Category
News Gathering
In this June 26, 2021, file photo, former President Donald Trump looks on during his first post-presidency campaign rally in Wellington, Ohio. (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

Trump Sues His Niece and The New York Times for $100 Million

Former president Donald Trump is suing his niece, The New York Times, and three of its reporters over the publication of his tax records. The lawsuit, filed on September 21st in Dutchess County, New York, accuses Mary Trump, The Times, and reporters David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner of being “engaged in an insidious plot to obtain confidential and highly sensitive records” about Trump’s finances. 

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The Supreme Court Hasn’t Ruled on Whether Recording the Police is a First Amendment Right. This Could be the Year It Does.

Despite numerous legal challenges over the right to record police officers in public, the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the question of whether citizens have a First Amendment right to record the police. Because of this, only states in judicial districts that have established the right to record as a constitutional right consider it a “clearly established law.”

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Jeff Bezos

First Amendment Protects ProPublica’s Publication of IRS Documents

There is no question that ProPublica's story on billionaires' income taxes drew a lot of attention. But could they get in trouble for publishing it?

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SCOTUS Ruling in Van Buren A Win for Data Journalists and Security Researchers

On June 3rd, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court's ruling that could have set a dangerous precedent for data journalists and security researchers. The case focused on the interpretation of a federal hacking law, and whether it could apply to an individual who is given access to a computer or online information, but uses it in an unauthorized manner.

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Conservative Think Tank Loses Press Access Lawsuit Against Wisconsin Governor

The MacIver Institute sued Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers in 2019 after his office allegedly refused to invite reporters from the think tank’s news arm, MacIver News Service, to press briefings. On April 9th, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit sided with the Governor after finding his office had acted on viewpoint-neutral policies and that MacIver had failed to show evidence that the policy was applied in a discriminatory manner.

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Newspapers Put Pressure on Rhode Island Governor To Resume COVID-19 Press Briefings

Since her nomination to then-President-Elect Joe Biden's Cabinet, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo has stopped answering journalists' questions about the pandemic and vaccine distribution. According to The Providence Journal, Raimondo’s last weekly COVID-19 briefing was on December 22, 2020.

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Decades-Long Mystery Behind the Pentagon Papers Finally Revealed

The decades-long mystery of how the late New York Times journalist Neil Sheehan came into possession of the Pentagon Papers in the late 1960s has finally been revealed. On January 7th, the Times published a story detailing the many twists and turns that led to one of the greatest achievements in journalistic history. 

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ICYMI: First Amendment Stories That Broke Over the 2020 Holidays

A federal judge in Virginia dismissed one of Rep. Devin Nunes' (R-CA) defamation suits against The Washington Post, the Federal Aviation Agency released long-awaited drone guidelines, a British judge rejected the U.S. government's request to extradite Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and more.

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