News & Opinion

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a federal shield law that includes a provision that bars the Justice Department from forcing journalists to provide the names of their sources. (Multichannel News, June 2, 204, by John Eggerton) After an adverse decision this week by the Supreme Court on New York Times reporter James Risen’s appeal of an court order forcing him to reveal a source, a newspaper association is pushing the Senate to pass a shield

The Electronic Frontier Foundation accused the federal government in a court filing of destroying evidence of their surveillance programs while under order to preserve the records. The EFF said the government admitted to the destruction in court filings and is asking the U.S. District Court to assume the records would have shown that the government spied without warrants. (Bloomberg News, May 30, 2014, by Karen Gullo) The EFF issued this statement by Legal Director Cindy

The Federal Aviation Administration said it may allow movie and TV companies to use unmanned aerial drones to shoot scenes, a move that suggests that they may be open to approving greater commercial uses of drones including those by journalists. (The Oregonian, June 2, 2014, by The Associated Press) Seven companies asked the FAA for exemptions from their ban on commercial drones. The FAA would want the companies to work on safety issues, but since

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will hear arguments this week on whether the Department of Defense can evade Freedom of Information Act requests on sexual assaults in the military. The Department argued that the requests were burdensome since they involved  a large number of documents. The ACLU and other groups are seeking the documents to see how the military is dealing with sexual assaults. (American Civil Liberties Union, May 29, 2014,

A federal appeals court ruled that a Missouri man was protected by the First Amendment in cutting up an American flag and discarding the remnants in the street to protest his inability to get a job. (Jurist, May 31, 2014, by G. Redd) The man sued after he was arrested and spent eight hours in jail. The appeals court upheld a federal judge ruling in favor of the man that granted him $7,000 in damages