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Constitutional Law

First Amendment Center

News related to the first amendment of the US Constitution and freedom of speech issues.
By First Amendment Center

Post Frequency: 38.7/day

Last Entry: March 29, 2011 at 21:00:00

Federal judge blocks Tenn. town's fortunetelling ban

Posted on October 11, 2010
EAST RIDGE, Tenn. ? A federal judge in East Tennessee blocked East Ridge from enforcing a ban on fortunetellers Oct. 8, hours after a woman filed a lawsuit that says the ordinance violates her free-speech rights. The court order signed by Chief U.S. District Judge Curtis L...

2nd Circuit: Vt. can't bar religion from vanity plates

Posted on October 10, 2010
NEW YORK ? "THE REV" and "PSALM48" can join "ARMYMOM" and "DARE2BU" on the license plates of cars in Vermont after a federal appeals court ruled on Oct. 8 that the First Amendment leaves room for religious messages on vanity plates. The unanimous three-judge panel of the 2nd U...

Gitmo detainee loses bid to access government info

Posted on October 10, 2010
WASHINGTON ? A Guantanamo Bay detainee who says he was waterboarded lost a legal battle when a federal appeals court ruled that the Obama administration can keep information secret that the prisoner wanted to make public. The decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia came in the case of Djamel Ameziane, an Algerian citizen who is seeking his release from the U...

Breyer unsure about cameras in high court

Posted on October 10, 2010
WASHINGTON ? Justice Stephen Breyer says it's important for television viewers to see Supreme Court justices in their black robes when the president delivers the State of the Union speech each year. He's less certain that TV cameras have a place at the Court...

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'Religious tests for office?' panel to look at faith's role in politics

Posted on October 09, 2010
WASHINGTON ? The Religious Freedom Education Project at the Newseum and Wesley Theological Seminary are sponsoring a discussion on ?Religious tests for office? The role of religious affiliation in American politics,? at 7 p.m. ET, Thursday, Oct. 14, at the Knight Conference Center at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave...

Court lets girl with nose ring return to school

Posted on October 09, 2010
RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge on Oct. 8 ordered a North Carolina school to admit a 14-year-old high school student suspended for wearing a nose piercing she says is part of her religion, and the teenager headed to science class that afternoon. U...

S.C. jail's Bible-only policy prompts lawsuit

Posted on October 08, 2010
COLUMBIA, S.C. ? The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a South Carolina jail's policy that bars inmates from having any reading material other than the Bible. On Oct. 6, the ACLU filed the federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the policy on behalf of Prison Legal News, a monthly journal on prison law...

Candidate warns Muslim law taking hold in parts of U.S.

Posted on October 07, 2010
LAS VEGAS ? Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle told a crowd of supporters that the country needed to address a "militant terrorist situation" that has allowed Islamic religious law to take hold in some American cities. The Republican candidate's�comments came at a rally of tea-party supporters in the Nevada resort town of Mesquite last week after she�was asked about Muslims angling to take over the country...

Miss. judge again asks courtroom to recite Pledge

Posted on October 07, 2010
TUPELO, Miss. ? A Mississippi judge again asked everyone in his courtroom to stand and pledge allegiance to the flag, despite an uproar over whether he has the right to make such a request. The furor began Oct. 6 when an attorney with a reputation for fighting free-speech battles stayed silent as everyone else recited the patriotic oath...

Wash. high court: E-mail metadata is public record

Posted on October 07, 2010
SEATTLE ? Metadata associated with electronic documents ? such as the ?to? and ?from? fields in e-mails ? is a public record subject to disclosure, Washington?s Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The 5-4 ruling concerned a Shoreline resident?s request under the Public Records Act for an e-mail that had been sent to the city?s deputy mayor...

Pa. rep wants anti-abortion radio ad pulled

Posted on October 07, 2010
PITTSBURGH ? Attorneys for Democrat U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper's campaign want four Erie radio stations to pull an ad by an anti-abortion group that contends her vote for health-care reform resulted in "the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded abortions ever...

9th Circuit temporarily reinstates Wash. campaign-spending law

Posted on October 06, 2010
OLYMPIA, Wash. ? Federal appeals judges have temporarily reinstated a state law that limits campaign contributions in the final weeks of ballot-measure campaigns, saying that the law shouldn?t be overturned so close to the election. U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton ruled last month that the limit is an unconstitutional infringement on political speech...

Panel: Administration blocked efforts to tell public extent of oil spill

Posted on October 06, 2010
WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration blocked efforts by government scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could become and committed other missteps that raised questions about its competence and candor during the crisis, according to a commission appointed by the president to investigate the disaster...

Justices struggle with funeral-protest case

Posted on October 05, 2010
Transcript of oral arguments WASHINGTON ? Supreme Court justices today pondered the vexing question of whether the father of a dead Marine should win his lawsuit against a Kansas church that picketed his son's funeral. The complexity and weightiness of the First Amendment issue were palpable in the courtroom as justices heard arguments in the case of Albert Snyder...

