News & Opinion

Citing a lack of editorial independence, the U.S. Senate Press Gallery withdrew press credentials from the Supreme Court website SCOTUSblog. The Press Gallery said the site was not sufficiently independent from its law firm. SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein is also a principal in Goldstein &Russell LLP. Goldstyein said the site needs the Senate credential to cover nominations to the Court and the budget process. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, June 23, 2014, by

A federal appeals court released a redacted Justice Department memo justifying the 2011 drone attack killing a U.S. citizen in Yemen suspected of terrorist activities. The government was responding to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and The New York Times. (Reuters, June 23, 2014, by Mark Hosenball) In a press release, June 23, 2014, the ACLU quoted a staff lawyer, Jameel Jaffer, “We will continue to press for

T-shirt designers are going to court to defend their First Amendment and intellectual property rights. One case pits designer Skylar Shatz against Marlboro who claims that shirt with a facsimile of the cigarette package with the word “Death” replacing the brand name was a trademark infringement. Another designer, Dan McCall, prevailed in cases against the National Security Agency and Homeland Security over garments that satirized the agencies. (Voice of American, June 20, 2014, by Jim

Representing himself, a Los Banos, California citizen won a 1$17,500 judgment in federal court against the former mayor, Tommy Jones, who cut off his mic at a city council meeting in the middle of his reading from a recall petition directed at Jones. (The Fresno Bee, June 18, 2014, by John Ellis) The citizen, Gene Forte, celebrated the judgment on his website, The Badger Flat Gazette, and described Jones’ cutting off the mic before his

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an Alabama community college official was protected by the First Amendment in testifying in court about a public corruption scandal. It revived his case against the college who let him go in a cutting the budget but rescinded the dismissal of all but one other of the 29 employees terminated. (Courthouse News Service, June 19, 204, by Barbara Leonard) The Court has recognized that government agencies have more sway