donal brown

A federal judge for the District of Columbia ruled that the FBI failed to follow Justice Department guidelines in 2019 when they questioned freelance reporter Bryan Carmody during a raid of his home. The Reporters Committee had filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to find out the details of FBI involvement in the raid. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, November 15, 2021, by Chris Young) For related FAC coverage, click here, here

Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times, November 12, 2021, reports a dramatic increase of censorship in U.S. schools and libraries this year partly fueled by fears of marginalized groups about critical race theory. “This spreading moral panic [among the marginalized] demonstrates, yet again, why the left needs the First Amendment,” writes Goldberg, “even if the veneration of free speech has fallen out fashion among some progressives. Absent a societal commitment to free expression, the

San Diego County supervisors stiffened their policies on public participation at meetings after a citizen said he wanted three supervisors dead and hurled a racial slur at a county public health officer. (Times of San Diego, November 10, 2021, by Elizabeth Ireland) The San Diego Project for Open Government took exception to the new policies, promising litigation if the council failed to make changes, particularly to the limits in minutes allowed speakers at board meetings.

A House of Representatives committee is seeking White House records on the January 6 insurrection as former President Donald Trump claims executive privilege in a bid in federal courts to block the committee’s request. Trump’s maneuvers seem ill-fated as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1977 in a case involving former President Richard Nixon, “The privilege [executive privilege] is not for the benefit of the President as an individual, but for the benefit of the

The 2,740 page federal infrastructure bill that just passed included provisions shielding information the public needs to evaluate its programs. One of the nine exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act exempts records required to be withheld under other statues. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, November 8, 2021, by Adam A. Marshall) The bill would allow distribution of broadband funds to telecommunications companies and the spending of that money without public scrutiny. (The