News & Opinion

In their handling of controversy surrounding Chemerinsky and Summers, UC’s leaders showed themselves unable or unwilling to defend academic freedom By Peter Scheer The best that can be said about the University of California’s leaders is that they are neutral in their spinelessness: in the face of political pressure, they are quick to surrender the university’s academic freedom–its lifeblood—whether that pressure comes from the ideological right or the left. From the right, UC-Irvine was criticized

Watershed CA Supreme Court decision is major win for government transparency. A stunning end to the media’s 20-year losing streak in high court access cases. By Peter Scheer America’s highest courts are justly criticized for avoiding hard issues. The judicial fetish for deciding cases on the narrowest possible grounds yields opinions so limited and unambitious in scope that they often raise more questions, and generate more legal disputes, than they resolve. Exceptions are the rare

It starts again: A Washington, DC judge has ordered 5 journalists to name their confidential sources for stories about the anthrax letters of 2001 By Peter Scheer Just when you thought it was safe again for journalists to talk to confidential sources inside government, a federal judge in Washington, DC has ordered five prominent reporters—Allan Lengel of the Washington Post; Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman, both of Newsweek; Toni Locy, formerly of USA Today; and

Call for Nominations for Annual Bill Farr Award The California First Amendment Coalition and the California Society of Newspaper Editors are seeking nominations for the 2007 Bill Farr Award, given each year to an individual or group for exemplary work to further principles of free speech, free press and public access to government. The award is given in honor of former Los Angeles Herald Examiner reporter Bill Farr, who went to jail in 1971 after

Call for Nominations for Beacon and Darkness Awards The California First Amendment Coalition is seeking nominations for its annual Beacon and Darkness awards, given in recognition of exceptional efforts, during 2006 and 2007, to advance and defend open-government and freedom of speech (Beacon Awards), and the opposite: exceptional efforts to curtail public access and free expression (Darkness Awards). Deadline for award nominations is September 28. The awards will be presented at CFAC’s annual Free Speech