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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]

Watch Now: "Fake News & First Amendment"

There was a sell-out crowd for our Sept. 19 Fake News Forum at Sonoma State University as our panel of legal and media professionals delved into the fake news phenomena. [Watch the Video Now!]

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

Fight continues over failure to release Mar-a-Lago visitor records

Groups pressing for open government are taking the Trump administration to court again over its failure to abide by a July court order to release records of presidential visitors to Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. (Bloomberg News, September 2017,by Bob Van Voris) After months of promises of full disclosure and delays,… ∞

Surveys show disturbing results for young people and First Amendment

A Brooking Institution survey revealed that one in five undergraduate college students approved of using violence to stop controversial speakers while a majority approved of disrupting speakers by shouting them down. Brookings also found that 44 percent of students said the First Amendment does not protect hate speech. (PJ Media,… ∞

Defamation lawsuit against Trump gets boost from law professors

Three law professors filed an amicus brief arguing that a sitting president, in this case, Donald Trump, does not enjoy immunity from civil suits. The amicus brief concerned a lawsuit against Trump by a woman who appeared on The Apprentice and later alleged that Trump had kissed and attacked her… ∞

Coalition News
FAC News & Initiatives

Los Angeles Settles Suit Filed By FAC, Agrees to Retain City Records For At Least Two Years

The city of Los Angeles has agreed it must retain city records for at least two years as part of a settlement agreement reached today with the First Amendment Coalition--a victory for transparency and government accountability in the nation’s second-largest city, and an assurance that the public will have the… ∞

Clara Hogan Named as FAC’s Communications and Programs Director

The First Amendment Coalition is pleased to announce the appointment of Clara Hogan, a journalist and communications specialist with substantial experience in the nonprofit sector, as FAC’s Communications and Programs Director. After starting her career in journalism as the managing editor of the 50,000-circulation student newspaper of the University of… ∞

FAC Seeks Nominations for 2017 Free Speech & Open Government Award

The First Amendment Coalition is soliciting nominees for the FAC Free Speech & Open Government Award, given each year for performance of exemplary work in the arena of open government. Qualifications for the award are outstanding accomplishment, service or other contributions to “the people’s right to know” about government. The… ∞

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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