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First Amendment Coalition

Amicus filed to Protect Political Speech

FAC has filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review and reverse a decision that punished a political candidate for speech that should have been protected. [Read More]

FAC to California Court of Appeal: The Public Can’t See What No Longer Exists

FAC Works To Stop Destruction of Records

FAC tells the Calif. Court of Appeal that no requester of public records should have to get a court order to prevent the government from destroying records. [Read More]

FAC Suit Tackles Use of “Reverse CPRA”

By using a “reverse CPRA,” the Milpitas city manager was able to get a court order barring disclosure of records about his own alleged misconduct–without any argument by proponents of disclosure. [Read more]

First Amendment News

Opinion /Coalition News/1st Amendment News/Asked & Answered

On Access
Opinion from Executive Director David Snyder

Memo to Future Historians of the Trump Presidency: Good Luck. You’ll Need It.

BY DAVID SNYDER --Tucked into a February 13 Washington Post article about internal chaos at the White House is a stunning sentence, slipped in almost as an aside: White House “[s]taffers, meanwhile, are so fearful of being accused of talking to the media that some have resorted to a secret… ∞

How Trump’s War on Free Speech Threatens the Republic

BY DAVID SNYDER—On May 17, while delivering a graduation speech to cadets at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, a scandal-plagued President Donald Trump took the opportunity to complain, yet again, about the news media. No leader in history, he said, has been treated as unfairly as he… ∞

Gmail Nation: The Privatization of Public Records and Public Access

By DAVID SNYDER—The California Supreme Court ruled last month that records stored on government officials’ personal email accounts are subject to the California Public Records Act. This answer seems obvious: government officials should not be able to conceal otherwise public records by simply using Gmail. And yet the law has… ∞

First Amendment News
Headlines from Across the Country

Armed vigilantes at political events cramp free speech

An editorial in The New York Times, August 18, 2017, after the Charlottesville violence, questions the viability of open carry at political demonstrations. Armed self-appointed militias in military garb are showing up ostensibly to enforce law and order but act as a major force of intimidation of peaceful protestors. "These… ∞

Ninth federal appeals court upholds San Francisco law banning new billboards

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected a First Amendment lawsuit against a San Francisco ordinance banning new commercial billboards except for ones attached to buildings that pertain to the businesses inside. The ordinance exempts noncommercial messages. The judges found that billboards can pose significant public safety hazards and… ∞

Transparency: Trump wins federal court case on release of his income tax records

A federal judge denied a request of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) for President Donald Trump's income tax records. The judge acknowledged the public interest in seeing the records but found no legal justification for forcing Trump to provide them. "...there are two established routes that could offer relief:… ∞

Coalition News
FAC News & Initiatives

FAC Urges U.S. Supreme Court to Protect Core Political Speech

The First Amendment Coalition today filed a “friend of court” brief in the United States Supreme Court, urging that court to review and reverse a decision by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals that punished a political candidate for speech that should have been protected under the First Amendment.… ∞

Joint Statement from FAC and EFF on DOJ Leaks Investigations

Jeff Sessions’ Statement About Leak Investigations Raises Deeply Disturbing Issues For Journalists, Transparency Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement today that the Department of Justice has tripled its number of “active leak investigations” in the past six months, and that DOJ is “reviewing policies affecting media subpoenas” raised serious red flags… ∞

FAC to California Court of Appeal: The Public Can’t See What No Longer Exists

FAC recently filed a “friend of court” brief in a California Court of Appeal case addressing an issue of critical importance to the public’s ability to obtain records under the California Public Records Act: should a CPRA requester be required to get a court order—an injunction—to prevent the government from… ∞

Asked & Answered
Questions Answered by FAC Lawyers

A&A: Are state Task Force meetings covered under the Brown Act?

Q: The state has assembled a Task Force and advertises its meetings (quietly) but claims they are not public meetings. They’ve said I can’t attend. In fact I don’t even know whether the meetings take place at a physical location or are mere conference calls. I believe they are public meetings because the Task Force is […]

A&A: Does Brown Act allow vote to be changed after a meeting adjourns?

Q: I recently witnessed a Planning Commission vote which was changed after adjournment. There is a “protocol” listed on the city’s website that says a vote can be changed within 48 hours. That sounds like a violation of the Brown Act to me. A: Given that, per the Brown Act, legislative bodies are generally required to conduct […]

A&A: Requests for crime reports denied by police department

Q: I am a reporter, and I’ve been having trouble obtaining crime reports from our local police department. I’ve requested crime reports twice and both times I’m told that they are being withheld because of Government Code section 6254(f). To be clear, one time I requested all crime reports that had been filed over a […]

Legal Hotline

The Legal Hotline gives users quick, free access to FAC’s lawyers for questions about access to public records; your right to attend government meetings; access to court documents and proceedings; and first amendment protections for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Asked & Answered

A searchable database of questions posed by users like you about their rights under public records laws, open government laws, and first amendment safeguards that have been answered by FAC’s attorneys.

Access to Records

FAC’s incomparable resources for using California and federal to obtain public records, including FAC’s CPRA Primer; the text of the CPRA, and a template for a CPRA request letter for use in requesting public records

Access to Meetings

Links to all of FAC’S resources for California’s open-meetings law, the Brown Act, including our Brown Act Primer on how the law works; the text of the The Ralph M. Brown Act, and a sample “Cure & Correct” demand letter to report a violation of the law.

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