Gene Policinski of the First Amendment Center argues that free speech zones run counter to the First Amendment guarantee of unrestricted free speech. If people do not want to hear the words or view the signs that may offend them, the best remedy would be to simply leave or look away. -db From a commentary from the First Amendment Center, April 15, 2011, by Gene Policinski. Full story
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted MediaPost’s request for a court document with details of Google’s compliance with an order for it to deactivate a Gmail user’s account. The court ruled the district court had not made the case that the public had no right to access the report. The dispute originated with a bank who had mistakenly sent sensitive customer data to a Gmail address and asked Google to provide information about
The American Civil Liberties Union has discovered that schools in Michigan, Texas, Pennsylvania and Virginia are using filers to block students from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender websites. The ACLU has sent letters to the schools to unlock the sites. The press release outlines the rights of students and the reasons they should have access to the sites, “When used by a public school, programs that block all LGBT content violate First Amendment rights to
A federal judge applied sanctions against Brooklyn’s Poly Country Day School, its trustees and current and former headmasters for stonewalling access to records that a late football coach allegedly committed a series of sexual molestations on students. In 2009 a number of alums accused the school of covering up the coach’s sexual abuses of dozens of students causing them in their later lives to abuse drugs, attempt suicide and be unable to develop healthy relationships.
A home construction firm is suing the City of Antioch claiming that the City Council discussed a development agreement last month in closed session and changed the terms of a resolution. That would violate the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law. The resolution concerns a $5 million project to widen a road from two to four lanes and a plan by the city to seek reimbursement from the construction firm for the expense. -db