First Amendment: N.H. inmate loses facial-hair challenge

A federal judge has ruled that inmates have no First Amendment right to grow a beard, rejecting the claim of an Orthodox Jew who claimed prison policy banning facial hair longer than a quarter-inch violated his constitutional rights.

September 1, 2010
By The Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. [...]

First Amendment: Botox maker to pay $600M to resolve investigation

Allergan Inc., the maker of wrinkle-smoothing Botox, has agreed to pay $600 million to settle a yearslong federal investigation into its marketing of the top-selling, botulin-based drug. The company argued it had a First Amendment right to educate doctors about how to safely use Botox, even for uses [...]

Courts give photographers scant protection in shooting accident scenes

Journalists should not assume they are free to take photos at accident scenes on public roads as indicated by a recent federal court ruling on a case in Guam. -db
First Amendment Center
August 30, 2010
By David L. Hudson Jr.
If you travel to Guam, don’t take pictures of the police on public streets. Don’t assume that [...]

Editorial: Federal appeals court slights First Amendment in protecting president

The Los Angeles Times says in an editorial that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals failed to consider whether the event was open to the public or a private political event in ruling that a couple with a political message on a bumper sticker could be excluded from a George W. Bush town hall [...]

Free speech: Federal court rules ex- police chef’s rights violated

The 10th Circuit Appeals Court ruled that the city manager in Laramie, Wyoming violated a police chief’s free speech rights since her motivation in firing him was to punish him for filing a defamation lawsuit. -db
Courthouse News Service
August 30, 2010
By Nick McCann
(CN) – The city manager in Laramie, Wyo., violated a police [...]

Man with impeach Obama sign arrested at Alaska State Fair

Police arrested at man at the Alaska State Fair carrying a sign calling for the impeachment of President Barack Obama. The fair allows political messages if citizens rent a booth and follow vendor guidelines but forbid political activities in common areas. -db
Anchorage Daily News
August 28, 2010
By Kyle Hopkins
Ten minutes of mayhem Thursday at [...]

Facebook criticized for censoring pot legalization ads

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is charging that Facebook is failing to uphold the First Amendment in banning content that some “overseers” find objectionable. -db
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Commentary
August 26, 2010
By Richard Esguerra
Facebook is facing down another embarrassing episode of censorship this week after refusing to show ads submitted by the Just Say Now marijuana legalization campaign. [...]

Judge refuses to stop Missouri law on sexual businesses

Missouri’s wide-ranging limitations on sexual businesses will take effect Saturday after a state judge on Friday denied a request from a coalition of sexual store owners and erotic dancers to temporarily block the new law.
The Associated Press
August 27, 2010
By David E. Lieb
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The nudity must stop [...]

Journalist banned by Pentagon gets First Amendment Award

Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald reporter banned by the Pentagon earlier this year from covering military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ First Amendment Award for her efforts to cover the detention center there despite “consistent hostility in covering her [...]

NFL cheerleader wins $11 million libel suit

A gossip website has been hit with an $11 million judgment for libel and slander after posting false accusations about a northern Kentucky teacher who sidelines as a Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader.

August 26, 2010
By The Associated Press  LOUISVILLE, Ky. —The judgment against Dirty World Entertainment Recordings, which [...]

Federal court affirms greater speech freedom for college students

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a university’s strict speech codes, and in so doing made a distinction between university standards and standards limiting speech in high schools and elementary schools in recognition that adults in universities should enjoy the freedom to engage in unfettered debate and discourse. -db
FIRE
Commentary
August 20, 2010
Posted by Erica [...]

Free speech: Electronic Frontier Foundation warns against California law undermining parody

A new “E-Personation” bill now in the California legislature would make it a crime to personate someone online to “harm” that person. EFF claims that the law would severely restrict online parodies criticizing government and big corporations. -db
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Commentary
August 22, 2010
By Corynne McSherry
A bill that could undermine a new and important form [...]

California judge rules against court in attempt to block publication of courtroom photos

A superior court judge ruled that the Los Angeles Times could publish photos of a murder defendant taken with the court’s permission. The judge said the attempt to bar the photos was unconstitutional prior restraint. -db
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
August 20, 2010
By Kenneth Ofgang
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge’s order barring publication of photos that were taken [...]

Illinois: ACLU suit seeks to allow citizen recording of police in action

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois is filing a federal lawsuit challenging the Illinois Eavesdropping Act that criminalizes recording public conversations without the consent of all parties. The ACLU claims that  police routinely record encounters with drivers they pull over, but drivers are not allowed to record police conversations. -db
Chicago Tribune
August 19, 2010
By [...]

