First Amendment News

In upholding the First Amendment, a federal court ruled that California could not ban vanity license plate messages that were “offensive to good taste and decency.” U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar agreed with five plaintiffs and cited the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a victory by the band The Slants over the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. (Reason, November 25, 2020, By Elizabeth Nolan Brown) Tigar found the ban enables unconstitutional restrictions on private

Fox News settled a lawsuit brought by the parents of Seth Rich, a murdered Democratic National Committee (DNC) employee. The parents accused Fox of exploiting his death, that occurred a botched robbery, with extended coverage that falsely contended that Rich had leaked DNC e-mails to WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential campaign. Contrary to internet sources, U.S. intelligence found no evidence that Rich was assassinated for leaking the e-mails. (NBC News, November 24, 2020, by The

A federal judge ruled that a recently appointed head of the Voice of America violated the First Amendment by firing and reassigning executives and suspending an editor for what he claimed was unsympathetic coverage of President Donald Trump. “Editorial independence and journalistic integrity free of political interference are the core elements that sustain VOA and make us America’s voice,” said Acting VOA Director Elez Biberaj in response to the judge’s ruling. (NPR, November 21, 2020,

Five major news outlets told a federal judge that the Small Business Administration should not be allowed to delay releasing records identifying businesses that received COVID-19 relief funds. The agency has yet to release the records after the outlets won a judgment in their Freedom of Information Act lawsuit earlier this month. The information is needed to assess how the relief is working and to uncover any deficiencies in the process that the government should

The shift to remote court proceedings has sidelined the public in many instances. The federal district court in the District of Columbia with strains the press and public from “photographing, recording, and rebroadcasting of court proceedings.” These restraints are common in other jurisdictions, and in some cases the press has been punished for violating them. (Law360, November 16, 2020, by Matthew Schafer) Douglas Keith and Alicia Bannon, writing for the Brennan Center for Justice, September