The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of an Ogden, Utah gang member who sought to overturn an injunction forbidding members of his gang from associating with each other. -db From The Salt Lake Tribune, June 4 2012, by Nate Carlisle. Full story
A federal judge ruled that clicking the “like” button on Facebook was “insufficient speech” to warrant protection under the First Amendment. But First Amendment Center President Ken Paulson does not see how pressing the like button is any different from saying “I like such and such a candidate,” obviously protected speech. -db From a commentary for the First Amendment Center, May 31, 2012, by Ken Paulson. Full story
Media organizations have improvised new ways of providing real-time coverage of the historic argument in the federal health care reform cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this week in spite of the court’s rejection of requests for live video coverage. The Wall Street Journal used a team of reporters, some of whom left the proceedings to provide an up-to-date report. -db From the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, March 27, 2012, by Kristen
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected C-SPAN’s request to broadcast its March 26-28 hearing on the federal healthcare law but will allow the media same-day audio transcripts. “Every American should have the opportunity to see and hear this landmark case as it plays out, not just the select few allowed in the courtroom. The health care reform law has ramifications for the entire country. Video coverage would help with the public’s understanding of not only the
Open government got a boost when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11 to 7 to allow Supreme Court sessions to be televised. Under the proposed law, the court could still vote to turn off the cameras if they felt the cameras could violate the due process rights of any of the parties before the Court. -db From a commentary for the Citizen Media Law Project, February 9, 2012 by Arthur Bright. Full story