donal brown

The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is considering a lawsuit brought by a citizen journalist protesting her arrest, charges later dismissed, for publishing information obtained from a police officer before it was made public. The Loredo, Texas journalist claims that what she was doing was routine journalism, but Loredo lawyers said Priscilla Villarreal went through back channels, had an intent to benefit from the publication, and it was conduct, not free speech at issue.

In their defense of Fox News in the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over debunked claims of election fraud, Fox lawyers are not claiming truth as a defense but rather stating claims made by former president Donald Trump and his followers were newsworthy. The lawyers also said Dominion can’t prove actual malice. (NPR, January 23, 2023, by David Folkenflik) Not to be outdone in novel defenses against defamation lawsuits by Dominion, One America

In asking the Biden administration to weigh in on the constitutionality of Florida and Texas laws preventing social media companies from removing posts based on content, the court is delaying a decision on this key First Amendment issue. The court may now hear arguments no sooner than October. (The New York Times, January 23, 2023, by Adam Liptak) The court asked for the views of the solicitor general on the laws that would restrict Facebook,