First Amendment News

The Palo Alto Unified School District board passed a unique rule to circumvent the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law. To establish some awareness of anonymous donations while keeping the identities of the donors secret to the public, the board is allowing the superintendent to know who is donating $50,000 or more then providing that information to each of the board members individually. But for the superintendent to inform each board member without holding

The FBI closed its six year long investigation of an award-winning documentary filmmaker after failing to find any crime or threat to national security. During the six years, the government subjected Laura Poitras to numerous border searches and interrogations. Airport delays numbered over 50 from 2006 to 2012. Poitras and the EFF contend that she was singled out for her films about post-9-11 life in Yemen and Iraq that ran counter to the U.S. government

There’s no telling how the Supreme Court is leaning as Justice Anthony Kennedy with his usual swing vote gave contradictory messages once indicating refusing to bake cakes for gay couples was discriminatory and another in pointing out that the Colorado state civil rights commission did not give the baker’s religious beliefs a fair hearing. The baker Jack Phillips is contending that baking a cake for a gay couple would be a forced endorsement of their

A Poynter survey showed that the public has become more trustful of the media since Trump became president but that partisan divisions persist with more Republicans than Democrats harboring negative feelings. The authors of the report said the role of the press is more crucial than ever, “Under these circumstances, journalists’ role in creating a shared understanding of reality across the political divide is more important than ever….” (The Poynter Institute, December 4, 2017) In

An independent report found that Charlottesville fumbled their duty to protect the public and free speech during the white supremacist rally last August. Not only did the report say the city failed to uphold the right to free speech of the rally sponsors and their opposition, but also in the wake of the rally that the Virginia state police and the police chief Al Thomas blocked the public’s right to know by failing to make