First Amendment News

January 31, 2019 by donal brown A federal judge refused to unseal criminal charges against Wikileaks Julian Assange, the existence of which was mistakenly revealed in another case. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press petitioned the federal court in Virginia for records of the charges arguing that the proof was there that Assange had been charged and the public had the right to know the details. The U.S. attorney’s office countered that although there was

A federal district court in California ruled for Greenpeace and others in dismissing over 200 claims by a Canadian logging company  in a SLAPP lawsuit (strategic lawsuits against public participation) intended to silence protected speech. (EarthRights International, January 23, 2019, press release) SLAPP and RICO, the law on racketeering, are often used by powerful companies to intimidate critics and deny them to right to protest. (Freedom of the Press Foundation, January 23, 2019, by Camille Fassett)

A California appeals court rejected a bid for access to an electronic data base of vehicles private towing companies impounded at the request of the police department. The court ruled that the city’s right to access to the data base did not constitute possession. (Justia, January 22, 2019) A civil rights lawyer filed a public records request with the Los Angeles Police Department for the impoundment records. While the department had access to the database, the data

As indicated by President Donald Trump’s reversal of the Obama order to end the ban on transgender people in the military, the Evangelical Advisory Board has an outsized impact on government policy without the transparency mandated by FACA, a 1972 federal law requiring that the advice of advisory committees is “objective and accessible to the public.”  Notice of meetings must be published so the public can attend. Detailed minutes must be taken and committee records

January 29, 2019 by donal brown In an attempt to expose those behind political negative ads, Facebook has made it more difficult for the news media and nonprofits to monitor those ads. ProPublica established an ad monitoring tool that resulted in showing how oil companies evaded Facebook’s new ad transparency tool but now find themselves unable to use their tool.  (The Guardian, January 27, 2019, by Jim Waterson) Says Jon Fingas in engadget, January 27, 2019, “Facebook certainly