Peter Scheer

PETER SCHEER—Facebook wants you, me and the federal government to believe that the selection and prominence of content on Facebook, particularly in its “trending stories” feature, has nothing to do with human judgment or choice. This has long been Facebook’s public posture, and it was its initial knee-jerk response this week to a news story, appearing in Gizmodo, that was sourced to anonymous, and apparently disaffected, contractors hired by Facebook to monitor the selection of

BY PETER SCHEER—Public employee unions, the most powerful special interest group in California and most other states, came within a heartbeat of losing that power, as a legal challenge by dissident public school teachers came to a close in the US Supreme Court this week. I use the word “heartbeat” somewhat literally, because it is all but certain that Justice Antonin Scalia would have cast his vote to create a 5-4 majority in favor of

BY PETER SCHEER—The court battle between the FBI and Apple presents an important first amendment issue: whether the government can force a company to engage in expression—to wit, the writing of computer code—-that the company not only objects to, but views as inimical to its interests and its customers’ interests. Apple claims that this coercion violates its first amendment rights. Can this argument really succeed? Yes, in my view. Although Apple’s argument is somewhat overstated—as are

The First Amendment Coalition today filed suit to make public the terms of a Sonoma County agency’s contract to promote county wines to football  fans visiting the Bay Area for the February 7 Super Bowl. FAC filed a public records request for the contract, under which the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau, together with organizations representing vineyards and wine growers, reportedly committed as much as $1 million to  its deal with Super Bowl 50 Host Committee.