donal brown

A Justice Department report last week concluded that police in Ferguson, Missouri acted on orders to make protesters move on, violating their rights to assembly and free speech. Withholding information about the police shooting of Michael Brown also aggravated the unrest and increased animosity toward the authorities. (The Christian Science Monitor, June 320, 2015, by Jim Salter and Eric Tucker of The Associated Press) The report, “Press Freedom Under Fire in Ferguson,” last October also

A citizen in Hamilton Township in New Jersey was sued by the town for requesting surveillance footage of town buildings under the Open Public Records Act. A judge stepped up to end this bizarre lawsuit that had tried to get the judge to rule that the citizen would be barred from making any future open records requests and to pay the town’s legal fees. “A public policy that gives a government agency the right to

A new University of California faculty training guide detailing phrases that might cause students to feel discriminated against has drawn widespread criticism. The guide is meant to promote an atmosphere of “inclusive excellence” on campus. Included in a list of taboo statements are “American is the land of opportunity;” “affirmative action is racist;” “everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough;” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”(Fox

The Los Angeles County district attorney will not take any legal action but admonished the Burbank school board for violating the Brown Act for failing to report naming a finalist in its quest for a superintendent. Since the selection of the finalist has long since become public, the DA said it would not serve any purpose to pursue the matter. (The Burbank Leader, June 23, 2015, by Keyy Corrigan) An editorial in The Burbank Leader,

Reason Magazine obtained a ruling vacating a federal district court gag order barring it from discussing a subpoena it received for records of six individuals who made intemperate comments on Reason’s website about the federal judge who presided over the trial of the founder of the drug website Silk Road. (Reason, June 19, 2015, by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch) One of the comments suggested “feeding her [the judge] through a chipper.” “Considering that federal