First Amendment News

A New Hampshire baker is suing his town over a mural done by local students of donuts and early morning sun that sits above his bakery. Conway officials determined that the mural was an ad rather than art and violated the town’s sign ordinance, and by a small margin the citizens voted in a town meeting to back the officials. (The Christian Science Monitor, April 13, 2023, by Sohie Hills) The mural was four times

Jack Shafer of Politico, April 18, 2023, writes that the Fox payout of $787.3 million in the Dominion Voting systems defamation case released them from the prospect of a torturous courtroom experience of putting Rupert Murdoch and prominent Fox hosts on the stand. And Fox won’t have to make public statements about their lies or change their ways of doing things. “…the Fox hosts that helped push Donald Trump’s stolen election lies on a gullible

In considering a case to define “true threats,” the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to favor a narrow rule for determining when speech loses First Amendment protection. During arguments in Counterman v. Colorado, about a man convicted of stalking a musician, the court was interested in whether the man intended to cause fear rather than how the musician felt. (Bloomberg Law, April 19, 2023, by Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson) The musician said she “extremely scared” by the

Fox settled with Dominican Voting Systems for $787.5 million as the defamation lawsuit was just underway. Fox released a statement acknowledging “…the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false” but is not expected to be required to issue an a correction or apology for broadcasting lies about election-rigging during the 2020 presidential election. (Reuters, April 18, 2023, by Helen Coster and Jack Queen) Law professor Catherine Ross says that with the settlement

A Oklahoma county sheriff and other county officials discussed killing two local reporters and lynching Black people, prompting Governor Kevin Stitt to called for them to resign. (The Hill, April 17, 2023, by Cheyanne M. Daniels) The FBI is investigating the officials who expressed their frustrations at not being able to beat up and lynch Blacks and their wanting to hire a hit man to kill two reporters of the local newspaper who had done