donal brown

Conservatives in Congress and in the courts are attacking scholars and private companies that study the spread of falsehoods online. They are tying up their adversaries with information requests and subpoenas for records of communications and notes, harming their ability to do research and raise money. (The New York Times, June 19, 2023, by Steven Lee Myers and Sheera Frenkel) In a related matter, Microsoft has launched a project to enable the public to find

Former Fox executive Preston Padden in Daily Beast, June 14, 2023, asks the question, is it time for the Federal Communications Commission to consider revoking Fox broadcasting licenses? Section 308 (b) of the Communications Act requires the FCC to assess the character of those licensed to broadcast on public airwaves. In the Dominion defamation case, Rupert Murdock’s admitted that Fox repeatedly disseminated falsehoods about the 2020 election. The FCC is limited in its power to

Local government officials are striking back at newspapers they consider to have given them unfair press by revoking their contracts to publish public notices. In the case of a Delhi, New York newspaper, The Reporter, that meant a loss of $13,000 a year, a crippling blow for a newspaper with 4,000 subscribers. The Reporter filed a First Amendment lawsuit and negotiated a settlement of a renewed contract for four years and $50,000 in damages and

The Supreme Court has yet to rule on three cases that could reshape First Amendment law. United States v. Hansen concerns whether the law against encouraging immigration chills speech; Counterman v. Colorado concerns whether someone can be convicted of making true threats without proof that they subjectively intended to threaten the listener; 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis deals with whether a public-accommodation law can regulated an artist’s expression. Next term the court will hear the

Law professor Heidi Kitrosser, Lawfare, June 13, 2023, writes that a provision of the Espionage Act was used by the Trump administration to charge five individuals for leaking information to the press. This is the same provision used to indict Trump, but several of those indicted by the Trump administration sought to release important information to the public or report abuses in government. “There is no magic formula,” writes Kitrosser, “that will strike a perfect