Search

Categories

Total Results

No Record Found

View All Results
DONATE

Coalition News

Federal Judge rules in FAC case: US can keep secret a legal memo on drone strikes targeting US citizen

FAC April 15, 2014

In a national security case brought by the First Amendment Coalition, a federal judge has ruled that the Obama administration does not have to disclose a Justice Department legal memo explaining the legal rationale for drone strikes and, in particular, drone strikes abroad against suspected terrorists who are also US citizens. FAC’s suit, based on federal FOIA, was filed shortly after a September2011 drone strike in Yemen that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born Muslim cleric

Read More »

Attorneys Jean-Paul Jassy, Scott Lindlaw elected to FAC board of directors

FAC March 13, 2014

FAC is pleased to announce the recent election of two first amendment attorneys to its board of directors. Jean-Paul Jassy, a partner in the law firm Jassy Vick Carolan, has often worked with FAC on First Amendment cases. Most recently he represented FAC in a case against the LA County Sheriff for access to visitor logs for one of the LA jail’s high-profile inmates, John Noguez, the embattled LA County Assessor who faces multiple felony

Read More »

In settlement with FAC, LA County Jail releases inmate visitor log, agrees to relax secrecy rule

Peter Scheer December 5, 2013

SCHEER–As part of a legal settlement with the First Amendment Coalition, the Los Angeles County Jail has agreed to pull back its veil of secrecy on the identities of persons who visit incarcerated public officials. The jail’s prior policy had been to withhold—on grounds of privacy-protection–the names of visitors to all jail inmates. Going forward, the state’s biggest jail will apply a “presumption” of access when the requests (made under the Public Records Act) relate

Read More »

Supreme Court to hold oral argument in FAC case this Wednesday at Boalt Hall. Be there!

Peter Scheer October 7, 2013

Have a few hours to spare this Wednesday, Oct. 9? The California Supreme Court will hear arguments in FAC’s lawsuit against the State Bar (Case No. S194951), starting at 10am. The hearing is being held, not at the Court’s courtroom, but at the UC Berkeley School of Law, Room 215, Boalt Hall. FAC Board member James Chadwick is arguing for FAC. FAC’s co-plaintiff, UCLA Professor Richard Sander, will be represented by LA attorney Jean-Paul Jassy

Read More »

Victory for newspaper publisher Tim Crews and FAC in Appeals Court decision

FAC July 19, 2013

A state Court of Appeal has ruled that small-town California newspaper publisher Tim Crews does not have to pay legal fees to a school board he sued over his public records request. The unanimous decision (see Court of Appeal’s opinion below) represents a crucial victory for government transparency and a welcome success for the First Amendment Coalition, which was instrumental in organizing and underwriting Crews’ successful defense. “The appeals court’s decision makes clear that, in

Read More »