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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

U.S. sues district for denying teacher time off for Mecca pilgrimage

Posted on December 13, 2010
WASHINGTON — The federal government sued a suburban Chicago school district yesterday for denying a Muslim middle school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca that is a central part of her religion. In a civil rights case, the department said the school district in Berkeley, Ill...

ACLU sues military seeking sexual assault, harassment records

Posted on December 13, 2010
NEW HAVEN, Conn. ? Sexual assault pervades the military, but the Pentagon refuses to release records that fully document the problem and how it is handled, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups said in a federal lawsuit that seeks access to the records...

Selection of Ariz. redistricting panel stirs controversy

Posted on December 13, 2010
PHOENIX ? A state panel improperly screened applicants for appointment to the redistricting commission, including a Tucson candidate whose religious activities were called a negative by one of the screeners, critics said yesterday. House Speaker Kirk Adams and an advocacy group for social conservatives said they were deeply troubled that a nominating commission member said he opposed Tucson businessman Michael Gleason's application because it cited his involvement in a Christian community service group...

Supreme Court stays out of N.Y. lawyer-ad fight

Posted on December 12, 2010
WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court will not get involved in a New York dispute over whether officials can curb some law firms' television commercials. The high court refused today to hear an appeal from New York officials who passed rules that would restrict some TV ads by local law firms...

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N.J. offers 'Choose Life' license plates

Posted on December 12, 2010
TRENTON, N.J. ? New Jersey's Motor Vehicles Commission has bowed out of a seven-year battle and this month has quietly begun offering license plates with the slogan "Choose Life." The plates can be ordered through the New York-based Children First Foundation, which first tried to get them approved in 2003...

Astronomer claims he lost U. of Kentucky job because of faith

Posted on December 12, 2010
LEXINGTON, Ky. ? An astronomer is suing the University of Kentucky, claiming he was denied a job running its observatory because of his Christian faith. Martin Gaskell was once considered the leading candidate to be the founding director of the observatory, opened in 2008...

Fla. pardons Doors' Jim Morrison

Posted on December 11, 2010
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ? A hot, frenzied night in Miami changed life for Jim Morrison and The Doors. That?s something the late singer?s pardon on indecent exposure and profanity charges can?t correct. ?It made him realize he was no longer in the graces of the gods, that things could go wrong,? said Ray Manzarek, the band?s keyboard player...

Imam behind NYC mosque plan sees hope after fury

Posted on December 10, 2010
NEW YORK ? Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf saw his plans for an Islamic center near ground zero derided as a victory mosque for terrorists, exploited as campaign fodder and used as a bargaining chip by a Florida pastor who vowed to burn the Quran. After that summer of mistrust and raw feelings, he's looking on the bright side...

Ruling: Music website violated Beatles copyrights

Posted on December 09, 2010
LOS ANGELES ? A website that sold songs by the Beatles for 25 cents ? more than a year before legal digital copies were available ? is liable for copyright infringement, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton Tucker ruled Dec...

Mass. man in threatening rap video gets year in jail

Posted on December 09, 2010
TAUNTON, Mass. — A Fairhaven man convicted of threatening law enforcement officials in a rap video posted on the Internet has been sentenced to a year in jail. Jason Foley was also sentenced yesterday in Taunton District Court to two years of probation and banned from accessing the Internet or using a computer...

Kan. school drops 'boobies' bracelet ban

Posted on December 09, 2010
KANSAS CITY, Mo. ? A Kansas high school agreed yesterday to lift restrictions on the popular "I (heart) boobies!" breast-cancer charity bracelets and T-shirts after the American Civil Liberties Union complained about a student's suspension. An attorney for the Geary County School District, Mark Edwards, notified the ACLU that Junction City High School would take no further action against students wearing the wristbands, T-shirts or any other apparel that supports the Keep A Breast Foundation...

Prosecutor: Stolen Valor Act doesn't target legitimate speech

Posted on December 08, 2010
DENVER ? A federal law that makes it illegal to lie about being a military hero with medals should be upheld because it doesn't target legitimate free speech, prosecutors told an appeals court this week. The U.S. attorney for Colorado asked the 10th U...

N.J. officials cite security in holding salt-barn plans

Posted on December 08, 2010
BETHLEHEM TOWNSHIP, N.J. ? New Jersey cited homeland-security concerns when it refused a woman's request to see plans for a barn to store road salt. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit in Hunterdon County seeking to force the state to release the construction plans...

Many non-secrets deemed classified by Feds

Posted on December 08, 2010
WASHINGTON — Wanna hear a secret? The U.S. and Canada are probably going to remain friends. And the conservative and liberal party leaders in England? They don?t like each other. But keep that under wraps. The U.S. doesn?t want that sort of sensitive information getting out for a decade or so...

'Blue Valentine' wins its appeal, will be released with R rating

Posted on December 08, 2010
LOS ANGELES ? Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling's marital drama "Blue Valentine" has won a rare appeal of its adults-only NC-17 rating and will go into theaters with an R rating instead. Motion Picture Association of American spokeswoman Elizabeth Kaltman said the rating was changed after the group's appeals board viewed the film and heard arguments from Harvey Weinstein, whose Weinstein Co...

