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donal brown

Opinion: First Amendment victory in case of UCLA student’s YouTube rant

donal brown March 21, 2011

Administrators at the University of California, Los Angeles said they had dropped their investigation into a student’s YouTube video in which she mocked Asian students. President of the Foundaton for Individual Rights In Education, Greg Lukianoff, praised the university’s action but said there were deep concerns about reported threats against the student. Lukianoff said, “We are pleased that UCLA will not attempt to punish Alexandra Wallace for her constitutionally protected speech. The cure for ‘bad’

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Colleges: Federal student privacy law conflicts with need for transparency

donal brown March 21, 2011

In a review of court cases involving the federal student privacy law or FERPA, the Student Press Law Center found that FERPA does not always sanction withholding student records from the media. Recent court decisions show that under FERPA states may have considerable leeway to set their own conditions for release of information. For instance, in a recent federal district court case regarding the release of records concerning a University of  Illinois admissions scandal, the

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Watchdog finds progress in federal agency compliance with FOIA

donal brown March 21, 2011

An analysis by OMB Watch shows that the Obama administration is gaining some traction in implementing procedures to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. -db From a press release by OMB Watch, March 16, 2011. OMB Watch Analysis Finds Obama Administration Slowly Rebuilding Government’s FOIA Performance WASHINGTON, March 16, 2011—Today, OMB Watch released an initial analysis of the Obama administration’s performance on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) implementation based on federal agency annual reports

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Opinion: Assange’s extradition to U.S. brings First Amendment protection

donal brown March 17, 2011

A former general consul of The New York Times writes that if WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is extradited to Sweden, he may soon after be dispatched to the United States and put on trial for leaking classified documents. But once in the U.S., Assange, like his publisher, The New York Times, would enjoy the protection of the First Amendment which would make it difficult for the Justice Department to successfully convict him. -db From a

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Opinion: Urging suicide not protected by First Amendment

donal brown March 17, 2011

Eugene Volokh of the law blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, argues that the verdict was just when a judge found that a former nurse inciting suicides during Internet chats was committing “Lethal Advocacy” not protected by the First Amendment and had therefore committed felonies in the suicides of two people. Volokh agreed with the judge that the state had a compelling interest to protect human life, “…given that solicitation of the murder — and even of

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