Proposal would give a major police oversight agency a carve-out from California Public Records Act obligations.
The Supreme Court has yet to rule on three cases that could reshape First Amendment law. United States v. Hansen concerns whether the law against encouraging immigration chills speech; Counterman v. Colorado concerns whether someone can be convicted of making true threats without proof that they subjectively intended to threaten the listener; 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis deals with whether a public-accommodation law can regulated an artist’s expression. Next term the court will hear the
Law professor Heidi Kitrosser, Lawfare, June 13, 2023, writes that a provision of the Espionage Act was used by the Trump administration to charge five individuals for leaking information to the press. This is the same provision used to indict Trump, but several of those indicted by the Trump administration sought to release important information to the public or report abuses in government. “There is no magic formula,” writes Kitrosser, “that will strike a perfect
UPDATE: On 6/26/2023 FAC and the Society of Professional Journalists sent a second letter to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors in advance of their 6/27 meeting reiterating the same points. This afternoon, FAC sent a letter to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors urging them to reject an ordinance that would make it a crime, punishable by up to $1,000 in fines and six months in jail, for being a “spectator” at “sideshows,” informal
Republican House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan is pressuring a group of academic researchers who study lies and online propaganda. Jordan is accusing the group of cooperating with government officials to suppress conservative speech. The researches have studied the lies spread by presidential candidate Donald Trump and fellow Republican politicians. (The Washington Post, June 6, 2023, by Naomi Nix and Joseph Menn) Jordan has sent universities requests for records related to moderation of social media content