First Amendment News

The California State Assembly acted to allow voters to decide on a constitutional amendment on the June ballot barring government agencies at every level from evading transparency and open government when facing funding shortfalls. “There really shouldn’t be any need for debate,”  writes the Santa Maria Times, in an editorial, September 17, 2013. “Both the Brown Act and CPRA are crystal clear when it comes to granting public access to government activities. And like just

School authorities prevented a student at Modesto Junior College in California from distributing copies of the U.S. Constitution on campus. They said he could only distribute the Constitution in a small section of campus called the free speech zone and only after requesting permission several weeks in advance. (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) , September 19, 2013) Free speech zones have been established in one out of every six colleges in the nation,

California’s anti-SLAPP law will not save A&E Networks from a claim by a former gang member that the network improperly revealed his identity in a television documentary after agreeing to grant him anonymity. The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said anti-SLAPP did apply to the free speech issues in the case, but there was other reasons to contest the legality of the exposure. (Courthouse News Service, September 16, 2013, by Tim Hull) In returning

A federal appeals court ruled that the act of clicking “like” on Facebook to indicate a preference for a political candidate was protected under the First Amendment. A sheriff department employee lost his job for showing through a “like” click that he preferred the candidacy of his boss’s opponent in the race for sheriff.  (The Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2013, by Salvador Rodriguez) The ruling is regarded as ground-breaking in the Internet age as

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee agreed to a definition of a journalist by a 13-5 vote in approving legislation for a shield law for journalists seeking to keep their sources confidential. “…the version to be debated on the Senate floor will cover journalists who had an ’employment relationship’ for one year within the past 20 years, or three months within the past five years, and someone with a ‘substantial track record’ of freelancing in the