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FAC sues Auburn for council members’ business emails sent from private email accounts. Suit also challenges email deletion policy.

Peter Scheer June 11, 2012

FAC–A new suit filed by the First Amendment Coalition claims that city officials’ emails about government business are public records even though they were sent or received on the officials’ personal email accounts. The suit, against the city of Auburn and Auburn’s City Council, also challenges the city’s policy–similar to that of many California cities and counties– of deleting most government emails shortly after they are received, regardless of their status under the Public Records

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AG Holder, in speech, describes al-Awlaki “lethal targeting” memo that is the subject of recent FAC suit

FAC March 15, 2012

FAC—Attorney General Eric Holder last week began the process of explaining the administration’s controversial policy regarding the “lethal targeting” of terrorists abroad who are also US citizens. Holder’s remarks offered a distillation of the legal rationale developed in a classified Department of Justice memo that is the subject of a First Amendment Coalition (FAC) lawsuit. The memo concerns al Qaeda operative al-Awlaki, a New Mexico-born American citizen who was killed in a US drone strike

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FAC sues Sacramento Council for emails discussing controversial voting map

Peter Scheer February 8, 2012

The First Amendment Coalition and a Sacramento community group have filed suit against the Sacramento City Council for access to Council emails and other records concerning a  controversial redistricting plan for Council districts that was adopted last summer. The suit, filed Friday by FAC and Eye on Sacramento, a local nonprofit, grows out of the Council’s refusal to disclose certain records requested by the organizations under the California Public Records Act. The withheld records include

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FAC sues Sacramento City Council for emails on redistricting plan

Peter Scheer February 7, 2012

The First Amendment Coalition and a Sacramento community group have filed suit against the Sacramento City Council for access to Council emails and other records concerning a  controversial redistricting plan for Council districts that was adopted last summer. The suit, filed Friday by FAC and Eye on Sacramento, a local nonprofit, grows out of the Council’s refusal to disclose certain records requested by the organizations under the California Public Records Act. The withheld records include

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FAC files amicus brief in US Supreme Court “false speech” case

Peter Scheer February 7, 2012

The First Amendment Coalition has filed an amicus brief in a US Supreme Court case, United States v. Alvarez,  that will test the limits of free speech protection for false speech.  FAC’s brief was written by lawyers Gary Bostwick, Jean-Paul Jassy and Kevin Vick of  LA law firm Bostwick & Jassy, LLP. The Alvarez case concerns a local politician in Southern California who was prosecuted under an obscure federal law, the Stolen Valor Act, which makes

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