First Amendment News

Charging online readers for news content ready for extensive trial

More news outlets are ready to charge for online content now that software has been developed to expedite the process. Newsday, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times already charge online readers. -db The New York Times February 2, 2010 By Richard Pérez-Peña Extracting payment from online readers has been called everything from the next great folly of print journalism to its salvation, but to get a glimpse of how it really looks, head

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Florida high school student booted from honor society for Facebook page criticizing school

First Amendment experts say a high school student may have been wrongly kicked out of the honor society since his comments on Facebook criticizing the school would normally be considered protected speech. -db The Tampa Tribune February 3, 2010 By Ronnie Blair WESLEY CHAPEL, Flor. – Two Florida experts in First Amendment law say a Wesley Chapel High student’s rights may have been violated when he was kicked out of the National Honor Societyover a

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Tulare County: County supervisors’ dinners out may have also violated open meeting law

Records requested under the California Public Records Act show that the five supervisors plus the county administrative officer are running up excessive expense accounts and indicated that the supervisors may have violated California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, by dining often with a voting majority. -db Visalia Times-Delta Tulare Advance-Register Editorial February 4, 2010

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Supreme Court decision on Citizens United brings to forefront two views of First Amendment

The Supreme Court’s majority opinion written by Justice Kennedy and the dissent by Justice Stevens shows contrasting views of the First Amendment, one, that untrammeled free speech will eventually produce good results in a democracy, and, two, that free speech must sometimes be regulated to produce the free flow of ideas so essential to a flourishing democractic society. -db The New York Times Analysis February 1, 2010 By Stanley Fish Citizens United v. Federal Election

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Michael Jackson’s dermatologist fights anti-SLAPP to sustain defamation suit against plastic surgeon

Michael Jackson’s dermatologist is fighting an anti-SLAPP motion to keep his lawsuit going against a plastic surgeon he says defamed him for suggesting that he was instrumental in providing the medication that killed the singer. -db The Los Angeles Wave February 2, 2010 By Wire Services A dermatologist who alleges a plastic surgeon defamed him by publicly implying that he had a hand in the late Michael Jackson’s death is rebutting an attempt to have

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