Pennsylvania Township’s Ban of ‘Thin Blue Line’ Flag Is Unconstitutional, Court Rules
Prohibiting the use of the thin blue line flag restricts the free speech of public employees under the First Amendment, U.S. District Judge Karen Marston decided.
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.
Pennsylvania Police Chief Resigns After Threatening Facebook Critic with Arrest
A police chief in Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation for threatening to arrest a private citizen unless he removed Facebook posts that criticized the chief. According to a document obtained by The New York Times, Buglio pled guilty on May 25th to “one count of deprivation of civil rights under color of law and agreed to resign from his position within 10 days of his plea agreement."
Can A Public School Punish A Student For Off-Campus Speech?
On January 8th, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving a high school student who was suspended from her cheerleading team for a Snapchat selfie she made after school hours. The lower courts are currently split as to whether a school can discipline off-campus speech that is substantially disruptive and closesly linked to school.
Federal Judge Says Philadelphia Municipal Court’s Rules Violate the First Amendment
“Not all documentation is reasonable,” Nicolas Riley, one of the plaintiff's attorneys, said, noting that most people could see why an 18-person camera crew might be disruptive. “The problem here was that the court had made it impossible to get down what happened during bail hearings.”
Philadelphia City Officials Sued for Ban on Audio Recording in Bail Hearings
A Philadelphia-based nonprofit and an independent journalist have sued officials in Pennsylvania’s First Judicial District for banning audio recording in bail hearings, a restriction they say violates the First Amendment. […]
The Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia brought a lawsuit against Philadephia for an ordinance that banned employers from inquiring about a job-seeker’s salary history, stating that it was 'bad for business.' The ordinance has two parts - "it prohibits an employer from inquiring about a prospective employee’s wage history (“the Inquiry Provision”); and second, it makes it illegal for an employer to rely on wage history “at any stage in the employment process” to determine a salary for an employee (“the Reliance Provision”)." Philadelphia approved the ordinance in January to take effect this May. However, U.S. District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled that the "inquiry provision" specifically violated the First Amendment's free speech clause. “Although the ordinance represents a significant positive attempt to address the wage gap, the First Amendment compels me to enjoin implementation of the inquiry provision." Will this chill efforts in other states and cities that have been passing similar ordinances?