Floyd Abrams, attorney, author and prominent legal authority on the First Amendment, spoke with First Amendment Watch about the Pentagon Papers, press rights, and libel law at the National […]
Federal Appeals Court Says Public Officials Cannot Block Critics
A federal appeals court upheld a ruling that a local county official who temporarily blocked a constituent from her Facebook page violated the First Amendment, making this the first court of appeals ruling regarding whether the First Amendment applies to government-run social media accounts.
Ballard Spahr: MD and DC News Organizations Win Challenge To Online Political Ad Law
Reprinted with Permission from Ballard Spahr In a 50-page opinion and order issued today, a Maryland federal court ruled in favor of a coalition of Maryland and Washington, D.C.-based news […]
Massachusetts Mayor Can Pursue Defamation Suit Against Local Paper, Judge Rules
A judge is allowing a defamation lawsuit brought by the mayor of Methuen, Massachusetts James Jajuga to go to trial against the publisher of a local monthly paper over comments made […]
Citing First Amendment Rights, Tesla Founder Musk Seeks To Dismiss Defamation Suit
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is asking a judge to dismiss a libel claim against him brought by a British diver involved in the international rescue mission of young boys trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand, arguing that his Tweets calling the diver a "pedo" and "child rapist" were an opinion and could not be construed as facts.
Buzzfeed Prevails In Defamation Lawsuit Filed By Russian Executive For Publishing Dossier
A federal judge ruled in Buzzfeed’s favor in a lawsuit brought by Russian technology executive Aleksej Gubarev. Gubarev claimed that he was defamed in a dossier published by Buzzfeed in January 2017 […]
Harvard Historian Seeking To Unseal Documents From Probe Into Pentagon Papers Leak
A history professor and writer is asking a federal judge to unseal the records from proceedings in two Boston grand jury probes into the leaks of the Pentagon Papers in […]
New Knight Study Released on The Future of the First Amendment
The Future of the First Amendment: 2018 Report of High School Students and Teachers report examines how high school students' attitudes about the First Amendment, censorship, and the news environment are changing and what that means for the future of democracy.