Courthousehouse News Service January 12, 2011 By Chie Akiba A California court will hear some spirited argument in the upcoming defamation trial of Courtney Love for an online message calling a fashion designer an “asswipe nasty lying hosebag thief.” Love’s attorneys will argue that the message was protected opinion and also true in its essence and therefore not libelous. -db
First Amendment Center’s David Hudson hopes that in deciding whether voting by elected officials is a form of free speech, the U.S. Supreme Court does not apply Garcetti v. Ceballos which severely limits employees’ free speech rights. -db First Amendment Center Jandudary 11, 2011 By David L. Hudson Jr. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide in Commission on Ethics of the State of Nevada v. Carrigan whether voting by elected officials is a form of
Courthouse News Service January 11, 2011 By Bridget Freeland The parents of a seventh grader sued two of their daughter’s classmates and their parents for defamation alleging that the parents allowed their children to hack into the girl’s Gmail, pose as the girl and post “vile, sexual and violent” comments including that the girl was pregnant by her brother. -db
A federal appeals court ruled that releasing images, video and audio recordings concerning a murder in a Colorado federal prison would violate the privacy of the murdered prisoner’s family. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press January 11, 2011 By Christine Beckett Releasing certain images, video and audio recordings regarding a prison murder and mutilation would violate the personal privacy of the prisoner’s family, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver (10th Cir.)
The Supreme Court has consented to hear two cases on the reach of the First Amendment, one on whether a vote cast by a public official is protected and another on whether information on physicians’ prescriptions is protected. -db First Amendment Center January 11, 2011 By Tony Mauro WASHINGTON — As well-developed as First Amendment law is, a threshold question still sometimes arises in cases that make their way to the Supreme Court: What does