Free Republic

The 14-year-old battles the court during his summer vacation. By Ian Tuttle Jared Marcum is 14 years old. He just graduated the eighth grade. And if prosecutors in Logan, W.Va., have their way, he will be a convict before he can legally operate a motor vehicle. Jared was thrust into the national limelight when, standing in the Logan Middle School cafeteria line, he refused a teacher’s order to turn his NRA T-shirt inside out to hide its image of a hunting rifle. In the principal’s office, he explained that the shirt was not in violation of school policy and that...

When defending the liberty of unsavory characters, I usually write of my native England. Not this week, alas. In the state of Texas, a 19-year-old man named Justin Carter sits in prison, ruthlessly stripped of his freedom for making an offensive joke. After a Facebook friend with whom he played video games described him as “crazy” and “messed up in the head,” Carter replied — sarcastically, one imagines — “Oh yeah, I’m real messed up in the head, I’m going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts.” He added “lol” and “jk”...