ACLU challenges Illinois eavesdropping act

Lawsuit cites cases of people charged with breaking the law for making audio recordings of police in action
The Chicago Tribune
August 20, 2010
By Becky Schlikerman and Kristen Mack
It’s not unusual or illegal for police officers to flip on a camera as they get out of their squad car to talk to a driver they’ve pulled over.
But [...]

Dr. Laura, Sarah Palin, and the fight over free speech

Commentary on the controversy of Dr. Laura Schlessinger and her decision to end her radio show after using a racial epithet. -SM
Yahoo! News
August 20, 2010
By Ken Paulson
In the wake of Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s decision to end her radio show after repeatedly using a racial epithet, she’s spent quite a bit of time talking [...]

Stolen Valor Act Violates Free Speech, Court Says

Non-defamatory lies are protected under the right to free speech, the 9th Circuit, overturning the conviction of a man who lied about having been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
The Courthouse News Service
August 20, 2010
By Elizabeth Banicki
(CN) -Xavier Alvarez was convicted of violating the Stolen Valor Act for telling fellow members of [...]

Giuliani supports moving mosque farther from WTC site

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani yesterday joined a growing number of politicians supporting a move of a proposed Islamic center and mosque near ground zero to state-owned land farther from the Sept. 11 attack site.
August 20, 2010
By The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Giuliani, who led New Yorkers through [...]

Redondo Beach city attorney warns of pitfalls to social networking in local government

Redondo Beach has launched social networking pilots to create greater transparency and public participation, but the city attorney warns of complications concerning California’s open meeting law, the First Amendment and the expense of maintaining the sites. -db
Redondo Beach News
August 18, 2010
By Sascha Bush
The City Attorney’s office spoke to the Redondo Beach City [...]

Pa. court bars release of county official’s e-mails

Pennsylvania courts’ broad exemption from the Right-to-Know Law shields judicial records from public scrutiny even when they are in the hands of agencies that are subject to the law, a three-judge panel of the state Commonwealth Court has ruled.
August 18, 2010
By The Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. [...]

Miss. student sues over rejected yearbook tux photo

A Mississippi teenager is suing a rural school district, this time over a policy barring young women from wearing tuxedos in senior yearbook portraits.
August 18, 2010
By The Associated Press
By The Associated Press
08.18.10 JACKSON, Miss. —Ceara Sturgis’ dispute with the Copiah County School District started in 2009, well [...]

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs free-speech bill with O.C. roots

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Tuesday a student free-speech bill that the author says will close a legal loophole that allowed Orange County’s largest charter school to censor its student newspaper last year.
The Orange County Register
August 18, 2010
By Scott Martindale

SACRAMENTO – State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, introduced [...]

Federal judge rules against Kansas law prohibiting nonresident petitioning

Citing the First Amendment, a federal district judge struck down a Kansas law that prohibited nonresidents from circulating petitions in Kansas. -db
The Winfield Daily Courier
August 14, 2010
By Roxana Hegeman
Associated Press Writer
WICHITA (AP) — A federal judge struck down as unconstitutional on Friday a part of a Kansas law that prohibits nonresidents from circulating petitions [...]

Free speech: Federal judge strikes down laws restricting protests near funerals

A federal district judge ruled that two 2006 laws regulating protests near funerals violated the First Amendment. -db
Kansas City Star
Aug. 16, 2010
By Mark Morris
Missouri’s laws restricting protests near funerals are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Monday.
The ruling from Chief U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan found that two 2006 laws that sought to regulate such [...]

Free speech: Blogger convicted of threatening judges with violence

A federal court jury found a blogger had overreached in urging his readers to kill three judges of a federal appeals court for upholding a Chicago handgun ban. -db
Wired
August 16, 2010
By David Kravets
Three trials later, authorities have finally won a criminal conviction against Hal Turner, the New Jersey hate blogger charged with [...]

Free speech: California court rules mall’s restrictions on conversations with strangers unconstitutional

A state appeals court ruled that a Roseville, California shopping mall could not prevent a Christian pastor from talking about religion with three young women. -db
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
August 13, 2010
By Steven M. Ellis
The Third District Court of Appeal has revived a Christian youth pastor’s suit against a Placer County shopping mall that had him arrested when he [...]

