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freedom of speech

Time to Bring California’s Open Meeting Law into the 21st Century

Peter Scheer September 30, 2015

BY PETER SCHEER—-California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, was enacted four decades before the arrival of the internet, a quarter century before the first commercial fax machines, and even a few years before “xerox” copying went mainstream. In all the years since, the Brown Act has been amended in ways big and small, but it has never been revised to tap the power of digital technology. Legislative bodies subject to the Brown Act operate

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A&A: Yelp violates right to freedom of speech by “filtering” good reviews out, leaving bad ones in!

FAC May 15, 2012

Q:  My reputation has been attacked by a few Yelpers, who never used my services, or met me.   However, my concern is that right now about 75% of my positive reviews are “filtered” while all the negatives mostly stay at the top! Apparently, Yelp is not interested in real experience of those who really use my services.  At the same time negative reviews posted for some businesses are filtered in large number. For me the

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A&A: Can I be kicked off advisory committee for blogging about politics?

FAC March 5, 2012

A: I am a member of a Citizens Advisory Committee. It has quasi status as a ”affiliated” committee with the city, as it advises the city on federal grant funding within the citizen participation plan. I publish a blog which is very critical of political opponents. Last week, members of the committee tried to kick me off claiming my writing outside the committee was considered inflammatory. I believe this is prior restraint and a violation

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Muhammad Ali a central figure in unfolding of First Amendment rights

donal brown January 23, 2012

Muhammad Ali, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, “embodies the essence of the First Amendment,” writes David L. Hudson Jr., of the First Amendment Center. Hudson shows how Ali was at the “vortex of…First Amendment freedoms,” freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition.  -db From a commentary for the First Amendment Center, January 21, 2012, by David L. Hudson Jr. Full story

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Safety trumps speech at Morgan Hill high school

FAC November 14, 2011

A Morgan Hill high school acted legally when it ordered students to conceal T-shirts bearing American flags on Cinco de Mayo, a federal judge ruled. Because Mexican American and Anglo students had previously wrangled about clothing on Cinco de Mayo, Live Oak High School officials reasonably anticipated campus disruption and safety problems, U.S. District Judge James Ware of San Francisco said. A lawyer for the students wearing the U.S. flag said he would appeal, the San

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