to the region and get taxed at the customs line--driving up prices for South Americans--are simply waiting for the tariff to fall, and the market grows. The value of the deal for Tokyo lies abroad, much more than at home. Japan has spent the last two decades assembling trade agreements--most recently with Bangladesh, as of March 2026--with each pact a hedge against the disruption of global trade.
Moreover, the competition for access to Mercosur markets is heating up. Already in January 2026 in Paraguay, the EU has signed its own trade agreement negotiated in December 2024, with the trade pillar applying provisionally from May 2026, meaning European carmakers--primary competitors to Japan's automotive industry--are already watching tariffs fall in markets Japan is keen to enter. The EU Commission's own trade directorate projects the deal could add some Euros77 billion ($89 billion) and lift European exports to Mercosur by nearly two-fifths by 2040. Takaichi's overture is an opening, but also an attempt not to be left behind.
The handshake in France will open a market and secure a supply line. It will also mark the latest in a long line of Japan's attempts to secure large-scale bilateral trade agreements, one more nation concluding that, in a world it can no longer assume to be open, the prudent course is to forge your own relationships.
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Dr Jake Scott is a political theorist specialising in populism and its relationship to political constitutionality. He has taught at multiple British universities and produced research reports for several think tanks.
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Original text here: https://fee.org/articles/japan-looks-east/
FIRE endorses Senate bill that would prevent government coercion of protected speech
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, June 11 -- The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression posted the following news release:
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FIRE endorses Senate bill that would prevent government coercion of protected speech
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression supports a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz and Ron Wyden that would prevent the federal government from strong-arming private parties into censoring protected expression.
The "Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression Act," or JAWBONE Act, would let Americans sue federal officials for
... Show Full Article
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, June 11 -- The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression posted the following news release:
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FIRE endorses Senate bill that would prevent government coercion of protected speech
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression supports a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz and Ron Wyden that would prevent the federal government from strong-arming private parties into censoring protected expression.
The "Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression Act," or JAWBONE Act, would let Americans sue federal officials forviolating the First Amendment when they coerce social media companies, AI platforms, or broadcasters to change or take down protected speech.
In addition to providing legal recourse to victims of jawboning, the bill also would require the government to publicly report its communications with these companies, ensuring victims know when they've been targeted by government censors.
"Jawboning isn't a hypothetical, rare, or partisan problem," said FIRE Legislative and Policy Director Carolyn Iodice. "It threatens the rights of anyone who uses social media or AI platforms. But there's currently little to no recourse for victims to fight back against this pernicious kind of censorship. The JAWBONE Act fixes that."
" Jawboning " occurs when government officials, who are prohibited by the First Amendment from outrightly censoring expression, instead coerce a private party into censorship, often under the threat of potential regulatory action if the "request" is denied.
For example, in Murthy v. Missouri, troves of documents showed that the Biden administration pressured social media companies to delete, downgrade, or otherwise limit the reach of disfavored views on certain topics including elections and Covid-19. More recently, last fall's temporary suspension of Jimmy Kimmel from ABC's airwaves came after threats from the Trump administration to revoke the network's broadcast licenses over a joke the comedian made.
"Government interference in online speech is not fiction," said Chairman Cruz. "The Biden administration weaponized the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to pressure Big Tech into 'canceling' Americans who spoke out against vaccine mandates and election fraud. Holding the government accountable and giving Americans the tools to fight back is essential. The JAWBONE Act ensures the First Amendment is protected, not undermined."
As FIRE notes, without the protections of the JAWBONE Act, a private citizen who, for example, complains about the IRS or another government entity on Facebook could be punished and banned from the platform due to government coercion behind-the-scenes.
"Nearly all of Americans' speech - including TV news, online streams and social media - flows through private corporations that are highly susceptible to government pressure," Sen. Wyden said. "Regular Americans can't count on those companies to stand up to government jawboning, they need a way to level the playing field."
"The most blatant example is Trump threatening cable companies because he doesn't like their late-night shows, but jawboning isn't partisan, and it isn't new," Wyden continued.
FIRE is joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, Advancing American Freedom, Americans for Tax Reform, Independent Women's Voice, Institute for Free Speech, Internet Accountability Project, Knight Institute, Protect the First, and Public Knowledge in backing this legislation.
