First Amendment News

Federal guidelines stipulate that schools can share health information during the pandemic and reopening the schools so long as they don’t identify individuals. But wary school officials balk at disclosure. In one Kansas district the superintendent cited privacy rights in refusing to report Covid-19 cases since there were so few students in the district. Freedom of information advocate Frank LoMonte said the federal guidelines hit the right balance between privacy and the right to know.

Newspapers delivered to California homes is edging toward extinction as AB5 goes into effect. The law requires that independent contractors including newspaper carriers be classified as employees, increasing distribution costs by 80 percent. That would push many newspapers into bankruptcy as they already are suffering from a 40 percent decline in revenues from the recession caused by the pandemic. (Fresno Bee, August 10, 2020, by the Fresno Bee Editorial Board) The editorial board of the

The federal officers confronting protesters in Portland are employing a questionable tactic that may well violate the protester’s right to free assembly. The officers arrest them on such minor offenses as “failing to obey” an order to get off a sidewalk on federal property then release them from custody while waiting for trial only when they agree to abandon their protest. (Propublica, July 28, 2020, by Dara Lind) The U.S. District Court in Portland is

A California federal judge ruled that anonymous e-mails sent to Senator Mitch McConnell in 2018 and 2019 were not “true threats,” therefore protected under the First Amendment. A true threat, according to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, is one that is “…understood by people hearing or reading it in context as a serious expression of an intent to kill or injure” another person. Judge Charles Breyer noted that while Howard Weiss sent the e-mails

First Amendment lawyers are concerned that a Seattle judge ruled that five news outlets must surrender to police their unaired photos and videos from a May protest. The police are investigating fires set to police vehicles and the theft of firearms from the vehicles. The ruling could make journalists unwelcome at protests. (Poynter, July 24, 2020, by Nicole Asbury) Law professor Eugene Voklokh, Reason, July 25, 2020, writes that the Seattle judge is standing on