Search

Categories

Total Results

No Record Found

View All Results
DONATE

Freedom of Speech/Press News

Free speech: Washington antiwar group can continue with suit over infiltration

donal brown May 31, 2011

A federal district judge ruled that an antiwar group can continue to press its lawsuit against a former military civilian employee and his boss after the employee infiltrated their email list. The group claimed that the infiltration violated their First Amendment rights. Under a Freedom of Information Request, the County released records of the incident in December, but the Army refuses to release records of its investigation of the incident. -db From Associated Press reports

Read More »

Federal judge rules corporations can make direct contributions to political candidates

donal brown May 29, 2011

A federal district judge in Virginia ruled that U.S. laws prohibiting corporations form contributing directly to candidates are unconstitutional given last year’s  Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC. That ruling found that corporations and individuals have equal rights to unfettered political expression. The  judge wrote, “For better or worse, Citizens United held that there is no distinction between an individual and a corporation with respect to political speech. Thus, if an individual can make

Read More »

Opinion: WikiLeaks needs special recognition and protection

donal brown May 25, 2011

WikiLeaks would be at a disadvantage should it find itself in federal court trying to withhold the identity of a source since it does qualify for reporter’s privilege according to criterion laid out by a federal court of appeals in 1998. The appeals court said to qualify, a person must be practicing investigative reporting, gathering news and from the outset intend to disseminate the news to the public. In an op-ed in Wired, Jonathan W. Peters acknowledges

Read More »

California company agrees to remove block to gay educational websites

donal brown May 24, 2011

Under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union, a California software company agreed to remove a web filter blocking public school students from access to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender websites. Removing the filter allows over additional 6 million students to check out the sites. Suzanne Ito wrote in an ACLU commentary that the public schools are violating the First Amendment in using the filters, “Because public schools cannot engage in viewpoint-based censorship, any public

Read More »

Palin biographer under investigation for ethics violations

donal brown May 24, 2011

Frank Bailey, a former aide to Sarah Palin, is under investigation in Alaska for writing a book critical of Palin using thousands of e-mails from her 2006 gubernatorial campaign, her run for vice president in 2008 and her brief tenure as governor. The Alaska attorney general  is investigating Bailey’s use of the emails under laws that prohibit former public officials from using information acquired during their work for personal gain if the information is not

Read More »