News & Opinion

In hearing Twitter v. Taamneh, the Supreme Court was attempting to interpret a 2016 anti-terrorism law, Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), that allowed U.S. citizens to sue anyone who “aids and abets, by knowingly providing substantial assistance” to someone committing a terrorist act. Given the vague language and complex guidelines in JASTA and a 1983 decision on what it is to “aid and abet” terrorism, the court gave no clear indication of how

In hearing Gonzalez v. Google, the Supreme Court was reluctant to embrace the arguments that Google was liable for an Islamic State attack that killed a U.S. exchange student. They were also reluctant to favor restrictions on Sections 230, a law Congress enacted to protect the internet companies from lawsuits. (The Washington Post, February 21, 2023, by Robert Barnes, Cristiano Lima and Will Oremus with Gerrit De Vynck) The proceedings offered no indication the court

The Department of Defense released new guidelines for transparency in their court system that fail to provide access required by a 2016 law passed by Congress. The law requires timely release of court records “at all stages of the military justice system…including pretrial, trial, post-trial, and appellate processes.” The guidelines allow the military to avoid releasing records until after a trial ends and to withhold key trial information particularly in the case of a not

Reporters are being detained and even jailed for doing their jobs with Republican politicians taking the lead of former president Donald Trump in attacking the press. Some called for criminalizing leaks, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis proposes a weakening of Times v. Sullivan. (Columbia Journalism Review, February 20, 2023, by Jon Allsop) DeSantis held a panel discussion about the evils of Times v. Sullivan during which DeSantis accused the press of using Sullivan to protect

After airing sessions with guests parroting former president Donald Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, Fox hosts voiced contempt for them behind the scenes. Perpetuating the stolen election fiction was part of the Fox strategy to retain Trump’s core following and keep their ratings up. (NPR, February 16, 2023, by David Folkenflik) According to records obtained by Dominion Voting Systems suing Fox for defamation, Fox executives chose to forsake the truth