First Amendment News

An opponent of a proposed Target store plans may possibly take his complaint about a Brown Act violation to the state Attorney General office after the local prosecutor found there was not enough evident to back his claim. –DB Santa Cruz Sentinel April 29, 2009 By Ramona Turner SCOTTS VALLEY — There is “not enough evidence” that Mayor Randy Johnson broke any Brown Act laws when he told a vocal Target store opponent to stick

Last November OMB Watch and others presented their recommendations to Obama for immediate actions needed to insure open government. OMB Watch said that the administration has made significant progress in the first 100 days, but among other things its use of the state secret privilege was troubling. -DB OMB Watch April 28, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. — In November 2008, OMB Watch, together with a diverse set of organizations and individuals, presented Barack Obama (who was

The Supreme Court skirted the issue of whether the ban on expletives in live broadcasts could run up against First Amendment protections but held that the ban was not arbitrary or capricious. -DB ABA Journal April 28, 2009 By Debra Cassens Weiss The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the power of the Federal Communications Commission to ban so-called fleeting expletives in live broadcasts. At issue is an FCC policy adopted in March 2004 that bans

Mindful of the importance of maintaining a vibrant press, the Washington legislature sent the governor a bill giving the strapped newspaper industry a temporary tax break. –DB First Amendment Center April 28, 2009 OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The Legislature has approved a measure to give the state’s struggling newspaper industry a temporary break on the state’s main business tax. The Senate passed the bill on a 46-2 vote on April 26. It passed the House

When a Missouri blogger ran a fake campaign backing a professional hockey player for mayor of a small town, he published a photo of his ballot with the player’s name written in. This ran afoul of state election laws prohibiting voters from allowing their ballot to be seen by others. Showing disdain for the intended comic nature of the campaign, a prosecutor is now threatening the blogger with criminal penalties. -DB Citizen Media Law Project