First Amendment News

EFF warns that the Pentagon is poised to transfer military surveillance drones to local law enforcement, a move that would enable police to use drones to closely monitor protests. Police could use face surveillance technology to identify everyone in a protest chilling political expression. (Electronic Frontier Foundation, September 21, 2021, by Matthew Guariglia) Congressional representatives introduced proposals this week to restrict or end program 1033 that authorizes the transfer of national defense equipment to local

Support for free expression on college campuses is slipping according to FIRE’s 2021 report. Sixty-six percent of students indicate they would have some level of acceptance for shouting down speakers, up 4 points from 2020, and 23 percent find it acceptable to use violence to stop certain speech, up 5 points. Claremont McKenna and the University of Chicago are the top two colleges for free speech and Marquette and Depauw the two worst. (Foundation for

A judge ruled that the New York Times, Washington Post and the Associated Press and other news outlets could join a lawsuit against Florida to obtain information about the Covid-19 pandemic. The Department of Health claims the information was confidential and only exempt when the department determined it is. The judge noted the information was curtailed just as the pandemic reached records levels in the state. (Orlando Weekly, September 21, 2021, by Alex Galbraith) Democratic

Lawyer and reporter Katie Barlow, Politico, August 17, 2021, said that Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett went awry in criticizing the media for not reporting on the deliberative process in the court. Conservative justices are antsy about media portrayals of the court as “partisan hacks,” but the court could do much to improve their image and promote understanding of court processes by allowing cameras for oral arguments, bringing transparency to the shadow docket, giving

A Sacramento news station suing the utilities commission for access to messages between Governor Gavin Newsom staff members and the commission president gained traction as the California Supreme Court requested an update on the status of the public record requests. The messages concerned a plan to bail out PG&E for financial consequences of crimes they committed. (ABC10, Setember 16, 2021, by Brandon Rittiman) Local governments may continue to hold remote meetings during emergencies. Newsom signed