Q: I was fired for making comments about my employer on Facebook. My page does not note where I work or who I work with. It is viewable only to friends and my Twitter page is accessible only to those who “follow” me. My comments were vague regarding my wanting to be ethical and honest and that I was being pushed around because my budget was being cut. I had 16 people on my page
The Ron Paul campaign for the Republican presidential nomination suffered a setback when a federal judge in California ruled that they could not force Google to reveal the identity of an anonymous poster of a YouTube video that pretended to be pro-Ron Paul but actually denigrated him. The judge dismissed the case on narrow grounds that the Paul campaign had not filed a valid complaint. -db From a commentary for the Citizens Media Law Project,
The 10th Circuit Appellate Court upheld a lower court decision that Albuquerque’s ban on registered sex offenders in public libraries violates the First Amendment. The court ruled that the ban was too restrictive and did not allow alternative means for sex offenders to gain access to the library’s information and ideas. -db From the First Amendment Center, January 26, 2012,by David L. Hudson Jr. Full story
Q: My company owns a website and private news source for a trade Industry. We are having concerns about our First Amendment protections. The website and news company is a business operation of our parent company. I would like to inquire about whether our direct ownership of the site conflicts with any First Amendment or journalism laws. For example, are we not protected by the same rights because the site is not an official news
A Justice Department report says Puerto Rican police have routinely cracked the heads of reporters and people in nonviolent demonstrators, in serious violation of their First Amendment rights to peaceful protest. In protests by students and workers against higher university fees and government layoffs, police used pepper spray and choke holds along with batons to assault bystanders and journalists. -db From The New York Times, September 8, 2011, by Charlie Savage and Lizette Alvarez. Full