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Wisconsin high school students demand recognition of gay club

donal brown May 16, 2011

High school students in Wisconsin are suing in federal court under the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act after school authorities voted to deny recognition to the gay-straight alliance as an official school club. The alliance has been in existence for more than 10 years. The students’ complaint read, “Those requests [for club status] were denied by administrators citing a variety of reasons, including WBSD [West Bend High School Gay Straight Alliance] not wanting

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Compromise in the works to save Stolen Valor Act

donal brown May 16, 2011

In an attempt to save the Stolen Valor Act and preserve the First Amendment, a Nevada congressman has introduced a law to require that for there to be a violation of the act, someone would have to lie about their military service for personal gain. First Amendment Center President Ken Paulson argues that the change would center prosecution on fraudulent acts rather than put the government in the position of regulating speech and running afoul

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California: Local governments feeling budget squeeze on enforcing open meeting law

donal brown May 15, 2011

Observers are expecting some slippage in enforcing the Brown Act, now that the state Legislature cut the $17 million reimbursement to local governments to cover the costs of enforcement. Monterey County alone is on the hook for $140,000 in Brown Act enforcement. The county is opposed to a bill by a Watsonville assemblyman to require posting agendas and staff reports on websites because it would be another unfunded mandate. -db From the Monterey County Weekly,

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Will mainstream media match Wikileaks’ technology for receiving leaked documents anonymously and securely? Not likely.

Peter Scheer May 13, 2011

BY PETER SCHEER—Ever since Wikileaks became a household word, traditional news media have had every reason to try to replicate its technology for receiving leaked documents, via the internet, on an anonymous and secure basis. Traditional media may be at war with Julian Assange and disagree fundamentally with his methods in vetting and disseminating classified documents, but they can still see the appeal of a technical mechanism to frustrate eavesdropping on journalists and sources. If

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Facebook to feds: Don’t make us disclose sources of political ads

FAC May 12, 2011

The social networking site Facebook is arguing that when it comes to disclosing the backers of political advertising, size matters. Federal regulations require political advertising to say who’s behind it and who the money came from. But there are exceptions. Some ads, such as bumper stickers, can be too small for disclosure statements. In a letter to the Federal Election Commission, Facebook makes a similar case for its “standard ads,” which allow 25 characters for

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