First Amendment News

Police and protesters are attacking journalists and media crews covering demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd. There have been reports of attacks and arrests of journalists in Louisville, Kentucky, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump has also lashed out at the media tweeting a message that the media was “doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy.” (USA Today, June 1 2020, by Lorenzo Reyes) The U.S. Press Freedom

The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously the police departments cannot ask for fees for redacting body camera videos before releasing them. Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar wrote that the fees should not be charged for routine tasks, fees that could obstruct the public’s right to see the videos. (Sacramento Bee, May 28, 2020, by Rosalio Ahumada) The National Lawyer’s Guild brought the lawsuit after the City of Hayward wanted to charge them $3,200 to redact 232 minutes

Researchers from Stanford and Oregon are asking the California Department of Corrections to stop withholding records on race and ethnicity. The researchers hope to use the data to devise an AI system to flag improperly influenced parole denials . (San Francisco Chronicle, May 22, 2020, by Megan Cassidy) The EFF filed a lawsuit for the researchers. The researchers made their first request for the records in September of 2018, but the corrections department cited exemptions

The D.C. appeals court upheld a lower court decision dismissing a claim by conservatives that the tech companies, Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Google, conspired to stifle conservative views online. Freedom Watch and a YouTube personality Laura Loomer claimed the companies worked together to discriminate against conservative voices in violation of the First Amendment. (Bloomberg News, May 27, 2020, by Erik Larson) In a 3-0 decision, the court ruled that as private companies they could not

Breaking ground, Twitter labeled two of President Donald Trump’s tweets “potentially misleading.” The tweets falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to voter fraud. Trump accused Twitter of “stifling FREE SPEECH.” (CNN, May 27, 2020, by Brian Fung) Trump also threatened the social media with regulations and shut downs. He said that the tech companies are silencing conservative voices and asserted, “Big Action to follow.” A conservative senator said the social media receives federal subsidies