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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

Ariz. Senate president limits news-media access to chamber floor

Posted on March 08, 2011
PHOENX — Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce is restricting the news media?s access to senators, saying that fellow lawmakers have complained about being bothered by reporters and camera crews. Under one restriction, reporters may not leave the two press tables in the front of the chamber to approach individual senators before or after floor sessions without invitations from the lawmakers involved...

Utah gov. signs bill limiting open-records law

Posted on March 08, 2011
SALT LAKE CITY ? Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has signed a bill revising the state's open-records law only hours after more than 100 people rallied against the bill in the Capitol rotunda. House Bill 477 makes the text messages and voice mails of government officials private and restricts access to most communication, including e-mails, between legislators and staff or constituents...

High court won't review ruling on student group funding

Posted on March 07, 2011
MADISON, Wis. ? The U.S. Supreme Court says it won?t hear an appeal of a lower court decision to grant a Catholic student group funding from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The decision by the high court effectively ends UW-Madison?s appeal process...

High court won't hear atheist's challenge to 'In God We Trust'

Posted on March 06, 2011
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court won't hear an atheist's latest challenge to the U.S. government's references to God. The Court today refused to hear an appeal from Michael Newdow, who says government references to God violate the First Amendment?s separation of church and state and infringe on his religious beliefs...

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Justices reject broad use of FOIA exemption

Posted on March 06, 2011
WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court today rejected the government?s broad use of an exemption in the federal Freedom of Information Act to withhold documents from the public, ruling for a Washington state resident who wants Navy maps relating to its main West Coast ammunition dump...

Ind. judge orders news outlets to reveal IDs of online posters

Posted on March 06, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS ? A judge in a defamation case has ordered news-media outlets in Indianapolis to reveal information that could help identify people who posted disparaging comments about a Junior Achievement official on their online forums. An Indiana journalism-shield law that protects reporters from having to reveal their sources doesn't protect websites from being forced to disclose who made anonymous posts, Marion Superior Court Judge S...

Public media put millions of dollars into investigative work

Posted on March 06, 2011
WASHINGTON — NPR, PBS and local public broadcast stations around the country are hiring more journalists and pumping millions of dollars into investigative news to make up for what they see as a lack of deep-digging coverage by their for-profit counterparts...

Tribe sues state agency, PG&E to protect ancient maze

Posted on March 05, 2011
LOS ANGELES ? A Native American tribe has filed a lawsuit against a California agency over a groundwater cleanup plan near Needles, claiming it is harming an ancient maze that members believe is critical for spirits to get to the afterlife. The lawsuit filed March 2 in Sacramento is part of a years-long dispute between the Fort Mojave Indian tribe, the Department of Toxic Substances Control and Pacific Gas & Electric...

Tweets can be costly - just ask Courtney Love

Posted on March 04, 2011
LOS ANGELES — Courtney Love's 140 character Twitter rants against a fashion designer are costing her more than $430,000, an attorney says. The singer has agreed to pay Dawn Simorangkir $430,000, plus interest, to settle a lawsuit the designer filed in March 2009 over comments Love made on Twitter and her MySpace blog...

No more forced union dues for Mich. home-based child-care workers

Posted on March 03, 2011
DETROIT — The state of Michigan will stop deducting union dues from thousands of people who provide child care at home, an official announced March 1, ending an arrangement created under a previous governor that sparked lawsuits over whether mandatory membership violates free-speech rights...

Judge orders protesters to leave Wis. Capitol

Posted on March 03, 2011
MADISON, Wis. — About 50 pro-union protesters peacefully left the state Capitol late yesterday after a judge ruled they could no longer spend the night to show their opposition to Gov. Scott Walker?s proposal to eliminate nearly all collective bargaining rights for public workers...

7th Circuit backs students' right to wear 'Be Happy, Not Gay' shirt

Posted on March 02, 2011
CHICAGO ? A federal appeals court has upheld the rights of suburban Chicago students to wear T-shirts with the words "Be Happy, Not Gay." The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' March 1 ruling involves a dispute at Neuqua Valley High School. Alexander Nuxoll, who was banned from wearing the shirt to school, and Heidi Zamecnik, who wore a similar T-shirt to school in 2006, filed a lawsuit saying their free-speech rights had been violated...

Federal court sides with Idaho GOP in open-primary fight

Posted on March 02, 2011
BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge yesterday declared Idaho?s 38-year-old system for holding open primaries unconstitutional and handed conservatives in the state Republican Party a victory in their bid to make sure only registered party faithful take part in primary contests...

Army charges WikiLeaks suspect with 'aiding the enemy'

Posted on March 02, 2011
WASHINGTON — An Army private suspected of leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive and classified documents to the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group was charged yesterday with aiding the enemy, a crime that can bring the death penalty or life in prison...

Supreme Court sides with funeral protesters

Posted on March 01, 2011
Contact our experts Audio of oral arguments Transcript of oral arguments WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court ruled today that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who mount anti-gay protests outside military funerals, despite the pain they cause grieving families...

