Grannies to Toys’R'Us : War is Not a Game

NEW YORK — On December 4, the Raging Grannies and the Granny Peace Brigade created a wonderful holiday peace event at the crossroads of the world, Times Square. The purpose was to send the message: No more war toys and no more war.
They met near the Recruiting Station where two [...]

Sheriff Joe Walks Out After Interrupted by Singers, Protesters Occupy Lobby

Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph M. “Joe” Arpaio walked out of an interview on Monday. Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication held a “First Amendment” forum at which Arpaio faced some hard questions. But he had an even harder time dealing with the people who [...]

CCR Files Opening Brief in First Supreme Court Case to Challenge Patriot Act

Obama Administration Defending Law that Makes Speech Advocating Human Rights a Terrorist Crime
November 17, 2009, New York – Yesterday, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed the first brief in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the first case to challenge a portion of the Patriot Act before the [...]

Virginia drops plan for anonymous juries

The Supreme Court of Virginia has withdrawn a controversial proposal that would have automatically withheld the identities of jurors in all criminal cases, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
Several open government organizations, including the Virginia Press Association and the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, opposed the rule. The Reporters Committee [...]

Invention Secrecy at Highest in a Decade

The total number of invention secrecy orders that the U.S. government imposed on patent applications rose again this year, reaching 5,081 by the end of last month, the highest figure since 1996.
Under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, U.S. government agencies may restrict the disclosure of a patent application whenever [...]

Banned Books Week organizers remind public of freedom of speech

The arguments over whether to allow Temecula schools to teach the book “Speak” with its themes of date rape, underage drinking and depression still echo as national Banned Book Week begins Saturday.
The annual campaign, from Saturday to Oct. 3, is organized by the American Library Association. It is intended to remind [...]

Do You Have the Right to Flip Off a Cop?

David Hackbart was mad, and he wanted to show it, but he didn’t think he would end up in federal court protecting his right to a rude gesture and demanding that the city of Pittsburgh stop violating the First Amendment rights of its residents.
Hackbart, 34, was looking for a parking space [...]

Freedom From Religion Foundation files lawsuit

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – It will soon be up to a judge to decide if the city interfered and contributed to the removal of a billboard at Archibald Avenue and Foothill Boulevard that displayed the message “Imagine No Religion.”
The lawsuit will go to court on Nov. 16.
Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a [...]

Drug Control Becomes Speech Control

When the government accuses a doctor of running a “pill mill,” prosecutors portray every aspect of his practice in a sinister light. Prescribing painkillers becomes drug trafficking, applying for insurance reimbursement becomes fraud, making bank deposits becomes money laundering, and working with people at the office becomes conspiracy.

When Siobhan [...]

Censorship in California: Marijuana Ad Campaign Rejected by TV Stations

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) kicked off a TV ad campaign aimed at gaining support for a California marijuana legalization bill in the legislature on Wednesday, but ran into problems with several TV stations around the state, which either rejected the ad outright or just ignored MPP efforts to place it. [...]

Officers Lack First Amendment Right to Complain About Supervisors

Complaints by police officers about their supervisors’ conduct are not protected by the First Amendment, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.
Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, writing for a divided panel that affirmed a judgment in favor of the city of San Bernardino, said the dispute was [...]

ACLU seeks data on border laptop searches

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a FOIA request for records on laptops searched by border officials, PC Magazine reported. ACLU says these searching practices raise questions concerning First and Fourth Amendment rights because “they involve highly intrusive governmental probing into a traveler’s most private information.” Department [...]

SAN DIEGO MAN SUES RAMONA SHERIFF’s DEPUTIES FOR BRUTAL ASSAULT AND BATTERY

A guy walks into a bar in Ramona…By Greg Moran
…and after a few minutes, a dozen different kinds of cross-eyed ugly breaks out. Allegedly.
That’s the gist of a rather hair-raising complaint filed in federal court this week by Allen Baker of Ramona and James Playford. They sued the county, [...]

Reporters Committee releases summary of Sotomayor decisions

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has released a report summarizing the First Amendment and freedom of information opinions of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
The report notes that while Sotomayor has an abundance of judicial experience, “it is surprising to see that no clear standard on [...]

No free press during war time (which is always)

A former United States Army Lieutenant Colonel who worked for military intelligence is calling for the military to attack and kill “partisan media.” Before reading his comments recall that the First Amendment protects freedom of the press, treason is defined in the Constitution as an “overt act” of “aiding the [...]

California student journalist seeks shield law protection

A student journalist who witnessed a killing in San Francisco is trying to use California’s shield law to protect his work., the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The 22-year-old San Francisco State University photojournalism student was working on his senior project in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood when he witnessed the killing [...]

Religious lyrics bring school more trouble

Attorneys are seeking to halt teaching of a song they call a “blatantly sectarian and proselytizing religious song” to third-graders at The Webster School of St. Augustine, FL, until the case can go to court.
This is the second time in less than a month that attorneys asked the United States District [...]

Judge gags reporter

“At the end of the day, editors decide what goes into the newspaper, not judges.” Peter Scheer, executive director of California First Amendment Coalition.
VICTORVILLE • A local judge on Monday ordered a Daily Press reporter not to print the name of a witness who testified in open court – a move [...]

Anti-Loitering Bill Called Unconstitutional

A bill criminalizing gatherings of more than two people in DC is drawing outrage and opposition from community and labor activists, as well as civil rights advocates.
“This is a clear and blatant violation of the Constitutionally-guaranteed right of the American people to assemble,” said Metro Council President Jos Williams. “That [...]

Media Need Not Reveal Web Posters’ Identities

Operators of newspaper Web sites, blogs and chat rooms that allow readers to post anonymous comments using pseudonyms do not have to readily reveal the posters’ identities in defamation suits, Maryland’s highest court ruled yesterday, further shaping an emerging area of First Amendment law in the Internet age.

The Maryland [...]

Professor Called Police After Student Pro-CCW Presentation

For Central Connecticut State University student John Wahlberg, a class presentation on campus violence turned into a confrontation with the campus police due to a complaint by the professor.
On October 3, 2008, Wahlberg and two other classmates prepared to give an oral presentation for a Communication 140 class that [...]

Sealing of Postmus warrant questioned

SAN BERNARDINO – A judge may have violated the First Amendment when he sealed a search warrant involving the San Bernardino County assessor without any explanation, an attorney for a free-speech advocacy group said Monday.
“You need to provide a reason,” said Rachel Matteo-Boehm, an attorney for the California [...]

Freedom of the press as a foreign concept

Yes, we reporters might get stuck covering the late shift or — egad! — a parade. When disaster strikes or a source calls back on deadline, the nights can be long. Newspaper layoffs and hard economic times can cast a pall over just about everything we do.

But those concerns seem a [...]

Court Rules Patriot Act’s “National Security Letter” Gag Provisions Unconstitutional

NEW YORK – A federal appeals court today upheld, in part, a decision striking down provisions of the Patriot Act that prevent national security letter (NSL) recipients from speaking out about the secret records demands. The decision comes in an American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil [...]