First Amendment News

Journalists around the country have provided an essential service in the coronavirus pandemic by describing local conditions to their readers, among them, the urgency of the threat, how to get tested, the capability of the local hospital. The service may be short-lived, though, as ad revenues dropped by half in two weeks. (NiemanLab, March 27, 2020, by Ken Doctor) Readership surged as the pandemic settled into the U.S., but there has been no corresponding upswing

The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied to review a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump to allow him to block users on his Twitter account. In July a three-judge panel of the second circuit found that his Twitter account was public forum and his blocking users constituted viewpoint discrimination. (First Amendment Watch, March 24, 2020) The Trump administration can still appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The two dissenting judges,

The State Department relies on retired Foreign Service Officers to process Freedom of Information Act requests, but few are equipped to telework. With the officers sidelined, the department said there is a 96 percent reduction in capacity to process FOIA requests. (Politico, March 27, 2020, by Josh Gerstein) Some agencies face legitimate obstacles during the pandemic, but others moved to delay requests needlessly. The FBI stopped processing electronic records requests. Philadelphia stopped processing records requests

The reelection campaign for President Donald Trump is threatening television stations in key states with lawsuits if they do not withdraw liberal PAC ads claiming that Trump said the coronavirus was a hoax. Fact-checkers said it’s misleading to claim Trump called the virus a hoax. The full quote shows that he instead was referring to Democrats’ politicizing the virus. (The Hill, March 25, 2020, by Jonathan Easley) Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, March 26, 2020, called