Former Defense Secretary Files Prior Restraint Suit Against the Department of Defense
On November 28th, Mark Esper, who served as the defense secretary during the Trump administration, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense (DoD) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In his complaint, Esper says the DoD has “unlawfully imposed a prior restraint upon Mr. Esper by delaying, obstructing and infringing on his constitutional right to publish his unclassified manuscript entitled ‘A Sacred Oath’.”
Judge Issues First Prior Restraint Against NY Times in 50 Years
On November 18th, a Supreme Court judge for Westchester County issued a temporary prior restraint against The New York Times brought by Project Veritas, a conservative organization founded by political activist James O’Keefe. The prior restraint arises from a November 11th article in The Times about a Justice Department investigation into Project Veritas’s reporting methods, including its possible involvement in the theft of a diary belonging to President Joe Biden’s daughter.
Former Celebrity Apprentice Contestant Settles Long-Running Defamation Suit Against Trump
On November 12th, Summer Zervos, a former “Celebrity Apprentice” contestant, settled her defamation suit against Donald Trump. Zervos sued Trump just days before he took office in 2016 after he called her a liar when she accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in 2007. For the majority of Trump’s term in office, the lawsuit was stalled by a debate over whether the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution barred state courts from interfering with a sitting president’s official duties.
Alex Jones Liable by Default in Sandy Hook Elementary Defamation Suit
On Monday, November 15th, a superior court judge in Connecticut ruled that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was liable by default in a defamation lawsuit. Judge Barbara Bellis issued the default judgement after years of Jones’ refusal to turn over financial and web analytics data that had been ordered by the court.
Pennsylvania Voting Official Sues Trump, Guiliani, and Others for Defamation
James Savage, a supervisor of a voting machine warehouse in the Philadelphia suburbs is Donald Trump, his two former attorneys Rudy Guiliani and Jenna Ellis, and two GOP poll watchers for defamation and civil conspiracy. The lawsuit, filed in Philadelphia county court, alleges that Gregory Stenstrom and Leah Hoopes, the two GOP poll watchers, falsely claimed that Savage altered the vote tabulation of the 2020 presidential election and gave Joe Biden 50,000 additional votes.
Smartmatic Sues Two Conservative News Organizations for Defamation
On November 3rd, Smartmatic, an election technology company, sued One America News Network (OANN) and Newsmax for defamation over claims related to the 2020 presidential election. The lawsuits, filed against OANN in Washington D.C. and against Newsmax in Delaware, allege that the conservative news organizations aired dozens of reports accusing Smartmatic of participating in a conspiracy to rig the election against Donald Trump.
Authors Share Excerpts on Free Speech: Robert Corn-Revere and the Censor’s Dilemma
In his new book, "The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder," Robert Corn-Revere asks a simple question: what characterizes the psychology of a censor? For Corn-Revere, the attitudes of moral crusaders have been fairly consistent over the last 200 years: they are marked at once by a rigid certainty that the ideas they target are indisputably harmful and an insecure defensiveness stemming from the awareness that most people will reject their attempts at censorship.
University of Florida Prohibits Three Professors From Testifying in Voter Restrictions Lawsuit
The University of Florida has blocked three political science professors from testifying in a lawsuit challenging the state’s new voting law. Florida’s new voting law places restrictions on drop boxes and mail in ballots, and has been roundly criticized by Democrats as a blatant attempt to restrict voting by the eldery, disabled individuals, and minorities.