Greek Orthodox church files claim against WTC owner

Posted on December 07, 2010
NEW YORK — A Greek Orthodox church in New York City that was destroyed on 9/11 is taking legal action against the agency that owns ground zero, saying it has reneged on a promise to rebuild the church. The Wall Street Journal reports that St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church filed a notice of claim against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Dec...

Helen Thomas blasts university for pulling award

Posted on December 07, 2010
DETROIT ? Longtime journalist Helen Thomas blasted her Detroit alma mater for pulling an award named for her because of comments she made that the university called anti-Semitic. The Wayne State University alumna told the Detroit Free Press for a story Dec...

Federal judge: N.C. man can use home to protest town's actions

Posted on December 07, 2010
CARY, N.C. ? A federal judge says a local sign ordinance can't limit the sign that a North Carolina man painted on his home out of anger at town leaders. U.S. District Judge Louise W. Flanagan said yesterday that David Bowden can keep the crude message painted on the front of his Cary home in large, orange letters...

Televised gay-marriage hearing attracts audience

Posted on December 06, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO ? The legal fight over California's same-sex-marriage ban went before a federal appeals court yesterday in a hearing that reached a nationwide TV audience eager for a final decision on whether the measure violates the U.S. Constitution...

N.H. teen charged with penning threatening poem

Posted on December 06, 2010
CONCORD, N.H. ? A 17-year-old New Hampshire high school student is facing charges he helped write a poem that threatened to kill two school officials with a .12-gauge shotgun. Damien Armendariz, a senior at Merrimack Valley High School in the Penacook neighborhood of Concord, made a video appearance in court yesterday on three misdemeanor charges...

U.S.: WikiLeaks release gives hit list to al-Qaida

Posted on December 06, 2010
WASHINGTON — In a disclosure of some of the most sensitive information yet revealed by WikiLeaks, the website has put out a secret cable listing sites worldwide that the U.S. considers critical to its national security. U.S. officials said the leak amounted to giving a hit list to terrorists...

Thousands block protesters at Mo. soldier's funeral

Posted on November 27, 2010
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. ? The first showed up before the sun Nov. 23, huddling and shivering in the cold and the dark. Others soon came, and before long their numbers stretched a block on both sides of Mechanic Street in front of Harrisonville's Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church...

Lawyer: Duke Univ. arrests violate church-state separation

Posted on November 26, 2010
DURHAM, N.C. — An attorney is challenging his client?s alcohol-related traffic arrest, saying the separation of church and state should bar Duke University?s Police Department from having the authority to make arrests. Multiple media outlets reported that attorney Bill Thomas filed a motion Nov...

Sen. Lautenberg introduces campus anti-bullying bill

Posted on November 25, 2010
TRENTON, N.J. ? U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., has introduced legislation in Congress to require colleges to adopt a code of conduct that prohibits bullying and harassment. The Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act is named for the 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman who committed suicide in September after his gay sexual encounter in his dorm room was broadcast online...

Mo. sheriff won't enforce funeral-protest, flag-desecration laws

Posted on November 24, 2010
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri sheriff has backed off a pledge to enforce state statutes prohibiting desecration of the American flag and protests near funerals. The move comes as part of the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri...

Va. officials: Rastafarian inmates no longer isolated because of hair

Posted on November 23, 2010
RICHMOND, Va. ? Many Rastafarians and other inmates in Virginia who have spent years in isolation for refusing to cut their hair were moved to a prison where they can live together, the state Corrections Department has announced. The Associated Press reported in June that 48 inmates were being held in segregation for violating the state's grooming policy, which bans beards and calls for hair to be kept above the shirt collar...

Vt. law on Rx data-mining ruled unconstitutional

Posted on November 23, 2010
MONTPELIER, Vt. ? A Vermont law that restricts companies' use of information about the drugs doctors prescribe is unconstitutional on free speech grounds, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. Three companies that gather information on drugs ordered by doctors and then sell the info to pharmaceutical manufacturers had sued over the so-called data mining law...

Court refuses to dismiss libel claim involving Britney Spears

Posted on November 23, 2010
LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court rejected a bid yesterday by Britney Spears? mother to have a defamation claim by the singer?s former manager and confidante thrown out. A three-member panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal refused to rule that plaintiff Sam Lutfi had such a tarnished image that he could not sue for defamation...

Russian TV news crew arrested while covering Ga. protest

Posted on November 22, 2010
COLUMBUS, Ga. ? A reporter for a Russian TV news network said she and her cameraman were wrongfully arrested and jailed by Columbus police as the journalists were covering the arrests of demonstrators outside Fort Benning in western Georgia. Reporter Kaelyn Forde and cameraman Jon Conway, Washington-based journalists for Russia Today, were arrested on Nov...

12 Nev. students suspended for posting pro-marijuana signs

Posted on November 22, 2010
RENO, Nev. — A northern Nevada school principal is defending the suspensions of 12 students for posting pro-marijuana signs on campus, saying it caused a disruption for classmates and staff. Carson Valley Middle School Principal Robert Been said the signs, including ones reading ?Legalize Weed? and ?Free the Weed,? violated a policy requiring all signs to be approved by staff before being displayed...

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