First Amendment News

A federal district judge ordered the lawyer of former President Donald Trump to turn over 33 new documents to the House January 6 committee. Eight of the documents were exempt from the attorney-client privilege since they concern criminal behavior. (NBC News, October 19, 2022, by Dareh Gregorian and Daniel Barnes) Judge David Carter said Trump lawyer John Eastman wrote Trump about the inaccuracies in a filing of a lawsuit alleging election fraud in Georgia, but

Four legal scholars published essays addressing the following: “What is the First Amendment status of false speech? What rules do or should apply to different kinds of false speech, like intentional lies, mistaken statements, or opinions based on falsehoods? What justifications exist for those rules? These are critically important questions to answer because the First Amendment provides the primary constraint on the government’s power to punish speakers who deceive.” The scholars deal with concerns that

Adam Serwer in The Atlantic, October 17, 2022, writes, “Most of the time, conservatives argue that it is not easy enough to sue for defamation. The standard for defamation of public figures in the United States is high in order to protect freedom of speech in general and political debate in particular. Altering that standard would make speech in America less free. But the response of many right-wing figures to the Jones verdict shows that

Rapper Kanye West, known for his divisive and incendiary comments, is buying Parler, a right-wing platform dedicated to providing conservatives a forum for hate, vaccine lies, conspiracy theories and racism. Twitter and Istagram recently shut down West’s accounts after an antisemitic tirade. (The New York Times, October 17, 202, by Tiffany Hsu and Jenny Gross) It is yet to be determined if West can rebound from his recent extremist rants. Several business partners are reluctant

The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that St. Louis did not restrict the First Amendment rights of church leaders who handed out bologna sandwiches to homeless people. A local law forbids distribution by temporary establishments of potentially hazardous food including meat, eggs and fish. “…a three-judge panel ruled government regulation of ‘inherently expressive’ conduct – such as distributing sandwiches to the homeless – does not necessarily violate the First Amendment if the regulation