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Coalition News

In Novel Brown Act Case, FAC Urges California Supreme Court to Keep Teeth in Open-Meetings Law

FAC October 23, 2020

Daly v. Board of Supervisors of San Bernardino County, No. S260209 Read the amicus brief filed by the First Amendment Coalition Court: California’s Supreme Court  About the case: The San Bernardino Board of Supervisors filled a vacant board seat through a secretive process, ignored judicial orders to correct the violation and kept the unlawfully appointed member in place until she appeared as the “incumbent” on the ballot. Both the trial court and court of appeal

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FAC Urges Court to End Gag Order on Rapper

FAC October 22, 2020

Caldwell v. People of California Read the amicus brief in Caldwell v. People of California on behalf of FAC, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Los Angeles Times Update: The gag order was vacated by the trial court on Oct. 22, 2020, at the request of LA District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s office. Court: California’s Second District Court of Appeal  About the case: A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge in March

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Introducing Our Police Transparency Guide

FAC October 6, 2020

The First Amendment Coalition today launched a comprehensive new handbook on accessing public records related to police misconduct and use of force in California.  The Police Transparency Guide provides an overview of California’s landmark access laws that make more categories of records available to the public, with the latest information about how courts across the state have interpreted them. The guide’s lead author, Tenaya Rodewald of the law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP,

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FAC Fights Secret Hearings in Death Penalty Case

FAC September 28, 2020

Motion by lawyers for Armando Cruz, charged in rape and murder of 13-year-old Bakersfield girl, seeks to block press and public from all pretrial hearings The First Amendment Coalition is fighting to ensure hearings in a Bakersfield death penalty case remain open to the press and public. FAC’s brief, now on file in Kern County Superior Court, urges a judge to reject a request for extraordinary secrecy in the case of Armando Cruz, a Southern

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Craig Newmark Philanthropies Commits $100K to FAC

FAC September 9, 2020

Gift fuels journalist training programs, open-government litigation and press freedom defense work  The First Amendment Coalition today announced a $100,000 gift from Craig Newmark Philanthropies to support the nonprofit’s work advancing government transparency, free speech and a free press.  The gift comes during an especially critical time for combatting government secrecy and threats to the First Amendment. Americans are demanding answers about police misconduct and the government’s response to the global pandemic. FAC is fighting

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