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FAC Seeks Nominations for 2014 Free Speech & Open Government Award

The First Amendment Coalition is soliciting nominees for the FAC Free Speech & Open Government Award, given each year for performance of exemplary work in the arena of open government. Qualifications for the award are outstanding accomplishment, service or other contributions to "the people’s right to know" about government. The winner could be a […]

October 9, 2014
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Blog Events

FAC joins with Santa Rosa Press Democrat to host Open Government candidates’ forum

FAC headed north this week to co-host an Open Government Candidates' Forum with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. The event provided a unique opportunity for members of the community, which a year earlier was rocked by the tragic shooting death of Andy Lopez, 13, by a Sonoma County Sheriff's Deputy, to hear candidates for city council answer tough questions on government […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
October 16, 2014
Latest News

FAC News Press Release

FAC Free Speech & Open Government Award winners honored at Cal Press Foundation 138th Annual Dinner Banquet

The 2015 recipients of the Free Speech & Open Government Award competition were honored Thursday, December 3 at the California Press Foundation’s 138th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The two winners of this year’s awards used different methods to accomplish their goals one upholding the finest traditions of community journalism and the other demonstrating […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
December 15, 2015
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Blog Cases

Court rules CA counties must disclose pension amounts paid to government retirees

[…] has ruled that county governments, upon request, must disclose--by name--their retirees' pension payments. The Superior Court for Stanislaus County reasoned that the public interest in access to government employees' pensions outweighs the public interest in protecting the confidentiality of that information. In 2007 the California Supreme Court ruled that government employees' salaries--including employee names--are […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
November 6, 2009
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Blog

California AG Xavier Becerra and the Thick Blue Wall of Police Secrecy

By DAVID SNYDER—California Attorney General Xavier Becerra appears to believe there are two sets of rules about government transparency—one for his office, and another for everyone else. Back in 2017, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) refused to disclose public records about EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s potential ethical conflicts, Becerra promptly sued under the […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
March 6, 2019
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Blog

Blogger-Journalist Josh Wolf must be the first journalist to go to jail to protect evidence he didn’t have.

[…] battle is finally and thankfully over, one may reasonably ask: Was all this really necessary? Journalists have an obligation--not a privilege or right, but an obligation--to resist government attempts to force them to disclose evidence that the government wants for an investigation or prosecution, but that they possess as a result of their reporting. […]
- Press Freedom
June 2, 2009
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Blog

Apple is right: the order requiring it to create code to defeat iPhone security is “coerced speech” forbidden by the 1st Amdt

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 […]
- Free Expression
March 7, 2016
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Which Meetings are Governed by the Brown Act? Bagley-Keen Act?

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

CPRA

CA Public Benefit Corporations and the CPRA

[…] whether general law or chartered; city and county; school district; municipal corporation; district; political subdivision; or any board, commission or agency thereof; other local public agency; or entities that are legislative bodies of a local agency pursuant to subdivisions (c) and (d) of Section 54952." Govt Code Section 6252(a). The California Attorney General, however, […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

First Amendment

Do trade publications have same speech protections as other journalists?

[…] motivation for the speech.Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products, Corp., 463 U.S. 60, 66-67 (1983). In Central Hudson, the Court articulated a four-part test for determining whether the government may regulate commercial speech, which involves: (1) a determination of whether the advertising is false or deceptive, (2) whether there is a substantial governmental interest in […]

September 28, 2011