donal brown

Florida lost the first round in their battle to impose criminal penalties for protesters after they argued those bringing the suit had no standing and the legal issues weren’t in play as yet. Those challenging the law argued that the law was overbroad and could criminalize someone who is merely present where violence or property destruction occurs. (Tallahassee Democrat, August 12, 2021, by Dara Kam of News Service of Florida) The law HB 1 establishes

The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals partially upheld one of Iowa’s ag-gag laws after a lower court ruling found the law unconstitutional. Over the last nine years, the Iowa passed four laws to prevent animal rights activists from becoming employees and recording practices in livestock facilities. The court ruled that states should be allowed to criminalize false statements in the course of trespass, that is, a person could be charged with a crime for

Florida enacted a law to go into effect July 1 banning Florida businesses from requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination to receive services. The ban also applies to non-profits, schools, and state and local government agencies. Stiff fines await those out of compliance with the new law. (JDSupra, May 13, 2021) A Florida judge issued a preliminary injunction August 8 in a lawsuit by the Norwegian Cruise Line. The judge ruled the law likely violated the

Twitter announced that it would collaborate with the Associated Press and Reuters to combat lies on its platform. The news agencies will provide context to events to help Twitter attach labels to tweets or compile information about a topic. (Reuters, August 2, 2021, by Sheila Dang) The company has established a Curation team to add explanatory content, but the collaboration will better enable Twitter to provide accurate and authoritative information to fast moving news topics.