First Amendment News

Citizens United lost in federal appeals court in their First Amendment case contesting New York’s laws requiring non-profits to to disclose their donors every year. They had argued that the law chilled speech, but the court found unanimously that the government had compelling interest in preventing fraud and self-dealing in charities and the laws helped them to achieve that end. (Constitutional Law Prof Blog,  February 15, 2018, by Ruthann Robson) The court also reaffirmed that

Notwithstanding the recent indictments by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, experts fear more meddling in 2018, especially since Congress has done nothing and President Donald Trump has shown no leadership. Attention is now on the states, especially California, who has shown the way in the past in setting nationwide standards, reference automobile emissions. California has already stepped up in passing the Disclose Act that requires disclaimers for

Library science professor Zeynep Tufekci, Wired, January 16, 2018, sounds a warning that free speech is now “treated as an end not a means” making it too easy “to thwart and distort everything it is supposed to deliver.” Tufekci writes, “By this point, we’ve already seen enough to recognize that the core business model underlying the Big Tech platforms—harvesting attention with a massive surveillance infrastructure to allow for targeted, mostly automated advertising at very large

The city of Torrance said they erred in telling protesters of a local oil refinery they would be charged one dollar fee for each person participating in a rally and march. With an expected crowd of 500, that would have been a substantial charge.  (Daily Breeze, February 14, 2018, by Nick Green) The Half Moon Bay city council and staff are frustrated by the local sewage authority’s failure to provide them with vital information including

The American Civil Liberties Union describes ways local law enforcement and the federal government is assaulting the rights of protest and free speech of environmental activists. During the protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline on  Standing Rock Indian Reservation, federal and local law enforcement agencies conspired with the pipeline’s private security in attacking nonviolent protesters. FBI agents infiltrated the activist camps at Standing Rock. The Federal Aviation Association instituted “no-fly zones” to prevent media coverage