First Amendment News

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

Open government advocates were concerned that a judge agreed to keep the existence of a lawsuit against a prominent actress secret. But the judge admitted error, reversed herself and ordered the case unsealed. –DB Los Angeles Times April 25, 2009 By Harriet Ryan A judge who kept a lawsuit involving actress Sharon Stone hidden from public view for six months acknowledged Friday that she made a mistake and ordered the case unsealed. In a statement

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed suit on behalf of the non-profit BlueWiki to protect their right to discuss making Apple iPods and iPhones interoperate with software other than Apple’s. –DB Electronic Frontier Foundation April 27, 2009 Press Release SAN FRANCISCO – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against Apple Inc. today to defend the First Amendment rights of an operator of a noncommercial, public Internet “wiki” site known as BluWiki. EFF and the

When journalism students from the The State Hornet of Sacramento State tried to obtain financial interest records from local school districts, the university administration suggested that the record requests were irresponsible. -DB CalAware April 23, 2009 PUBLIC INFORMATION/FREE PRESS — A recent audit of 18 Sacramento area public education institutions organized by Californians Aware (CalAware) shows serious ignorance of citizens’ rights to public information—and may have prompted an attempt to censor the student journalists who