"Multiple administrations of both parties have engaged in jawboning, reflecting a broad and enduring problem," said FIRE Legislative Counsel Greg Gonzalez. "We urge Congress to pass the JAWBONE Act and protect Americans from government overreach."
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought -the most essential qualities of liberty. FIRE educates Americans about the importance of these inalienable rights, promotes a culture of respect for these rights, and provides the means to preserve them.
CONTACT
Katie Stalcup, Communications Campaign Manager, FIRE: 215-717-3473; media@fire.org
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Original text here: https://www.thefire.org/news/fire-endorses-senate-bill-would-prevent-government-coercion-protected-speech
FFRF Challenges Indiana Sheriff's Jailhouse Baptism Event
MADISON, Wisconsin, June 11 -- The Freedom From Religion Foundation issued the following news release:
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FFRF challenges Indiana sheriff's jailhouse baptism event
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is demanding that the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, based in Bloomington, immediately stop sponsoring Christian devotional events at the correctional facility, including pressuring inmates to undergo baptisms.
FFRF received a report that the sheriff's office and Monroe County Correctional Center organized a religious event encouraging inmates to display adherence to Christianity and be baptized.
... Show Full Article
MADISON, Wisconsin, June 11 -- The Freedom From Religion Foundation issued the following news release:
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FFRF challenges Indiana sheriff's jailhouse baptism event
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is demanding that the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, based in Bloomington, immediately stop sponsoring Christian devotional events at the correctional facility, including pressuring inmates to undergo baptisms.
FFRF received a report that the sheriff's office and Monroe County Correctional Center organized a religious event encouraging inmates to display adherence to Christianity and be baptized.A May 31 post from the official Monroe County Sheriff's Office's Facebook page contained multiple photos, including a banner featuring the message "Where You at Redeemed?" along with a cross, detailing the event as such:
Forty-nine individuals publicly declared their faith in Christ through baptism. Christian hip-hop artists Redeemed and J. Truth shared their testimonies and performed music that inspired and encouraged those in attendance.
The evening was marked by healing, forgiveness, accountability, and redemption.
According to the Facebook post, not only were the baptisms administered with the participation of Monroe County Correctional Center staff, but they were also organized and supervised by multiple law enforcement leaders. Some of the officials are pictured in the Facebook post in their official uniforms.
Multiple residents contacted FFRF about constitutional concerns regarding the baptisms. Community members expressed concern with the sheriff's office's promotion of the event on its official social media. As one individual contacting FFRF pointed out, the inmates likely would not have felt free to refuse to participate in the baptisms or the event because it was clear that the sheriff's office, the center and leadership wanted inmates to attend and be baptized. Another individual contacting FFRF expressed concern about nonreligious inmates who did not participate being treated worse than inmates who did.
"By organizing, hosting, and promoting inmate baptisms and celebrating inmates' conversions to Christianity on its official social media, the sheriff's office is unconstitutionally favoring religion over nonreligion, and Christianity over all other faiths," FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence has written to Sheriff Ruben Marte.
A correctional facility is an inherently coercive environment -- and inmates and detainees are literally a captive audience, as FFRF points out. When the sheriff's office entangles itself with religion and makes it clear that it's encouraging inmates to convert to Christianity, inmates will no doubt feel pressured to convert and participate in religious activities to be seen as cooperative and well-behaved. Inmates and detainees who are aware of the sheriff's office's promotion of Christianity will not genuinely feel free to refuse to participate in its religious activities. This is constitutionally impermissible.
FFRF emphasizes that law enforcement must be even-handed and avoid any appearance of bias toward some citizens and hostility toward others. Sheriff's Office employees are not permitted to use the machinery of government or taxpayer money to promote their personal religion to inmates or the wider community. And such activity needlessly marginalizes the 31 percent of Indiana residents who are religiously unaffiliated.
"It is egregious and unacceptable that a sheriff would arrange Christian baptisms for inmates, using the sheriff's department time and staff to push a specific belief system on a literal captive audience," FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. "A county jail is not a church and a sheriff is not a pastor. U.S. citizens are entitled to their right to be free of religious coercion, and that right cannot be revoked for the incarcerated."
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The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With over 41,000 members, including more than 500 members in Indiana, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
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Original text here: https://ffrf.org/news/releases/ffrf-challenges-indiana-sheriffs-jailhouse-baptism-event/
[Category: Religion]
