First Amendment News

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is alleging that a California police training commission is using copyright claims to evade the state transparency law requiring public release of documents on training new officers. EFF wants to see materials on automated license plate readers, facial recognition and use-of-force. (Newsweek, June 29, 2020, by Daniel Villarreal) The county grand jury criticized the Santa Barbara county supervisors for its actions in setting up the cannabis industry, particularly in establishing an

A high school cheerleader who posted a photo of herself on Snapchat displaying the middle finger and using the f-word prevailed in 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The school disciplined her for violating the cheerleading squad’s “Respect Rule,” but the court ruled that her speech made off campus, on the weekend and without use of school computers was protected speech under the First Amendment and did not disrupt the school. (Courthouse News Service, June

Immigration judges are taking the Trump administration to court for alleged violations of their free speech rights. The Justice Department instituted a policy this year barring the judges, even as private citizens, from speaking about immigration issues. The president of the association of immigration judges said the government cannot show that it’s more important to muzzle the judges than to allow them free speech in the public interest. “Part of the job of an immigration

The Justice Department admitted that a memo existed with the rationale for not charging President Donald Trump with obstruction of justice given evidence in the Mueller Report. After a Freedom of Information Act request, the department released a heavily redacted memo that does not reveal the legal justification for not charging Trump. (Law & Crime, June 26, 2020, by Jerry Lambe) Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who filed a FOIA request on the

Facebook reversed itself and will now label posts with hate messages and other offensive content. CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier maintained that it was vital to allow President Donald Trump’s posts without comment to allow the public to come to their own decisions. Facing an advertiser boycott, Zuckerberg is trying for a middle course leaving content alone that it is vital for the public to see. But he sees no exceptions for politicians in Facebook’s policies,