First Amendment News

Recognizing a dire need, the Trump Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is allowing lobbyists to donate anonymously to White House staffer’s legal defense funds. With the Russia election probe gathering steam, staffers are now positioned to raise needed funds notwithstanding the risk of opening the door to potential conflicts of interest. (Politico, September 13, 2017, by Darren Samuelsohn) Even if a staffer is just interviewed by the FBI, it could run up $30,000 to $45,000

The Mississippi Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that a local government may not evade state open meeting laws by holding a meeting with fewer than a quorum. The dispute stemmed from a 2014 incident during which the Columbus city council set up meetings with three council members and the mayor to discuss maintenance of public buildings and an agreement with an economic development agency. (Gulfport Sun Herald, September 7, 2017, by Jeff Amy of the Associated

A Kansas City judge dismissed charges against a librarian 16 months after he was arrested during a talk by former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross. A security guard hired for the occasion used force to remove patron who asked Ross about U.S. support for Israeli “state-sponsored terrorism.”  In defense of the patron’s free speech rights, Steve Woolfolk attempted to intervene and was arrested. (KCUR, September 9, 2017, by Laura Ziegler) The American Library Association gave

After President Donald Trump took office in January, ICE stepped up its requests to local law enforcement to detain suspected undocumented persons. But in April immigration officials stopped providing information on what happened to those detainees. Journalists, scholars and politicians could no longer find out why these immigrants were targeted and whether they continue to remain in detention or were deported. (WYNC News, September 8, 2017, by Beth Fertig) With the lack of information from

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that “Ag-Gag law” that imposed criminal penalties on those who “trespass unlawfully to collect resource data” without a landowner’s permission violated the First Amendment. The court concluded that the law was intended to limit collection of information on public lands and found that activity protected speech. (K2 Radio, September 8, 2017, by Nick Learned) The court recognized that the Wyoming law kept investigators out of the field