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Brown vetoes bill limiting cellphone searches by police

FAC October 10, 2011

Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed SB 914, a bill sponsored by the First Amendment Coalition that would have required police to get a warrant before searching through the smart phones and other electronic devices of people they arrest. The bill would have overridden a recent California Supreme Court decision allowing warrantless searches of cellphones. Interpreting federal law, the Court ruled that in a search “incident to arrest,” police can treat the files on a suspect’s

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Tribute: Civil rights leader left legacy of First Amendment gains

donal brown October 10, 2011

The civil rights leader, Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, who died last week, made a lasting contribution to First Amendment law in winning a judgment by the U.S. Supreme Court that Birmingham’s ordinance requiring a parade permit was prior restraint and unconstitutional. -db From a commentary for the First Amendment Center, October 7, 2011, by David L. Hudson Jr. Full story

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U.S. Supreme Court urged to protect free speech in case over copyright law

donal brown October 10, 2011

The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the U.S Supreme Court to rescind a law passed by Congress in 1994 that granted copyright protection to books, movies and music previously in the public domain. The ACLU has filed a brief arguing that the First Amendment should not permit Congress to end the public’s right to use speech that has previously been in the public domain. -db From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union,

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Groups asks New York Times to set standard on disclosure for op-ed contributors

donal brown October 10, 2011

The Checks and Balances Project has asked the New York Times to blaze the trail in providing full disclosure of financial conflicts of interest of their op-ed contributors. The inspiration for the request came after the Times published an article on the myths of green energy but failed to mention that the contributor worked for the Manhattan Institute that received a nearly $3 million grant from Exxon-Mobile. -db From the Columbia Journalism Review, October 6,

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Obama releases executive order to tighten security in WikiLeaks era

donal brown October 10, 2011

The Obama administration has taken steps to safeguard classified secrets and to insure that with safeguards agencies still share critical intelligence. The president’s executive order will establish internal auditing systems to assess information security and sharing throughout the federal government. The order also sets up a study to determine whether agencies can identify people who would leak information or otherwise mishandle sensitive data. -db From the National Journal, October 7, 2011, by Marc Ambinder. Full

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