First Amendment Lawyer Ted Boutrous Honored with Leadership Award from PEN America
"We need PEN America more than ever to achieve this objective and I am so honored to be part of its mission,” Boutrous said in a statement.
Ballard Spahr: Sixth Circuit Sides with ‘The New York Times’ in Defamation Suit
Reprinted with Permission from Ballard Spahr An article in The New York Times about controversy surrounding an Ohio State University cancer researcher was not defamatory because reasonable readers would understand it was “a […]
Liberty University’s President Defends Right to Censor Student Newspaper
Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. defended his right to censor the university’s student newspaper, arguing that the practice does not violate First Amendment rights to freedom of the press […]
Gene Policinski Commentary: New Assange Charges Raise Two First Amendment Alarms
The Newseum Institute’s First Amendment expert, Gene Policinski, originally published this commentary on June 13, 2019, on the Newseum blog, and has given First Amendment Watch permission to reprint. For […]
Trump Urges Supporters to Boycott CNN’s Parent Company
President Donald Trump took to Twitter and urged his supporters to boycott CNN’s parent company, AT&T. “I believe that if people stoped (sic) using or subscribing to @ATT, they would be forced to make big changes at @CNN, which is dying in the ratings anyway. It is so unfair with such bad, Fake News! Why wouldn’t they act. When the World watches @CNN, it gets a false picture of USA. Sad!," he tweeted.
PEN America Rebuts Trump’s Motion To Dismiss Suit Over First Amendment Violations
Updated 3/25/2020: District court rejected Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss PEN America’s lawsuit, says the case can proceed. PEN America filed its response to a motion to dismiss filed on […]
Survey Reveals Substantial Support For First Amendment, But People Misunderstand Its Protections
According to a newly released American Bar Association civics literacy survey, the American public displays strong support for the First Amendment, but knowledge of the specifics of its protections are lacking.
FOIA Suit Filed Over Secret Government Database
An NBC affiliate in San Diego and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a suit under the Freedom of Information Act in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against four federal agencies. The complaint filed against the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Citizenship and Immigration Services seeks to obtain records requested in a March, 2019 FOIA concerning an alleged secret database the federal government had created on journalists covering immigration issues at the US and Mexico border.