FAW Public Forum: Media Leak Investigations and the First Amendment
Watch our panel discussion with the Reporters Committee's Gabe Rottman, and two Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalists–Ellen Nakashima from The Washington Post & Charlie Savage from The New York Times–to talk about the history of media leak investigations and their impact on press freedom.
Virginia Lt. Governor Fails to Convince Fourth Circuit that CBS Defamed Him
In 2019, Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax sued CBS for defamation following their coverage of two sexual assault allegations against him. At the time, Fairfaix was poised to replace Gov. Ralph Northam who was facing intense public pressure to resign for appearing in blackface in his 1994 medical school yearbook.
Supreme Court Rules that Student’s Off-Campus Speech Is Protected By the First Amendment
In an 8-1 decision on June 23rd, the Supreme Court ruled that a student’s off-campus speech was protected by the First Amendment. The case, Mahanoy Area School District v B.L., involves a message posted on Snapchat by a then-14 year old student identified as “B.L.”, after she learned she failed to advance from the junior varsity to the varsity cheerleading squad. The message, posted on a Saturday afternoon when she was off-campus, stated, in part, “f*** cheer, f***everything.”
Fourth Circuit Revives Court Access Lawsuit in Maryland
The Fourth Circuit just revived a lawsuit challenging a Maryland statute that prohibits individuals from broadcasting courtroom audio transcripts. Says "lawfully obtained recordings cannot constitutionally be punished ‘absent a need to further a state interest of the highest order.'"
On June 21st, a federal judge dismissed lawsuits filed against then-President Donald Trump and other federal officials who were being sued for violating the rights of protestors last June. After a group of protestors were forcibly removed from Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. on June 1, 2020, the ACLU of D.C., Black Lives Matters, and others filed suit against Trump, then-Attorney William Barr, and other federal officials alleging that they conspired to violate demonstrators right to protest when they cleared the park to allow Trump to pose for a photo op in front of a nearby historic church.
Fifth Circuit Rules A Public School Employee’s Criticism of a Superintendent Isn’t Protected Speech
On June 17th, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an employee’s speech who criticized a school superintendent was made pursuant to his official job-duties and, thus, fell within the large ambit of Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006). The decision shows the vast reach of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Garcetti that created a categorical exception for job-duty speech that limited public employee First Amendment retaliation claims.
DOJ Abandons Pre-Publication Review Lawsuit Against John Bolton
The Department of Justice has dropped lawsuit against former National Security Adviser John Bolton over his memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” The agency originally claimed the memoir contained confidential information, and had requested a court order blocking the publisher from distributing copies of the book.
A prisoner rights group had its First Amendment claim against an Arkansas county’s ban on inmate mail other than postcards reinstated by a divided federal appeals court panel. The panel reasoned that the district court needed to make factual findings on whether there were other ways the prisoner rights group could have communicated with the inmates.