News & Opinion

Supreme Court justices show their liberal and conservative biases in deciding free speech cases according to a new study of decisions from 1953 to 2011.  Although liberal justices are more likely to vote in support of the First Amendment, both liberal and conservative judges reflected their “preferences toward the ideological groupings of the speaker [the litigant in quest of free speech rights].” (The New York Times, May 5, 2014, by Adam Liptak) The study showed

Mozilla is proposed a new legal way that the Federal Communications Commission to save net neutrality that would prevent service providers for charging for fast service. The nonprofit that makes Firefox says the proposal would keep the Internet “an innovative and open platform.” (National Journal, May 5, 2014, by Brendan Sasso) Writing in GIGAOM, May 6, 2014, Stacey Higginbotham applauds Mozilla’s proposal, “Instead of saying the ISP simply has a duty to deliver all packets

A group of Meridian, Idaho parents convinced the school board to pull a Sherman Alexie novel from the curriculum on the grounds that the book was pornographic, racist and anti-Christian. Although the book won the National Books award, it has ranked number 2 on a list of the most censored books in the nation. (Idaho Statesman, April 2, 2014, by Bill Roberts) Students have been active in fighting the ban. They raised funds to buy

William Peacock reasons that the National Basketball Association was within their rights to sanction Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling for his racists remarks to his mistress. (FindLaw, April 29, 2014) Given that the basketball league is not a public entity, the private bylaws – contractual agreements among the owners – league and players apply. There may be some recourse for Sterling under the California eavesdropping laws. It is a misdemeanor to record a private

The U..S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to patent trolls with two 9-0 rulings. “For practical purposes, the two cases mean that lower courts will have more latitude to use legal fee shifting as a way to punish and deter companies that abuse the patent system,” wrote Jeff John Roberts in GIGAOM, April 29, 2014. As a result of the decisions, patent trolls would be discouraged for pursuing a marginal intellectual property case that imposes