First Amendment News

Rubber stamping president Donald Trump’s criticism of professional football players who kneel during the national anthem to protest racial injustice, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the players should show respect for the country, first responders and the military by exercising their free speech rights in their own time. (Huffington Post, September 24, 2017, by Jonathan Cohn) First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams argued that when the president called for the NFL owners to fire the players

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg promises to make his company’s political ads more transparent while providing information to investigators on ads linked to Russia during the recent presidential elections. He said he is making these moves to counter attempts to undermine democracy and to protect election integrity. (New York Daily News, September 21, 2017, by Christopher Brennan) Zuckerberger said Facebook would bring transparency to political ads by disclosing which page paid for an ad and allowing viewers

Groups pressing for open government are taking the Trump administration to court again over its failure to abide by a July court order to release records of presidential visitors to Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. (Bloomberg News, September 2017,by Bob Van Voris) After months of promises of full disclosure and delays, the Secret Service had finally produced only two pages related to the visit of Japan’s prime minister.  For the open government groups, the Citizens for

A Brooking Institution survey revealed that one in five undergraduate college students approved of using violence to stop controversial speakers while a majority approved of disrupting speakers by shouting them down. Brookings also found that 44 percent of students said the First Amendment does not protect hate speech. (PJ Media, September 109, 2017, by Tom Knighton) Gary E. Nelson, Medford Mail Tribune, September 20, 2017, argues against shutting down speakers to maintain order and thus

Three law professors filed an amicus brief arguing that a sitting president, in this case, Donald Trump, does not enjoy immunity from civil suits. The amicus brief concerned a lawsuit against Trump by a woman who appeared on The Apprentice and later alleged that Trump had kissed and attacked her in a hotel room in 2007. She sued Trump for defamation when he accused her of fabricating the story. (The Hollywood Reporter, September 20, 2017,