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Constitutional Law

First Amendment Center

News related to the first amendment of the US Constitution and freedom of speech issues.
By First Amendment Center

Post Frequency: 38.7/day

Last Entry: March 29, 2011 at 21:00:00

High court turns away appeal of $5 million slander award

Posted on January 09, 2011
WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court will not overturn a Florida surgeon's $5 million slander award after a hospital executive said he would not send his dog to the doctor for surgery. The high court today refused to hear an appeal from Lawnwood Medical Center, Inc...

N.C. judge strikes down ban on public profanity

Posted on January 09, 2011
RALEIGH, N.C. — Cursing in public may not be seemly, but it is protected by the Constitution, a North Carolina judge ruled in striking down a 98-year-old state ban on public profanity. Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour dismissed a misdemeanor charge Jan...

Federal court issues subpoena for WikiLeaks' Twitter account info

Posted on January 09, 2011
LONDON ? U.S. investigators have gone to court to demand details about WikiLeaks' Twitter account, according to documents obtained on Jan. 8 ? the first revelation about the criminal case Washington is trying to build against those who leaked classified U...

N.H. justices hear divorced parents' home-schooling dispute

Posted on January 08, 2011
CONCORD, N.H. ? Divorced parents who couldn?t agree on how to educate their daughter have brought their fight to New Hampshire?s highest court in a case that looks at whether families have a constitutional right to home-school their kids. Religious-freedom groups have trumpeted the cause of Brenda Voydatch of Meredith, who home schooled her 11-year-old daughter, Amanda, from first through fourth grade...

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Richmond police want documents back from anarchist

Posted on January 07, 2011
RICHMOND, Va. ? Richmond's police chief is seeking the return of documents the department turned over to a local anarchist group that posted them online. Chief Bryan T. Norwood said in a complaint filed this week in Richmond Circuit Court that Mo Karn received documents exempt from release under her request under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act...

Ore. high court overturns 2 child-porn convictions

Posted on January 06, 2011
PORTLAND, Ore. ? If you look, but don't download, you haven't violated an Oregon law that has been used frequently against child-pornography suspects, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled yesterday. Prosecutors called the 5-2 decisions in companion cases State v...

Televangelists escape penalty in Senate inquiry

Posted on January 06, 2011
NEW YORK ? A senator?s high-profile investigation of spending by televangelists wrapped up after more than three years yesterday with no penalties for the pastors who refused to cooperate and no definitive findings of wrongdoing. The report released by Iowa Sen...

Ex-CIA officer charged with leak to Times reporter

Posted on January 06, 2011
WASHINGTON — A former CIA officer has been indicted on charges of disclosing national security secrets after being accused of leaking classified information about Iran to a New York Times reporter. Federal prosecutors charged Jeffrey Sterling with 10 counts related to improperly keeping and disclosing national security information...

Justices will take Rx-data case

Posted on January 06, 2011
WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court says it will decide whether state laws aimed at the marketing of prescription drugs violate free-speech rights. The Court agreed today to hear Vermont's appeal of a lower court ruling that struck down a state law that prevents companies from selling to pharmaceutical companies information that details doctors' prescribing records, though without patient names...

High court to hear case involving Nev. ethics law

Posted on January 06, 2011
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will consider a Nevada case that weighs the right of an elected official to vote on business that comes before him against the state?s interest in having an ethical government. The justices today agreed to review a Nevada Supreme Court ruling that struck down a part of the state ethics law...

Ohio gov.-elect relents, will allow press at swearing-in

Posted on January 05, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio ? Ohio's incoming governor has reversed an earlier decision and plans to open his official swearing-in to reporters and some members of the public, a spokesman said yesterday. Republican Gov.-elect John Kasich changed direction after requests from supporters as well as a flurry of news-media criticism this week, said spokesman Rob Nichols...

Neo-Nazi convicted of using Web to threaten juror

Posted on January 05, 2011
CHICAGO — Jurors in Chicago convicted an avowed neo-Nazi yesterday of encouraging violence against the foreman of a jury in a 2004 trial of a white supremacist, with prosecutors saying his threats struck at the heart of the U.S. justice system. William A...

1st Circuit: R.I. town can target houses that host noisy parties

Posted on January 05, 2011
PROVIDENCE, R.I. ? A federal appeals court has upheld a Rhode Island beach town?s use of orange stickers to mark houses that host noisy parties. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said yesterday in URI Student Senate v. Town of Narragansett that Narragansett?s orange sticker policy was constitutional, even if a little ?unorthodox...

9th Circuit: San Diego cross is unconstitutional

Posted on January 04, 2011
SAN DIEGO ? A war memorial cross in a San Diego public park is unconstitutional because it conveys a message of government endorsement of religion, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday in a two decades old case. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the unanimous decision in the dispute over the 29-foot cross, which was dedicated in 1954 in honor of Korean War veterans...

Pa. state troopers will no longer bust for cuss words

Posted on January 04, 2011
PHILADELPHIA ? Cutting loose with curse words can't be charged as a crime anymore in Pennsylvania ? at least when state police are involved. As part of a settlement yesterday of a federal free-speech lawsuit, state police have agreed to stop citing the public for using four-letter words and other epithets...

