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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

House votes to cut federal funds to NPR

Posted on March 17, 2011
WASHINGTON ? The House yesterday voted to end federal funding to National Public Radio. Republican supporters said it made good fiscal sense, and Democratic opponents called it an ideological attack that would deprive local stations of access to programs such as "Car Talk" and "All Things Considered...

Pa. university's foundation loses bid to block access to records

Posted on March 17, 2011
EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania?s highest court has upheld a ruling entitling a newspaper to donor financial information from East Stroudsburg University?s foundation. The Pocono Record reports the state Supreme Court issued an order March 16 refusing to hear the university?s appeal of a lower court ruling...

5 inductees join FOIA Hall of Fame

Posted on March 17, 2011
WASHINGTON ? Five people whose work has furthered the cause of freedom of information and open government have been added to the ranks of the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame. The new inductees: Jennifer LaFleur, director, computer-assisted reporting, ProPublica Sean Moulton, director, federal information policy, OMB Watch Tony Mauro, Supreme Court reporter, The National Law Journal David C...

Court blocks contentious Wis. union law

Posted on March 17, 2011
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge issued a temporary restraining order today blocking the state?s new and contentious collective bargaining law from taking effect, raising the possibility that the Legislature may have to vote again to pass the bill...

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N.H. high court: Home-schooled girl ordered to public school

Posted on March 16, 2011
CONCORD, N.H. ? The New Hampshire Supreme Court said yesterday that a lower court acted appropriately in ordering an 11-year-old girl to attend public school after her father claimed his ex-wife's strict Christian teachings were socially isolating the child...

Ruling: Ore. transit-ad policy violates free speech

Posted on March 16, 2011
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling that a Portland-area transit agency?s ad acceptance policy violates constitutional free-speech protections. The Oregonian says TriMet has long maintained that it is acting in a ?proprietary capacity? by establishing standards for the ads that Portland commuters see on its vehicles...

Rep. Issa protests 'whistle-blower' demotion

Posted on March 16, 2011
WASHINGTON ? The Department of Homeland Security demoted a senior career employee who confidentially complained to the agency's internal watchdog that political appointees were improperly interfering with requests for federal records by journalists and others...

Witnesses: Open-records law still difficult to use

Posted on March 15, 2011
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Freedom of Information Act remains an unwieldy and inefficient tool for obtaining government records despite President Barack Obama's promise to reinvigorate the law and improve his administration's transparency, experts told the Senate yesterday...

9th Circuit revives Muslim woman's headscarf lawsuit

Posted on March 15, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO ? A federal appeals court yesterday unanimously reinstated a lawsuit filed by a Muslim woman who accused Southern California jailers of violating her religious freedom when they ordered her to take off her headscarf in a courthouse holding cell...

Free speech no defense for urging suicide, says Minn. court

Posted on March 15, 2011
FARIBAULT, Minn. — Freedom of speech is no defense for a former nurse who engaged in ?lethal advocacy? when he encouraged an English man and Canadian woman to kill themselves after searching for depressed people over the Internet, a Minnesota judge said in delivering a guilty verdict against the man...

Md. county can't enforce law on pro-life pregnancy-clinic signs

Posted on March 15, 2011
GREENBELT, Md. ? A federal judge has ruled that a portion of a Maryland county law targeting pro-life pregnancy clinics with sign requirements cannot be enforced. Officials in Montgomery County passed an ordinance last year that requires pregnancy clinics without licensed medical staff to post a sign...

'Mobile Migration' workshop set for April 1

Posted on March 15, 2011
NASHVILLE, Tenn. ? Registration is open for "Mobile Migration," a workshop April 1 in Nashville about the touch-screen tablet revolution and its implications for journalism. The daylong workshop at the John Seigenthaler Center on the Vanderbilt University campus is co-sponsored by the Online News Association and the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, with underwriting help from the Scripps Howard Foundation...

SPJ 'honoring' Utah governor for closing records

Posted on March 14, 2011
SALT LAKE CITY ? Utah's restrictive new open-records law has brought the state national recognition for reducing public access to government. The national Society of Professional Journalists plans to present Gov. Gary Herbert with a first-ever Black Hole award tomorrow to highlight the law, which increases fees for records requests and makes government text messages private...

Agribusiness, lawmakers attack secret videos of animal cruelty

Posted on March 14, 2011
DES MOINES, Iowa ? Angered by repeated releases of secretly filmed videos purportedly showing mistreatment of farm animals, Iowa's agriculture industry is pushing legislation that would make it illegal for animal-rights activists to produce and distribute such images...

10th Circuit: Colo. man can sue Secret Service agents

Posted on March 14, 2011
DENVER — A Colorado man can sue two Secret Service agents who arrested him after he touched former Vice President Dick Cheney on the arm in 2006 and told him his Iraq war policies were ?disgusting,? a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. The ruling means Steven Howards can try to subpoena Cheney to testify about the incident, said David Lane, Howards? attorney...