Mass. curriculum can exclude questioners of Armenian genocide

A federal appeals court has ruled that Massachusetts public school guidelines for teaching history can exclude viewpoints that dispute the mass slaying of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in the early part of the 20th century.
August 13, 2010
By The Associated Press

BOSTON —The Aug. 11 decision by the [...]

Federal appeals court tosses libel suit by cat breeders against Internet service provider

The 8th Circuit dismissed a libel suit by Cozy Kittens Cattery against an Internet service provider that ran what they said were defamatory comments about their cat breeding business. -db
Online Media Daily
August 11, 2010
By Wendy Davis
A federal appellate court has upheld a ruling dismissing a libel lawsuit by cat breeders against the Internet service [...]

N.Y. governor offers help moving ground-zero mosque

New York Gov. David Paterson offered state help yesterday if the developers of a mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks agree to move the project farther from the site.
August 11, 2010
By The Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. —Paterson, a Democrat, said that he doesn’t oppose the project as [...]

Free-speech right covers national parks

People wishing to hand out leaflets or loudly speak their mind on religion, immigration or the death penalty at Independence National Historical Park or any other national-park site will have an easier time doing so based on a recent court decision.
Philadelphia Daily News
August 9, 2010
By Julie Shaw
shawj@phillynews.com

The ruling would [...]

Renee Dudley Wins Pulliam First Amendment Award

Renee Dudley, a reporter for The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C., has won the 2010 Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award, presented by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, the educational branch of the Society of Professional Journalists.
August 11, 2010
By Editor and Publisher

Recognizing a person or organization that has fought to [...]

Gag order eased for man fighting FBI over warrantless investigation

A president of an Internet service provider can for the first time speak about a gag on his telling anyone he had received an national security letter demanding private customer records. The ACLU argues that without a court order the FBI should at least show individual suspicion before invading the privacy and free speech rights [...]

California appeals court allows publication of courtroom photos

The California Court of Appeal ordered a Superior Court judge to reverse her ban barring the Los Angeles Times from publishing the courtroom photos of a murder suspect. -db
Los Angeles Times
August 9, 2010
By Andrew Blankstein
The California Court of Appeal ordered a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Monday to abandon her order barring the Los [...]

Lawyer: Finance firms’ suit not free-speech attack

A ruling forcing a website to delay releasing the research findings of financial firms is not an attack on free speech and would not lead to widespread attacks on the media, a lawyer for financial companies that sued the website told federal appeals court judges Friday.
AP
August 9, 2010
By  [...]

National parks can’t require permits for ‘expressive activities’

National Park Service rules requiring a Minnesota man to get a permit before distributing religious materials at Mount Rushmore National Memorial are unconstitutional, a federal appeals court said in a decision released late last week.
August 9, 2010
By The Associated Press

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said [...]

N.Y. town board’s prayers OK with federal judge

A federal judge has ruled that a town board in upstate New York isn’t doing anything unconstitutional by opening its meetings with a brief prayer.
August 9, 2010
By The Associated Press

GREECE, N.Y. — The judge signed an order Aug. 5 tossing out a lawsuit filed by two residents [...]

Ore. high court: Teacher should get jobless benefits

A Klamath Falls teacher placed on administrative leave after an uproar over a film clip containing profanity has won an Oregon Supreme Court ruling saying he is entitled to unemployment benefits.
August 9, 2010
By The Associated Press

SALEM, Ore. —Robert McDowell was a probationary first-year high school language arts and drama [...]

WikiLeaks case shows need for federal shield law for reporters

The Cincinnati Enquirer argues that the federal shield law now in Congress, while providing for national security and fair trials, will strengthen the media in its quest to hold government and other powerful entities accountability and make it less likely that sources go to “fringe entities” such as WikiLeaks to protect their anonymity. -db
Cincinnati Enquirer
Editorial
August [...]

California state senator proposes law to outlaw malicious online impersonation

In the wake of a disturbing e-mail falsely attributed to a Silicon Valley leader, A California state senator is introducing a law to make malicious e-mail impersonations a misdemeanor. -db
San Francisco Chronicle
August 9, 2010
By Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera
Two months ago, a San Jose Mercury News reporter received a profanity-laced e-mail critical of one of her stories. More [...]

California appeals court rules suit blocks legitimate free speech activity

A California state appeals court dismissed a suit against a filmmaker on the grounds that the suit was a SLAPP or strategic lawsuit against public participation. The court said the documentary film in question was a matter of public interest and an “activity in furtherance of the right to free speech.” -db
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
August 9, 2010
[...]

Next Page »