Anti-war activists refuse to testify before grand jury

Posted on October 05, 2010
CHICAGO — Anti-war activists whose homes or offices were raided as part of an FBI terrorism-funding investigation will refuse to testify before a grand jury as ordered, in a show of defiance that could land them in jail. Attorneys for the 14 activists called to testify have coordinated their responses since the Sept...

1st Circuit rejects challenge to Maine campaign limits

Posted on October 05, 2010
AUGUSTA, Maine ? A federal appeals court has upheld key portions of Maine's campaign-finance laws. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday rejected a challenge to provisions that limit private contributions to gubernatorial candidates to $750, set independent expenditure-reporting requirements for contributors and provide matching public funds for so-called Clean Election candidates...

FCC seeks more merger info from Comcast, NBC Universal

Posted on October 04, 2010
WASHINGTON ? The Federal Communications Commission is requesting additional information from Comcast Corp. and NBC Universal as it reviews the cable operator's plan to acquire a controlling stake in the media company. The FCC yesterday sent letters to Comcast and NBC Universal asking questions about both companies' businesses...

Ore. high school clamps down on cursing

Posted on October 04, 2010
ALBANY, Ore. ? South Albany High School to students: Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words could get you suspended. South is cracking down on cursing this year, to the tune of suspending students any time their, um, stuff hits the fan. Principal Brent Belveal, now one month into his first year at South Albany, said staff members told him shortly after he joined the administration that profanity was a campus concern...

Alaska TV stations warned not to air tea-party ad

Posted on October 04, 2010
JUNEAU, Alaska — U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski?s campaign is warning Alaska broadcasters not to air an ad by a national tea-party group that the campaign says is ?littered with lies and intentional mischaracterizations? about her and her write-in campaign...

High court grapples with NASA privacy questions

Posted on October 04, 2010
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed unwilling today to restrict the government?s ability to investigate the people who want to work inside its installations in the post-9/11 world, despite concerns that federal officials could go too far when prying into people?s private lives in name of safety...

Panels to examine national security, First Amendment

Posted on October 03, 2010
The intersection of criminal law, national security and the First Amendment will be explored in a panel program in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 29. The First Amendment Center, in partnership with Arnold & Porter LLP and McDermott Will & Emery LLP, is hosting the 10 a...

Mich. worker's blog sparks free-speech debate

Posted on October 03, 2010
LANSING, Mich. ? An assistant attorney general in Michigan who used his personal blog to attack the openly gay student body president at the University of Michigan has spurred debate about the right of public employees to say controversial things on their own time...

Free-speech cases top Supreme Court's agenda

Posted on October 03, 2010
WASHINGTON ? First Amendment cases top the Supreme Court's docket as it begins a new term today with a new justice and three women on the bench for the first time. On a busy opening day, the justices turned away today a number of First Amendment-related appeals in which parties sought to have their cases heard before the nation's highest court: The Court won't make the super-secret National Security Agency divulge whether it has records of the warrantless wiretapping it did of lawyers representing Guantanamo Bay inmates...

Miss. high school offers Bible class

Posted on October 03, 2010
NORTH CARROLLTON, Miss. — The best-selling, most influential book of all-time is back at Carroll County public schools. The Bible, banned for religious use in the classroom by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963, is being taught this semester at J.Z. George High School as an English elective...

Group fights firm that's suing news-sharing Internet users

Posted on October 02, 2010
LAS VEGAS ? A San Francisco group that defends online free speech is taking on a Las Vegas company it says is shaking down news-sharing Internet users through more than 140 copyright-infringement lawsuits filed this year. The Electronic Frontier Foundation?s counterclaim represents the first significant challenge to Righthaven LLC?s unprecedented campaign to police the sharing of news content on blogs, political sites and personal Web pages...

Calif. gov. vetoes disclosure bill aimed at college foundations

Posted on October 01, 2010
SACRAMENTO, Calif. ? Organizations linked to California's public colleges and universities will remain free from increased scrutiny. On Sept. 30, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have required university foundations and auxiliary associations to comply with the California Public Records Act...

Alito lays out concerns about cameras in high court

Posted on September 30, 2010
DES MOINES, Iowa ? Televising U.S. Supreme Court hearings may provide a glimpse at how the Court works but also could threaten to relay the wrong impression that the justices? work on cases is limited to what is shown on TV, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr...

N.Y. lawyer convicted in Dead Sea Scrolls case

Posted on September 30, 2010
NEW YORK ? A scholar's son was convicted yesterday of using online aliases to harass and discredit his father's rivals in a heated academic debate over the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls. A Manhattan jury found Raphael Golb guilty of about 30 counts against him, including identity theft, forgery and harassment...

6th Circuit: Parts of Ohio milk-labeling rule violate free speech

Posted on September 30, 2010
CINCINNATI ? Dairy processors can make claims that their products are free of a synthetic growth hormone, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday in striking down parts of the state?s rule on milk labeling. Key parts of the state?s labeling rule violated First Amendment rights to commercial free speech, a three-judge panel of 6th U...

Calif. court orders release of records in friars' sex-abuse cases

Posted on September 30, 2010
LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court ruled yesterday that psychiatric and other confidential records of Franciscan friars accused of sex abuse should be made public. The long-awaited decision could speed the release of similar documents about dozens of other accused priests and religious figures...

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