Little transparency progress under Obama

Posted on March 13, 2011
WASHINGTON ? Two years into its pledge to improve government transparency, the Obama administration handled fewer requests for federal records from citizens, journalists, companies and others last year even as significantly more people asked for information...

W.Va. Legislature passes reporter-shield bill

Posted on March 13, 2011
CHARLESTON, W.Va. ? West Virginia lawmakers have passed a bill protecting journalists from disclosing confidential sources in most legal proceedings. The House of Delegates passed the measure on March 12, agreeing to a Senate amendment on the final day of the 60-day legislative session...

Twitter must turn over account info in WikiLeaks probe

Posted on March 13, 2011
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal magistrate ruled late last week that prosecutors can demand Twitter account information of certain users in their criminal probe into the disclosure of classified documents on WikiLeaks. The prosecutors? reasons for seeking the records remain secret and it?s unknown how important they are to the investigation of the largest leak ever of classified American documents...

Neb. prison officials agree to recognize pagan religion

Posted on March 13, 2011
OMAHA, Neb. — Two Nebraska inmates have succeeded in getting a pagan religion recognized by state prison officials and will be able to hold their own worship services. Wolfgang Rust, 59, and Bobby Conn, 30, reached a settlement in December with the state Department of Correctional Services over their fight to practice Theodish Belief at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln...

Openness in state government? AP survey shows mixed results

Posted on March 12, 2011
NEW YORK ? More openness in government. Lawmakers across the country, including the Republicans who took control in many states this year, say they want it. But a survey of all 50 states by the Associated Press has found that efforts to boost openness often are being thwarted by old patterns of secrecy...

Religious group sues N.H. town for sign-permit denial

Posted on March 11, 2011
CONCORD, N.H. ? A New Hampshire religious group is suing the town of Chichester after local planners denied a permit to erect a 12-foot-high electronic sign to display Bible verses on busy Route 4. The group, named Signs for Jesus, says the 4-3 vote last month to deny the permit violated their free-speech and equal-protection rights...

Senate panel approves Patriot Act extensions

Posted on March 10, 2011
WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee voted yesterday to extend until the end of 2013 three post-Sept. 11 terror-fighting practices that have raised concerns among civil liberties groups. At the same time, the legislation, which was approved on a 10-7, mainly party-line vote, would end in December 2013 the investigative tool known as National Security Letters that compel businesses to turn over customer records without a judge's order...

Next hearings: radical Muslims in prison

Posted on March 10, 2011
WASHINGTON ? The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee is pressing forward with his public examination of Muslim extremism in America, pointing to his first, tense hearing on the subject as a step toward desensitizing a taboo topic and rooting out terrorists on U...

Broncos' Cox waives hearing after judge rules it should be public

Posted on March 10, 2011
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — Details of sexual-assault allegations against Denver Broncos cornerback Perrish Cox will remain secret, for now. Cox attorney Harvey A. Steinberg waived his client's right to a preliminary hearing, where investigators present evidence in court, after a judge ruled yesterday that it should be public...

WikiLeaks, Obama openness on FOI Day agenda

Posted on March 09, 2011
WASHINGTON ? The effects of WikiLeaks disclosures on classified data and Obama administration policies on the cause of freedom of information will be top questions at the National Freedom of Information Day Conference, Wednesday, March 16. The 13th annual conference will be held from 8:30 a...

News media win access to Loughner search-warrant records

Posted on March 09, 2011
TUCSON, Ariz. — Records of a police search of the home of the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage were released yesterday after the judge overseeing the case granted news organizations? request to unseal the files. The Arizona Republic and KPNX-TV had argued that there was no basis for the records to remain sealed and that the public had a right to the documents...

Ore. school bus driver loses job over Confederate flag

Posted on March 09, 2011
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — An Oregon school bus driver fired after he refused to remove a Confederate battle flag flying from his pickup truck has enlisted the help of a conservative civil liberties group in hopes of getting his job back. The Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville, Va...

Ruling: Univ. of Ill. wrongly withheld student names

Posted on March 09, 2011
CHICAGO — A federal judge has ruled that the University of Illinois can?t use a federal privacy law to withhold the names of college applicants on a list of politically connected students at the heart of an admissions scandal. The Chicago Tribune reported yesterday that U...

Rep. King: Hearings on Muslims in America will be fair

Posted on March 08, 2011
WASHINGTON — The Republican congressman who has organized controversial hearings into radical Islam called Muslims "part of the mosaic" of America and said yesterday that they shouldn't feel threatened or intimidated by his inquiry. "If there is going to be animosity, I would blame it on my opponents," Rep...

NPR CEO says resignation was necessary

Posted on March 08, 2011
WASHINGTON ? National Public Radio President and CEO Vivian Schiller says she resigned this morning because it would have been too difficult for NPR to confront a possible loss of federal funding if she had remained in charge. Schiller told the Associated Press that she resigned after a discussion with NPR's board of directors...

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