Coalition News

The First Amendment Coalition was named a 2020 recipient of the James Madison Freedom of Information Award given by the Society of Professional Journalists’ NorCal Chapter in recognition of organizations and individuals who have advanced principles of free speech and open government. In recognizing FAC as the nonprofit awardee, SPJ NorCal highlighted FAC’s strategic litigation in Northern California and beyond that led to greater access to government records. From SPJ NorCal’s announcement: When San Francisco

FAC and the Committee to Protect Journalists sent a letter to San Francisco Mayor London Breed today requesting a meeting about steps the city can take to ensure press freedom.  The letter asked Breed to address police officers’ use of five warrants to search the home, office and electronics of freelance journalist Bryan Carmody as part of an investigation into how he obtained a police report. Noting that the mayor in May said that the

The First Amendment Coalition has prevailed in a lawsuit against the city of Bakersfield, with a judge ruling that the city council violated open-government laws when it held three closed-door sessions to discuss city finances and then refused to release public records related to those meetings.  The ruling, a complete victory for FAC and Californians Aware, which sued to enforce California’s open-meetings and open-records laws, requires the city to turn over records, record any future