D.C. Circuit: Fired translator can sue Voice of America

Posted on March 01, 2011
WASHINGTON ? A former translator of U.S. broadcasts into Iran who was fired after making an Internet music video criticizing the Iraq War can continue her free-speech lawsuit under a ruling yesterday by a federal appeals court. Melodi Navab-Safavi said that in 2007 Voice of America terminated her contract for making an ?anti-American? video, two weeks after the band she sang with in her off hours posted its song on YouTube...

Ruling in funeral-protest case restates First Amendment principles

Posted on March 01, 2011
Today's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to back the right of a small Kansas church to protest outside military funerals is shocking ? and not surprising at all. Read more on Yahoo! News.

High court rejects corporate-privacy claim

Posted on February 28, 2011
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled today that corporations have no right of personal privacy to prevent the disclosure of documents under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the 8-0 opinion today in FCC v. AT&T, which reversed an appeals court ruling in favor of AT&T...

2nd Circuit upholds conviction in virtual child-porn case

Posted on February 28, 2011
ALBANY, N.Y. ? A federal appeals court yesterday upheld the child-pornography conviction of a New York man who superimposed the faces of teenage girls onto sexually explicit photographs of nude adults in his computer. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said in U...

S.D. to let news cameras in some courtrooms

Posted on February 28, 2011
PIERRE, S.D. ? The South Dakota Supreme Court has approved rules for allowing news cameras and electronic recording equipment in the state's trial-level courts, Chief Justice David Gilbertson announced yesterday. Television cameras, still cameras and audio-recording devices will be allowed in circuit court hearings and trials only when a judge and all parties to a case agree...

News outlets challenge media restrictions in N.C. trial

Posted on February 28, 2011
RALEIGH, N.C. — Media organizations challenged a judge?s decision to restrict coverage of a Cary man?s murder trial, arguing yesterday that rules such as prohibiting interviews outside the local courthouse infringe on the public?s right to access judicial proceedings...

Ariz. judge to allow live broadcast of sweat-lodge trial

Posted on February 27, 2011
CAMP VERDE, Ariz. ? A motivational speaker who led a sweat-lodge ceremony where three people died will have his manslaughter trial broadcast live, a judge has decided. Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Warren Darrow granted the request by In Session, formerly known as CourtTV, to televise James Arthur Ray's trial...

N.Y. judge: Seinfeld can mock cookbook author on TV

Posted on February 27, 2011
NEW YORK — A judge has thrown out a lawsuit by a cookbook author who accused Jerry Seinfeld of hurting her reputation by mocking her on national television. In a ruling filed with the court on Feb. 25, state Justice Marcy Friedman said it was clear the comedian was joking when he called author Missy Chase Lapine a ?wacko? during an appearance on the ?Late Show with David Letterman? in 2007...

High court turns away Ore. church's appeal in defamation case

Posted on February 27, 2011
WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court has refused to toss out a defamation award to a fired pastor, despite claims by the church that dismissed him that its actions are protected by the Constitution's religious freedom guarantees. The Court today rejected an appeal from the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Vernonia, Ore...

Ill. teen says high school suspended him for wearing rosary

Posted on February 27, 2011
COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — A southwestern Illinois high school student says he has been suspended for five days for wearing rosary beads to school. Collinsville High School sophomore Rodrigo Avila told St. Louis? KSDK-TV that he wore the beads for religious reasons and that he got them from his godfather as a gift...

Mass. town fires firefighter for Facebook postings

Posted on February 25, 2011
BOURNE, Mass. ? A veteran Bourne firefighter has been fired for posting comments critical of his superiors and other town officials on his Facebook page. Town Administrator Thomas Guerino released a ruling on Feb. 23 that said 16-year firefighter Richard Doherty had "disqualified himself" from his job because his postings "that ridicule and disparage" others were in violation of department rules...

Miss. governor signs new sunshine law

Posted on February 24, 2011
JACKSON, Miss. — Gov. Haley Barbour yesterday signed a bill to strengthen Mississippi?s open-meetings and public-records laws. Starting July 1, individual officials could face fines of $500 to $1,000 for improperly closing meetings that should be open to the public...

Federal judge blocks sale of polygamous sect's land

Posted on February 24, 2011
SALT LAKE CITY ? A federal judge yesterday said the state of Utah violated the constitutional rights of Warren Jeffs' polygamous church when it seized the faith's communal land trust and carved away its religious principles. U.S. District Judge Dee Benson's ruling makes permanent an injunction that blocks the state of Utah from selling off assets, land or property held in the United Effort Plan Trust...

Startup ordered to stop streaming TV programming online

Posted on February 23, 2011
WASHINGTON — In a key victory for television broadcasters, a federal court has ordered a Seattle startup called ivi Inc. to stop distributing broadcast signals over the Internet without broadcasters? consent. U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in New York issued a preliminary injunction against ivi on Feb...

Report released on 1970 killing of L.A. journalist

Posted on February 23, 2011
LOS ANGELES — For many in the Latino community, the 1970 killing of Mexican-American journalist Ruben Salazar had the look of a political assassination. The KMEX-TV news director and Los Angeles Times columnist was in an East Los Angeles bar, taking a break from covering an anti-war rally, when a sheriff's deputy blasted two tear gas canisters through the doorway...

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