donal brown

The Peoria, Illinois mayor cost his city $125,000 after venting his dislike of  a satirical Twitter post by ordering police to raid the offender’s home. The homeowner Jon Daniel sued in federal court and settled without going to trial. (Gawker, September 5, 2015, by Brendan O’Connor) The town claimed they could have won in court and only settled to save the city from a long expensive legal battle, but legal experts contend that the Twitter

Greater transparency looms for the California bar as the legislature considers putting the agency under the state’s open records and open meetings laws. The bar is the only state licensing agency to operate in the dark. (Sacramento Business Journal, September 1, 2015, by Kathy Robertson) The bar has been reluctant to comply with the legislature’s demands for transparency and recently fired the executive director but withheld documents justifying the action. (The Recorder, August 28, 2015,

The California state legislature is considering laws restricting drones, one barring drones from flying over schools, another over prisons and a third prohibiting them from flying lower than 350 feet above private property. (The Sacramento Bee, August 29, 2015, by Jeanne Kuang) With no rules set by the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), already more than 26 states have passed their own drone regulations. The drone industry opposes California’s proposed law limiting  the height that drones

The District of Columbia federal appeals court swept protesters off the Supreme Court plaza ruling that the plaza was not a free speech forum. The ruling reversed a 2013 lower court decision holding that the 1949 no-protest federal law violated the First Amendment. (The Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2015, by Jess Brevin) Judge Sri Srinivasan said the plaza was designed as an extension of the court and therefore restrictions on speech need only to