First Amendment News

The District of Columbia federal appeals court ruled 3-0 to gut the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) net neutrality rules on the grounds that the 2010 rules should have classified broadband providers as common carriers along with telcos, and without that classification could not regulate their activities. (Wired, January 14, 2014, by David Kravets) “I am committed to maintaining our networks as engines for economic growth, test beds for innovative services and products, and channels for

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case brought by a pro-abortion group contending that Ohio law penalizing false political speech stopped it from running ads against a pro-life candidate for Congress. (The Hill, January 11, 2014, by Elise Viebeck) A federal appeals judge dismissed the claims as “speculative” that the Ohio would invoke the law claimed to violate First Amendment rights. The claimants argued to the Supreme Court that the appeals judge’s ruling conflicted

Yelp has been ordered to identify seven anonymous reviewers of a Virginia carpet cleaning business. The owner of the business had requested the names of the reviewers to determine if they were actual customers as required by Yelp. The Court said that if the reviewers not actually customers, their expressions are no longer protected opinions but false statements of fact and potentially libelous. (Courthouse News Service, January 9, 2014, by Lorraine Bailey) Yelp countered, “Other

The U.S. Navy took transparency to unexpected heights when it inadvertently sent a memo to a NBC reporter describing how it planned to put off requests the reporter had filed under the Freedom of Information Act. (Politico, January 7, 2014, by Dylan Byers) Commenting on the memo, Joel Gehrke, of the Washington Examiner, January 7, 2014,  wrote in an opinion column, “Looking for excuses to deny FOIA requests? Maybe the Navy public affairs office should

The Insane Clown Posse of Michigan filed a federal suit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation claiming that the government had unlawfully classified the members of the rap group’s fan club as criminal members of a gang thereby subjecting them to police harassment. (The New York Times, January 8, 2014, by Dave Itzkoff) The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan joined in the lawsuit with the Insane Clown Posse in defense of their fan club,