First Amendment News

After student journalists at Utah’s Herriman High School wrote a story about the firing of a teacher for ill-advised texting of a female student, they found their story in The Telegraph censored by the school’s administration. The students then published the story on an independent website called The Telegram. The administration refused requests to restore the article on the Telegraph website. (Student Press Law Center, January 24, 2018, by Gabriel Greschler) The students asked the

When the Sunlight Foundation studied the Trump administration’s record on complying with the 2009 Open Government Directive, it found disappointing results. While agencies published open government plans and kept open web pages and online reading rooms, they did not regularly update information and were not responsive to requests for information. “In its first year, the Trump administration’s record on open government,” wrote Briana Williams, “has fallen far short of the standard for ethics, transparency and

With the dust settling after the 175 -year sentence of Dr. Larry Nassar for his sexually molesting scores of America’s finest young female gymnasts, credit for unmasking the decades-long abuse has been attributed to the Indianapolis Star for their five month investigation and published expose. Reporters Tim Evans, Marisa Kwiatkowski and Mark Alesia filed a story in August of 2016 with details supporting the contention that USA Gymnastics was burying charges of sexual abuse committed

The Government Accountability Office (GOA) will investigate fraudulent postings during the public comment period over net neutrality. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to end net neutrality in December after the public generated some 2 million comments on the issue. The Pew Research Center found that 57 percent of comments used duplicate or temporary e-mail addresses and that Pat M. was the name behind over 5,900 submissions. (Courthouse News Service, January 24, 2018, by Brandi

Victims of sexual harassment and abuse telling their #MeToo stories are increasingly finding themselves sued for defamation. Truth is the best defense in these cases, but it is imperative to obtain competent legal representation to minimize your risk. (American Civil Liberties Union, January 22, 2018, by Bruce Johnson of Davis Wright Tremaine) If you are sued, you are most likely to prevail in court since the burden of proof is on the plaintiff to show