Its content-neutral nature did not save Fort Myers Beach ordinance from an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the law violated freedom of speech. A street preacher sued the town after he was fined for displaying signs with religious messages. The court found the ordinance too restrictive in eliminating a traditional American practice. (Courthouse News Service, June 28, 2022, by Megan Butler) The court noted, “a Fort Myers Beach resident may not hold a

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, pro-choice advocates are concerned that states will use online postings in criminal prosecutions. The National Right to Life Committee has written model legislation prohibiting “instructions over the telephone, the internet, or any other medium of communication” or “hosting or maintaining a website, or providing internet service, that encourages or facilitates efforts to obtain an illegal abortion.” (The Verge, June 25, 2022, by

Journalists covering the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas have been treated as enemies by police, threatened with arrest and harassed by self-appointed “Guradians of the Children.” In attempting to get at the details of the poor police response to the shootings, reporters have been barred from public meetings and refused information about how the police conducted themselves on May 24. (The Washington Post, June 28, 2022, by Arelis R. Hernandez and Paul Farhi) Reporters are

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider Coral Ridge Ministries Media v. South Poverty Law Center (SPLC), delaying consideration of the actual malice standard in defamation cases. The Eleventh Circuit had ruled that the SPLC had not acted with actual malice in adding the ministries to its Hate Map. (The Verge, June 27, 2022, by Adi Robertson) In dissent Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, “This case is one of many showing how New York Times and