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Coalition News

UCLA Turns Over Video of Contentious Event with Treasury Secretary After Public Records Requests Flood in

FAC March 12, 2018

Photo credit: UCLA The University of California Los Angeles has turned over video footage of a contentious event with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in which he was interrupted by heckling student protesters. The university initially refused to publish the material after Mnuchin’s “revoked his consent” for it to be shared publicly, but the school eventually gave in after a flood of public requests from the First Amendment Coalition and other groups. The moderated discussion

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Amici Briefs Digest – March 2018

FAC March 7, 2018

Here are amicus briefs and/or letters FAC has either authored or joined since Dec. 2018: FAC Authored Amicus Briefs Brazil v. Newark Unified: On February 2, FAC filed an amicus brief that we co-authored with the ACLU in a trial court proceeding.  This was a fairly unusual move for FAC.  We have generally steered clear of trial-court amicus briefs for a number of reasons, including (a) trial court rulings have limited or no impact beyond

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FAC Fights Unprecedented Effort by School District to Recover Nearly $500K From Records Requester

FAC February 6, 2018

The First Amendment Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday submitted a friend-of-court brief arguing that an effort by the Newark Unified School District to recover nearly half a million dollars in attorneys’ fees from a woman who requested public records under the California Public Records Act is legally meritless, unprecedented, and would cast an intolerable chill over the public’s ability to learn about their government. Newark Unified has asked the Alameda County

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First Amendment Attorney Duffy Carolan Elected President of FAC Board of Directors

FAC January 15, 2018

The First Amendment Coalition is pleased to announce the election of Duffy Carolan, an esteemed First Amendment lawyer and longtime board member, as president of FAC’s Board of Directors. Carolan, a former journalist who has spent her career defending the First Amendment, is one of the country’s foremost champions of free speech and access to government information. As a partner at the Jassy, Vick, Carolan firm in San Francisco, Carolan represents a wide range of

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Victory for FAC’s Subpoena Defense Initiative 

FAC January 2, 2018

A reporter for Berkeleyside, a daily news website in Berkeley, California, will not be required to testify in a criminal trial after FAC’s Subpoena Defense Initiative helped secure attorneys to protect the journalist’s rights under the state’s shield law. Emilie Raguso, a senior reporter at the outlet, received a subpoena last month to testify in the criminal trial of William Turner, who was at the center of a case she covered. Lacking legal counsel to

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