First Amendment News

In about 80 percent of Tenneessee schools, students are blocked from information about gay, bisexual or transgender issues. ACLU is threatening to file a suit to provide access to the informational sites that are free of obscenity. -DB eSchool News April 20, 2009 The American Civil Liberties Union has asked public school officials in Tennessee to stop blocking students’ access to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender web sites on school computers — or face a

The Obama administration is looking at the extensive interceptions of private e-mail and phone calls by the National Security Agency to determine if the practices exceed authority granted by Congress last July. -DB The New York Times April 16, 2009 By Eric Lichtblau and James Risen WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits

A concurring opinion in a court’s decision for public employee free speech strikes a blow against a 2006 Supreme Court judgment. Judge J. Harvey Wilkinson III found more value in airing of grievances than in maintaining government efficiency. -DB The First Amendment Center April 14, 2009 Commentary By Douglas Lee J. Harvey Wilkinson III’s concurring opinion in Andrew v. Clark is not a clarion call to halt the recent erosion of public employees’ free speech

The Department of Homeland Security released an assessment that predicted increased activity from extremists and hate groups. Some criticized the report for its bias against conservatives, but the department said their efforts are concentrated on violent activity and not political beliefs and ideologies. -DB Secrecy News Federation of American Scientists April 15, 2009 By Steven Aftergood “The consequences of a prolonged economic downturn–including real estate foreclosures, unemployment, and an inability to obtain credit–could create a

A Louisiana newspaper won a defamation suit that a jet fuel supplier brought against it for reporting that the company provided contaminated fuel to military jets. The supplier failed to show the newspaper was negligent in reporting the story. –DB The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press April 16, 2009 By Samantha Fredrickson A defamation lawsuit brought by a Louisiana jet fuel supplier against a local newspaper was thrown out by a federal appellate