First Amendment News

To influence legislators and voters, lobbyists spent $553 million in the California state capitol last year and rarely lost a legislative battle. -DB Sacramento Bee March 29, 2009 By Shane Goldmacher Special interests spent a record $553 million lobbying California state government in the past two years. For them, it was money well spent. Makers of chemical fire- retardants poured in more than $9 million to kill a ban on fire-proofing chemicals in furniture that

Even though according to their policy, the Daily Press of Victorville, California was not going to print the name of a victim of sexual abuse, they were alarmed at the judge’s order to withhold the name which they saw as an attempt to impose censorship on the free press. -DB Daily Press March 30, 2009 By Natasha Lindstrom VICTORVILLE, Calif. – A local judge on Monday ordered a Daily Press reporter not to print the

A federal judge ruled that the Bureau of Prisons must either provide records to the Prison Legal News or show that their refusal to provide the records was proper under FOIA guidelines for exemptions. -DB Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press March 30, 2009 By Ahnalese Rushmann The federal Bureau of Prisons was ordered by a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to either look again for records requested by a legal

Newspapers, including recently the New York Times, are suing under the Freedom of Information Act for documents on the bailout they have been unable to obtain from the Obama administration. -DB Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press March 30, 2009 By Hannah Bergman Realizing litigation may be the best option to receive records related to the financial industry bailout, yet another news organization lawsuit has joined the FOIA lawsuit parade. The New York Times

A First Amendment Center senior scholar says that a recent decision ending a school-sponsored religious service in a Florida school strengthens religious freedom and does nothing to prevent students from exercising their free speech rights in praying by themselves or in groups so long as their prayers do not disrupt the school or interfere with the rights of others. -DB First Amendment Center March 29, 2009 Commentary By Charles C. Haynes Hundreds of Christians rallied