firstamendment

There are strong opinions as to whether details of divorces should be revealed to the public. Some argue that especially for public figures, the details can reveal to the voter important information about values and character. Others says that interest in divorce details is prurient and intimate revelations could needlessly damage reputations and hurt innocent people such as children. -DB Wall Street Journal May 28, 2009 By Dionne Searcey Disclosures during divorce proceedings often elicit

In defending his district against allegations made by the Kern County Grand Jury of open government violations, the school superintendent said that the school board published their agendas sufficiently and took public comment on the reassignment of a middle school principal. -DB Tehachapi News May 28, 2009 STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO GRAND JURY REPORT As you know, the Tehachapi Unified School District Board of Trustees made a decision to reassign a principal. The result of

Attorney and law professor David Hudson says that Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s decisions concerning the First Amendment does not reveal a set pattern indicating her direction in future rulings. -DB First Amendment Center Commentary May 28, 2009 By David L. Hudson Jr. Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s record doesn’t show a rigid, ideological outlook on First Amendment issues. Sotomayor — nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barrack Obama to replace the departing Justice David Souter —

A federal judge threw out Florida’s electioneering law holding that the law blocks political speech of groups discussing issues, even when they are not taking sides. The state plans to appeal the ruling. -DB Orlando Sentinel May 26, 2009 By Aaron Deslatte TALLAHASSEE, Flor. — Federal Judge Stephan Mickle has tossed out Florida’s electioneering communications law, effectively freeing groups that spend unlimited sums of money on attacking candidates from requirements to publicly disclose their donors.

While the Obama administration gets points for making an effect to involve the public in government, open government advocates and others say the effort needs a lot of tweaking especially in designing sites that are open to collaboration and creating web-based software programs so that government information is unified under one online offering. -DB NextGov May 27, 2009 By Aliya Sternstein President Obama was criticized during the presidential campaign for promoting himself as a community