First Amendment News

Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wore a Covid-19 mask with the words FREE SPEECH on it when she defended herself in the House of Representatives for past statements including a call to assassinate Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but the House still voted 230-199 with 11 Republicans to strip her of her committee assignments. Some Republican members of Congress found it troubling that a member was punished for statements made before they were elected. (Los Angeles Times,

Legal experts believe that Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News and three anchors has merit as the Fox team knowingly made false claims with malice and harm to business and reputation. Fox said Smartmatic committed election fraud through their voting machines. (CNN, February 5, 2021, by Oliver Darcy) The lawsuit identified 100 false statement about Smartmatic that the Company said will lead to future losses of $500 million. The lawsuit will determine whether a news

A Petaluma attorney Frear Stephen Schmid cited the First Amendment in fighting San Francisco’s removal of a statue of a vaquero and missionary standing over a nearly naked American Indian. Schmid claimed it was censorship to remove the work of art and discrimination against those with other viewpoints. A state appeals court ruled 3-0 that Schmid had no standing to sue and that there was no viewpoint discrimination since the government could express its policies

POGO’s Liz Hempowicz testified in Congress on the state of whistleblowing in government and gave recommendations for protecting and enhancing whistleblowers’ vital role. POGO has seven recommendations including “ensure that whistleblowers facing reprisal are entitled to interim relief so they are able to seek enforcement of their protections under the law; expand prohibited personnel practices across all government sectors to include retaliatory investigations and security clearance actions; and clarify that whistleblowers are entitled to anonymity

Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration suddenly hired Blue Shield to distribute Covid-19 vaccines without explanation or public input. The public has no idea why this decision was made or the details of the agreement including the cost to the taxpayer. (San Francisco Chronicle, January 29, 2021, by Alexei Koseff) The Mercury News editorial boards criticized Newsom for the state’s lack of transparency in the Blue Shield decision and other issues including the ICU hospital bed capacity