First Amendment News

A federal judge ruled that the federal judiciary could not prevent its 1,100 employees from pursuing political activities after working hours. While praising efforts to prevent perceptions of political influence, the judge said it was excessive to bar employees from expressing political views publicly or on social media, supporting candidates, making donations and attending political events. (The Washington Post, April 29, 2020, by Spencer S. Hsu) U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of the District of

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Georgia could not copyright its state code that includes annotations. Twenty other states have tried to copyright their annotated codes, but Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion that the annotations provided important information about the law needed for citizens to fully learn their rights and duties. (The New York Times, April 27, 2020, by Adam Liptak) Georgia had sued the nonprofit Public.Resource.Org for publishing the

A case before the Supreme Court is crucial to protecting the right to protest. McKesson v. Doe involves a Black Lives Matter protest in 2016 during which someone threw something that injured a police office, “John Doe,” who sued Mckesson as one of the protest leaders. The district court dismissed the lawsuit citing the Supreme Court decision, NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware, that limited the liability of protest organizers. But the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of

Most public universities in the U.S. censor postings on Facebook pages to soften public criticism, according to a survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Social media forums are private but posts by public institutions are public forums and governed by the First Amendment so must be viewpoint neutral. (Inside Higher Education, April 22, 2020 by Greta Anderson) The FIRE report describes how Facebook provides its page owners tools to limit user content;

After a protest in Sacramento over stay-at-home orders, the California Highway Patrol said it will not issue any more permits for this type of event on state property. During the protest people stood shoulder to shoulder cheering for people driving vehicles, creating unsafe conditions in violation the state’s health guidelines. (The Sacramento Bee, April 22, 2020, by Sam Stanton) Kevin Baker of California’s American Civil Liberties Union said that there is clear legal precedence for