Coalition News

CFAC is awaiting a decision in an appeal of its trial court victory against Santa Clara County for release of the county’s digital “basemap” of real estate parcels, which can be used in various digital mapping applications. Santa Clara County, which has licensed the basemap for tens-of-thousands of dollars, now claims release of the files threatens national security and is barred by federal Homeland Security regulations. Appeals Court judges quizzed lawyers for both sides in

CFAC has joined a legal brief urging the federal Court of Appeals in Boston to allow the webcasting of court hearings in a music file-sharing lawsuit filed by the recording industry. Although TV cameras are permitted in California state trial courts on a case-by-case basis, few federal courts have allowed cameras since an experiment in the 1990s—and the discretion of individual federal district court judges to permit cameras is unclear. The brief, filed yesterday, was

CFAC’s lawsuit against the State Bar for bar exam records relevant to research on law schools’ affirmative action policies has moved forward. CFAC successfully turned back an attempt by a group of lawyers, who claim to be interested in the confidentiality of the Bar data, to intervene in the case to block disclosure. At a hearing on Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, the lawyers’ group’s motion to intervene was denied, although the group is

The San Francisco Chronicle and Sacramento Bee have endorsed a lawsuit by the California First Amendment Coalition and MAPlight.org to open the state Legislature’s entire database of bills, votes and amendments to public view. The state currently allows the public to see only one bill at a time — in a form that makes it difficult if not impossible to analyze the information with computer techniques. In a signed column on Dec. 7, Chronicle Editorial

Every election day brings confusion about what reporters (and bloggers or other journalists) can and cannot do in the close proximity of polling places. Here’s are the provisions of California law governing newsgathering activities at polling places while the polls are open: 18541. (a) No person shall, with the intent of dissuading another person from voting, within 100 feet of a polling place, do any of the following: (1) Solicit a vote or speak to