First Amendment News

President Barack Obama’s speech on immigration in San Francisco’s Chinatown was  interrupted by a man who urged him to stop all deportations by executive order. The president responded by stopping the man’s ejection from the room and addressing the issue of whether he as president could use his power to stop deportations. (Politico, November 25, 2013, by Jennifer Epstein) In asking security to not remove the man, Obama said, “I respect the passion of these

Homeland Security officers along with Maryland police used a search warrant for guns to confiscate the notes of a Washington Times reporter who had written a series of articles critical of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). (Daily Kos, October 25, 2013, by ffour) The warrant was for firearms allegedly belonging to the reporter’s husband, but in searching the home the officials confiscated notes naming confidential sources in Homeland Security, TSA and the Federal Air Marshal

Thirty-eight media organizations wrote a letter to the Obama administration to protest limits placed on photographers attempting to cover White House events. The White House is releasing its own official photos taken by their staff. The protest letter read, “As surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist’s camera lens, officials in this administration are blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the Executive Branch of government.”

Pennsylvania high school editors are bucking the school’s administration in claiming the First Amendment right to ban the word “Redskins” in publishing their school’s newspaper. Redskins is the name of their athletic teams.  The administration claims that advertisers and the newspaper staff have a free speech right to see the word, which the newspaper editors say is racist and “a term of hate,” published in the Nashaminy Playwickian . (Student Press Law Center, November 22,

A New Mexican photographer forbidden by state law to discriminate against gays is appealing her case to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it is against her free speech rights to be forced to tell the story of gay marriage with her photography. Those arguing for the photographer say that photographers, painters, actors have the right to accept or reject work due to the expressive nature of their work. (The New York Times, November 18,