First Amendment News

A California congressman citing recent violent attacks on journalists introduced a bill to protect working journalists. The Journalism Protection Act makes it a federal crime to cause “bodily harm” to journalists. The bill has 12 co-sponsors, all Democrats, but the congressman says he is trying to get Republicans to support the bill. (CNN, February 11, 2018, by Jackie Wattles) Media professor Jonathan Peters, Columbia Journalism Review, February 9, 2018, praises the bill for its “symbolic

News of layoffs and downsizing are common these days, the latest instance the Bay Area News Group that owns the San Jose Mercury News and several local Bay Area newspapers. Management claimed that layoffs were necessary to maintain the company’s profitability. The layoffs left the company with no K-12, higher education or health reporters, reduced coverage of city hall and no coverage for many smaller communities and neighborhoods. (sanjoseinside, February 9. 2018, by Jennifer Wadsworth)

Tim Cushing of techdirt, February 8, 2018, reports that the CIA has been downright devious in its refusal to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. But in a recent ruling a federal district judge was not impressed with the CIA’s arguments defending their release of redacted e-mails between their public affairs office and journalists. The partially redacted e-mails, with classified information, had previously been disclosed but now denied to a journalist filing a

A California superior court judge ruled that a baker had a First Amendment right to refuse to bake a cake for the wedding of a same-sex couple. The cake was custom not regularly displayed and routinely sold to customers. Wrote the judge, “A wedding cake is not just a wedding cake in Free Speech analysis. It is an artistic expression by the person making it that is to be used traditionally as centerpiece in the

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals halted a quest for FBI files on surveillance of Muslim communities in the U.S. A three-judge panel rejected a lower court ruling that general records including training manuals and guidelines could not be withheld under an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act. (Courthouse News Service, February 1, 2018, by Nicholas Iovino) The ACLU of Northern California had sought the files that ran over 45,000 pages. In reversing