Archive

California Protestors Sue Governor Over Stay-At-Home Order

“By banning protests generally, and denying Givens’ permit specifically, Defendants have deprived Givens of the opportunity for airing his grievances against the government, including the State’s failure to conduct timely background checks for those wishing to purchase a gun and restrictions on speech activities,” the complaint argues.

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Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments In Case Involving Government Ban on Robocalls

The U.S. Supreme Court considers a challenge to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a law passed in 1991 that prohibits the use of automated calls to cell phones. The plaintiffs, a group of political consultants, argue that the law and its exceptions discriminate based on the content of the caller's message.

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College campus

New Report on First Amendment on Campus Reveals That a Growing Number of College Students Favor Some Restrictions on Speech

On May 5th, the Knight Foundation and Gallup released the 2020 First Amendment on Campus report, an online survey of more than 3,000 full-time undergraduate students, and a large cohort of students from historically black colleges and universities. The First Amendment survey began in the spring of 2016, and the respondents for the 2020 report were queried in the fall of 2019, well before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Vice President’s Staff Threatens to Punish Reporter for Face Mask Tweets

Vice President Mike Pence’s staff has threatened to retaliate against a reporter for sharing an email sent to him by Pence’s office asking members of the press to wear a mask during an official visit to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

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Floyd Abrams Institute Supports Challenge to Maryland Law Prohibiting the Rebroadcast of Court Recordings

Although it is common for courtrooms in the United States to limit the use of cameras and recording equipment during criminal proceedings, the Maryland statute is peculiar in that it applies even to audio recordings produced by the courts and available for public use.

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Fox News Host Sean Hannity Threatens to Sue NY Times For Libel

On April 28th, Sean Hannity, a Fox News host, threatened to sue The New York Times over a column that linked a Brooklyn bar owner’s death from coronavirus to Hannity’s comments that downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic.

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New Hampshire Police

ACLU Sues NH City Police Department for Violating Resident’s First Amendment Right to Record Police

“To allow automatic warrantless seizures of bystanders’ cell phones containing recordings of police interactions without any evidence of exigency would deeply chill the First Amendment right to record, as the public simply would not exercise this constitutional right out of fear that doing so would authorize law enforcement to seize one’s phone and hold it indefinitely,” the complaint reads.

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Kaitlan Collins

White House Asks CNN Reporter to Move to the Back of Press Briefing Room

When Collins and another reporter refused to swap seats, the White House official allegedly told the reporters that the matter would be handled by the Secret Service.

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