donal brown

A federal district judge failed to reinstate a state attorney suspended by Governor Ron De Santis but seemed inclined to favor the argument that Andrew Warren was denied his free speech rights. Warren had signed statements pledging not to prosecute cases of abortion or transgender health care. The judge said the statements were not official actions so protected by the First Amendment. The judge wants a speedy trial to settle the matter. (Tampa Bay Times,

Politico founding editor John Harris argues that criticism from the right and left about matters of bias, objectivity and detachment miss the point, that “the classic critique from the right about bias and the new critique from the left about false equivalency often strike me as frivolous.” “The point is,” writes Harris, “that the power of journalism comes from the primacy of reporting — from telling their audiences things that people in power would prefer

The National Rifle Association (NRA) lost a First Amendment claim against the New York insurance regulator in the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court ruled that the regulator did not violate the NRA’s free speech rights when she warned banks and insurance companies about the risks of doing business with the NRA. The court found that the remarks did not contain implied threats to the institutions so could not be taken as government

California passed a law that makes social media companies reveal the details of their policies on hate speech, harassment, extremism, lies and foreign political interference. It also requires the companies to report how they enforce policies. According to Governor Gavin Newsom the law will help combat the way “social media is weaponized to spread hate and disinformation that threaten our communities and foundational values as a country.” (Fox News, September 14, 2022, by Julia Musto)