First Amendment News

The New York Supreme Court refused to dismiss Smartmatic’s $2.9 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News. The court also ruled that Smartmatic must answer Fox claims that the defamation lawsuit restricted its free speech. (CNBC, January 25, 2024, by Jane C. Timm) Fox is contending that the billions in damages would quell the news outlet’s free speech. Smartmatic is asking for over three times what Fox paid Dominion Voting to settle their defamation lawsuit. (Courthouse

In a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, Florida is contending that Facebook and X have the standing of telephone companies so the First Amendment does not give them censorship powers over their users. (CBS News, January 22, 2024, by CBS Miami Team) Twenty Republican state officials sided with Florida over whether states could regulate social media companies in controlling content. Their reasoning is that companies are different from newspapers in that they serve the

A New York Times editorial, January 20, 2024, described how state governments have passed or are considering laws that restrict speech on university campuses. Among others they cited a Arkansas law that requires paid speakers at universities to sign a pledge to not boycott Israel. California community colleges requires teachers to teach anti-racist principles to students. The editorial states that the motivation for the restrictions is not to promote free speech but to quell speech

The co-founder of a leak-hosting site is setting up a service to publish censored news stories. After seeing that Reuters withdrew a story about a hacking-for-hie firm that steals secrets from politicians, military officers, executives and others, Emma Best established the Greenhouse Project to freely distribute information of public interest and combat the chill of censorship. (Columbia Journalism Review, January 18, 2024, by Mathew Ingram)

The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that it was unconstitutional for a local transit authority to ban religious ads on its buses. An Orthodox Jewish synagogue had wanted to place an ad to publicize their Hanukkah celebration. (Tampa Bay Times, January 19, 2024, by Olivia George) The 11th circuit said the ban on religious ads was untenable as it was not possible to determine a clear definition of religion. (techdirt, January 19, 2024,