First Amendment News

The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against DeRay Mckesson, arrested in 2016 for leading a Black Lives Matter protest during which someone threw a rock injuring a police officer. In its recent decision, the court found that since McKesson was leading the protest in front of a police station and blocking a highway, he could be tried for the illegal actions of the rock-thrower. Two Supreme Court decision, NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware and

The advocacy group GLADD found that Twitter ranks last in protecting LGBTQ users from hate and harassment. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube also received low or failing scores but showed some improvement from last year. Every week, someone in the LGBTQ community faces doxxing, suffering the release of private information without their permission that harasses, threatens, shames and takes revenge. (NBC News, June 15, 2023, by Barbara Ortutay of The Asssociated Press) GLADD assessed whether

Conservatives in Congress and in the courts are attacking scholars and private companies that study the spread of falsehoods online. They are tying up their adversaries with information requests and subpoenas for records of communications and notes, harming their ability to do research and raise money. (The New York Times, June 19, 2023, by Steven Lee Myers and Sheera Frenkel) In a related matter, Microsoft has launched a project to enable the public to find

Former Fox executive Preston Padden in Daily Beast, June 14, 2023, asks the question, is it time for the Federal Communications Commission to consider revoking Fox broadcasting licenses? Section 308 (b) of the Communications Act requires the FCC to assess the character of those licensed to broadcast on public airwaves. In the Dominion defamation case, Rupert Murdock’s admitted that Fox repeatedly disseminated falsehoods about the 2020 election. The FCC is limited in its power to

Local government officials are striking back at newspapers they consider to have given them unfair press by revoking their contracts to publish public notices. In the case of a Delhi, New York newspaper, The Reporter, that meant a loss of $13,000 a year, a crippling blow for a newspaper with 4,000 subscribers. The Reporter filed a First Amendment lawsuit and negotiated a settlement of a renewed contract for four years and $50,000 in damages and