New edition excises n-word from Mark Twain classics

Posted on January 04, 2011
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Mark Twain wrote that ?the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter.? A new edition of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer will try to find out if that holds true by replacing the n-word with ?slave? in an effort not to offend readers...

Ohio governor-elect won't allow news media at official swearing-in

Posted on January 04, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio ? When Ohio officially swears in its new governor on Jan. 10, no representative of the public is slated to be there to witness it. Republican Gov.-elect John Kasich has closed the 12:01 a.m. event to the news media, which appears to be a first in 20 years...

Ariz. official warns district it violates ethnic-studies ban

Posted on January 03, 2011
PHOENIX ? A school district in Tucson is violating a new state law by continuing an ethnic-studies program designed primarily for Hispanics, outgoing Arizona schools chief Tom Horne said yesterday. The finding on the day Horne leaves office to become state attorney general could cost the Tucson Unified School District nearly $15 million, which amounts to 10% of its annual state funding...

News media to get video of boy who shot himself at Mass. gun show

Posted on January 03, 2011
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. ? A judge has ruled that the news media will be given access to the videotape of an 8-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself in the head at a gun show. Judge Peter Velis said yesterday that there is no legal reason to prohibit news-media access to the video...

Ind. family tries to clip basketball team's haircut policy

Posted on January 03, 2011
INDIANAPOLIS ? The parents of a former junior high school basketball player have filed a federal lawsuit in Indianapolis that argues a team haircut policy violated their son's right to wear his hair the way he wants. Patrick and Melissa Hayden said in the lawsuit filed last week in U...

High school juniors: Apply now for Free Spirit scholarship

Posted on January 03, 2011
WASHINGTON ? High school juniors with a passion for journalism have until Feb. 15, 2011, to apply for the annual Al Neuharth Free Spirit Scholarship and Journalism Conference, July 9-14, 2011, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Eligibility is limited to students who are interested in journalism careers, who demonstrate qualities of ?free spirit? and who are high school juniors in the 2010-2011 academic year...

?NYPD Blue? buttocks fine nixed

Posted on January 03, 2011
Comment? E-mail me A federal appeals court panel today vacated an FCC fine against ABC for airing an episode of "NYPD Blue" that showed a woman?s bare buttocks for less than seven seconds. ABC and many affiliates broadcast the episode in February 2003 in which actress Charlotte Ross, playing character Connie McDowell, displayed her nude backside as she prepared to shower...

Nev. high court backs campaign-finance reporting rules

Posted on January 02, 2011
LAS VEGAS ? The Nevada Supreme Court has rejected a claim by a former state Senate contender who says campaign-finance reporting requirements are unconstitutional. The court said former candidate Carolyn Bauer was not protected by a constitutional right against self-incrimination when she refused to follow Nevada's Campaign Practices Act...

Student tossed from nursing program for Facebook post sues college

Posted on January 02, 2011
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. ? A junior college in suburban Kansas City is defending its decision to kick out of its nursing program four students who posed for photos with a human placenta. One of the students, Doyle Byrnes, has filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Kansas seeking to force Johnson County Community College to reinstate her before classes resume Jan...

Ohio judge drops newspaper website-comments suit

Posted on January 02, 2011
CLEVELAND ? An Ohio judge taken off a high-profile murder trial has dropped her $50 million lawsuit against a Cleveland newspaper and reached an undisclosed financial settlement with an affiliated company that runs the publication's website, an attorney said Dec...

Wyo. lawmaker wants to seal some autopsy info

Posted on January 01, 2011
CHEYENNE, Wyo. ? A Jackson lawmaker wants to change state law to specify that toxicology reports and some other information from autopsies should remain confidential unless a judge orders it released. Rep. Keith Gingery, R-Jackson, is chairman of the state House Judiciary Committee...

Jews, Muslims unite to serve homeless on Christmas Day

Posted on December 31, 2010
DETROIT ? Jews and Muslims in the Detroit area united Christmas Day to serve the community while Christian neighbors celebrated their holiday. The event traditionally known as Mitzvah Day was held on a Friday across southeast Michigan because Christmas fell this year on a Saturday, which is the Jewish Sabbath...

Buzz Aldrin sues trading-card company Topps

Posted on December 30, 2010
LOS ANGELES ? Former lunar astronaut Buzz Aldrin is not over the moon about the use of his photo on a series of trading cards. The 80-year-old Aldrin sued Topps Inc. this week in federal court in Los Angeles, saying the company had unfairly profited from his historic achievement when they used an iconic photograph of Aldrin standing on the moon in a series of "American Heroes" trading cards...

Judge strikes down NYC's gruesome tobacco ads

Posted on December 29, 2010
NEW YORK ? The city's campaign to scare smokers with grotesque images of decaying teeth or a diseased lung wherever tobacco products are sold was struck down yesterday by a federal judge who concluded that only the federal government can dictate warnings that must accompany the promotion of cigarettes...

Hawaii governor wants more Obama birth info released

Posted on December 28, 2010
HONOLULU ? Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie wants to find a way to release more information about President Barack Obama's birth and dispel conspiracy theories that he was born elsewhere. Abercrombie, who was a friend of Obama's parents and knew him as a child, says he is deeply troubled by the effort to cast doubt on the president's citizenship...

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