First Amendment News

SLAPP case: Firm brings more notoriety to itself by appealing suit

A management firm who lost a case against a griper defending himself refuses to let the matter die, appealing the case to the Ninth Circuit. -DB Techdirt Commentary August 24, 2009 By Michael Masnick from the bad-idea dept Remember that discussion a few months ago about how most lawyers apparently understood the Streisand Effect, and knew better than to file bogus lawsuits against individuals putting up “gripes” sites about their business? We’ve already seen that’s

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Blogger intends to sue Google over outing

After Google revealed the identity of an anonymous blogger, her lawyer promised to sue citing the First Amendment right to speak anonymously. -DB Wired August 24, 2009 By Kim Zetter An anonymous blogger unmasked by Google last week following a court order has vowed to sue the internet giant for violating her privacy. Rosemary Port, who operated a blog called “Skanks in NYC,” was outed last week after failing in her efforts to quash a subpoena

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Obama continues Bush procedures on warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens

The EFF legal director says the Obama administration has embraced the Bush policies on surveillance and more disturbingly the Bush principle that the executive branch is above the law. -DB ACS Blog Commentary August 17, 2009 By Cindy Cohn Both former NSA Director Michael Hayden and former Justice Department attorney John Yoo have taken to the editorial pages of major national newspapers this summer to defend the so-called Presidential Surveillance Program, the still-shadowy set of programs

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When threats pass muster as ‘true threats’

The executive director of the First Amendment Center says that impolite, heated, intemperate and even vile remarks are protected under the First Amendment but there is no sure legal protection for threats that name specific persons and carry a reasonable chance of being enacted in an immediate way. -DB First Amendment Center Commentary August 23, 2009 By Gene Policinski Saying that someone deserves to be killed certainly gets anyone’s attention. But when does saying that or

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ACLU loses challenge to surveillance law

A federal judge dismissed a challenge to a law allowing the government to examine without warrants the international e-mails and phone calls of U.S. citizens. -DB American Civil Liberties Union Press Release August 20, 2009 NEW YORK – A federal court today dismissed an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit challenging an unconstitutional government spying law. The ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed the landmark lawsuit in July 2008 to stop the government from

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