donal brown

The Arizona Senate’s recount of the 2020 election in Maricopa County proceeded without the watchful eyes of reporters. Arizona Republicans are conducting the recount even without any credible evidence of fraud or erroneous procedures. A Senate press briefing left crucial questions unanswered including details of how the recount will be conducted and who is paying for the recount. A reporter for the Arizona Republic could only get into the recount building as a volunteer working

The U.S. Supreme is hearing an important First Amendment case this week on the California law requiring nonprofit groups to reveal the names and addresses of major donors. Conservative organizations claim the law puts an unconstitutional damper on freedom of association. The law, they say, “poses an imminent danger of hate mail, violence, ostracization and boycotts. Only the most stalwart supporters will give money under such a toxic cloud.” Those supporting the law argue that

The American Civil Liberties Union wants to bring transparency to the foreign intelligence wiretapping court with the argument to the Supreme Court that the public has a First Amendment right to view the secret rulings. The wiretapping court was established by Congress in 1978 to establish a warrant requirement for wiretapping domestically in intelligence or counter terrorism investigations. (The New York Times, April 19, 2021, by Charlie Savage) The George W. Bush Solicitor General Theodore

A new study shows a “a marked and previously undocumented uptick in negative depictions of the press by the U.S. Supreme Court.” The investigators examined every reference to the news media in the court since 1784. Said one of the authors of the study, law professor RonNell Andersen Jones, “Some shift might be expected. But the uniformity and degree of it was pretty staggering. On every meaningful measure we could come up with, the current

In addition to suppress-the-vote laws, state Republican lawmakers are introducing anti-protest laws in reaction to Black Lives Matter protests even though most of the protests have been peaceful. Some 29 states have introduced or passed laws that would restrict demonstrations, curb free speech rights with severe penalties for participating in violent protests including fines, jail time and withholding public employment, benefits and political office. (The Guardian, April 12, 2021, by Adam Gabbatt) A anti-protest law