donal brown

Scholar Alexander Volokh of the Emery University School of Law, February 15, 2024, writes that the nation’s private universities have a strong First Amendment argument in defense of affirmative action. Given Boy Scouts of America v. Dale and 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, Volokh finds that almost all of a university’s activities are pure speech so given a right against compelled speech and a commitment to diversity, “The university’s expressive-association right can include the ability

Former journalist Timothy Burke is facing charges of hacking and leaking behind-the-scenes clips of Tucker Carlson while Carlson was still at Fox News. Burke is charged with seven counts of unauthorized disclosure of electronic communications. (CNN, February 22, 2024, by Oliver Darcy) A Freedom of the Press Foundation director Seth Stern, February 22, 2024, criticized the law used by Justice Department prosecutors to bring the charges, “The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is a vague,

The Justice Department’s guidelines released early in February limit prosecutors in seeking reporters’ records. They may only subpoena records in certain circumstances particularly if the journalist is the subject of an investigation, if information is need to prevent a serious crime and if the information is public or the journalist agrees to the disclosure of the information. (CNN, February 14, 2024, by Hannah Rabinowitz) For related FAC coverage, click here, here and here.

After failing in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is still complaining that the conservative media failed to hold Donald Trump accountable, in particular, for Trump’s failure to pass any significant legislation during his presidency. (The New York Times, February 21, 2024, by Shane Goldmacher) In a video conference with 200 of his backers, DeSantis reiterated his earlier criticism of the media made during his campaign, “I mean, he said

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied an en banc request to rehear a case contesting California’s law restricting an ad for firearms that “reasonably appears to be attractive to minors.” (Reason, February 20, 2024, by Eugene Volokh) No judge asked for a rehearing on September 9th Circuit ruling that affirmed the gun rights groups’ argument that the law restricting the marketing of guns to minors was overly broad and content-based and thus a