First Amendment News

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals put a crimp in First Amendment protections for anonymous speech online in its opinion on U.S. v. Glassdoor. The court found for the federal government in its quest to discover the identities of online reviews by employees of their government employers. A federal grand jury is investigating the employers for alleged fraud and abuse. (Center for Democracy & Technology, November 8, 2017, by Lisa A Hayes) Glassdoor claims

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, November 5, 2017,  announced the release of The Paradise Papers, a spotlight on the financial dealings world-wide of corporations, politicians and the rich and famous. The papers reveal offshore deals of over 120 politicians world leaders. The ICIJ and its journalism partners will be publishing stories about how corporations evade high taxes, how U.S. political donors use offshore financial structures and how offshore finance of the forest industry has

Amanda Marcotte of Salon, October 25, 2017, accuses the head of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt of installing Soviet-style government censorship to prevent scientists with the EPA to discuss recent findings about climate change and its dire effects. He recently banned scientists with EPA grants from advising the EPA. Former EPA head William D. Rukelshaus, The Washington Post, November 12, 2017, argues that the transparency he brought to the EPA was essential in establishing

Dougherty High School student reporters in California are suing to obtain a campaign video and documents of a San Ramon Valley High School student running for student body president. The fictional video that ran on Twitter allegedly showed terrorists torturing a student and made racist and stereotypical references to Middle Eastern people. Parents of the student running for office are suing the district over its decision to ban the student from running for office. Few

A Riverside county superior court judge ruled that a California law mandating that anti-abortion pregnancy clinics tell their clients about prenatal care services and abortion violated the free speech rights of the clinics.  (Courthouse News Service, November 1, 2017, by Nathan Solis) The judge wrote that the law “interferes both with the right of the clinician to speak and with the right of the patient to hear what the clinician would say in the absence