FAC conducts a program of strategic litigation by initiating “test case” lawsuits to resolve key legal issues in a way that maximizes chances for a favorable outcome, with potentially far-reaching effects.
In a significant victory for government transparency and accountability, the California Supreme Court today denied a police union’s last-minute effort to undermine the effectiveness of a new, landmark police transparency law, rejecting the union’s effort to make the law (SB 1421) apply only to records created after January 1, 2019.
A coalition of media groups led by the First Amendment Coalition (FAC) today filed briefing in the California Supreme Court to oppose a police union’s effort to undermine the effectiveness of a new, landmark police transparency law. The law requires a wide range of records relating to police misconduct to
Documents sought are currently barred from public view in the California Supreme Court The First Amendment Coalition (FAC) today filed a motion in the California Supreme Court to unseal records regarding Gov. Jerry Brown’s effort to pardon former state Sen. Rod Wright, who was convicted in 2014 on multiple felony
The First Amendment Coalition (FAC), joined by Working Partnerships USA (WPUSA), sued the city of San Jose to force the disclosure of secret details of its negotiations to sell valuable public land to Google. The suit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, seeks records under the California Public Records
A Santa Clara Superior Court judge has awarded nearly $100,000 in attorneys fees to lawyers representing the First Amendment Coalition (FAC) in its successful California Public Records Act lawsuit against the city of Milpitas. Recognizing that FAC’s suit promoted a “significant public interest…in understanding whether high-ranking city officials were acting
The First Amendment Coalition (FAC) today sued the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to force the department to disclose records relating to the government’s seizure of confidential telephone and email records from New York Times reporter Ali Watkins. The suit, filed today in federal court in San Francisco under the