First Amendment

Will Calif. Supreme Court Provide Bar Data for Controversial Study?

Seeking to pursue a controversial study about the effectiveness of law school affirmative action programs, researchers have sued the State Bar of California for access to 30 years of examination records. They are now asking the state supreme court to compel the bar association to turn over the bar exam…

Sep 8, 2008 5:10 PM CDT

Chief Justice Ponders ‘Choose KKK’ License Plates in Moot Court Case

University of Florida law student Cary Aronovitz was only about a minute into his moot court argument when Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. interrupted him with a question. Aronovitz said he had anticipated the question, although it was a difficult one that he didn’t want to answer, FlaLaw Online…

Sep 8, 2008 2:32 PM CDT

Kansas High Court Asked to Decide: Can Judges Fill Out Questionnaires?

A federal court has asked the Kansas Supreme Court to weigh in on a question of state law: Can state judges ethically fill out questionnaires that ask them about their opinions on issues that are likely to come before them? On the one hand, judges have a First Amendment right…

Sep 5, 2008 9:14 PM CDT

8th Circuit: Bankruptcy Provision Violates Lawyer Free Speech Rights

A federal appeals court has struck down a provision in the 2005 federal bankruptcy law that bars lawyers from advising clients to take on more debt before filing for bankruptcy. The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the ban violated the free speech rights of lawyers and…

Sep 5, 2008 11:00 AM CDT

Pole Dancing Instructor Challenges Studio Ban with ACLU’s Help

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania has filed a First Amendment lawsuit on behalf of a suburban Pittsburgh pole dancing instructor who was denied an occupancy permit for her new studio. Adams Township, Pa., classifies Stephanie Babines’ proposed dance studio as an adult business that cannot be located within…

Sep 4, 2008 4:35 PM CDT

E-Mail Puts N.Y. Times Publisher in Deposition Seat

Add another well-known name to the list of those unhappy about e-mail communications. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the New York Times, is going to have to testify in a defamation suit filed in New Jersey against one of the newspaper’s reporters by Donald Trump, over a book the reporter…

Sep 3, 2008 10:31 PM CDT

Beer Brewer is Victorious in Battle over ‘Legal Weed’ Bottle Caps

A small California brewer who stood his ground in the face of threatened federal regulatory enforcement over his tongue-in-cheek bottle caps has won the regulatory battle. Adverse publicity has helped persuade the feds that the phrase “Legal Weed” on the Mt. Shasta Brewing Co.’s beer bottle caps is neither confusing…

Sep 2, 2008 6:08 PM CDT

You Gotta Fight for the Right to Publish

When Tim Stanley began putting Oregon’s statutes up on his website Justia.com, he probably should have been prepared for a little push-back. After all, he and some of his counterparts at sites like Public.Resource.org and Avvo.com have locked horns with state governments across the country over the right to post…

Sep 1, 2008 1:10 PM CDT

Holy Hogwarts!

Devout Librarian Disapproves of Junior Wizard Dress-Up, Gets Dressed Down and Suspended

Sep 1, 2008 1:00 PM CDT

Judge Allows Privacy Advocate to Post Social Security Numbers

A federal judge has ruled the state of Virginia cannot force a woman to remove Social Security numbers of high-profile individuals from her website that she legally obtained from public records. The woman, Betty “BJ” Ostergren, is a privacy advocate who is posting public property records to show how easy…

Aug 28, 2008 1:54 PM CDT

Judge Sides With MIT Students, Lifts Gag Order in Transit Case

A federal anti-hacking law wasn’t intended to prohibit the disclosure of public information about computer security flaws and hence doesn’t prohibit three MIT students from discussing with fellow academics how they learned to circumvent the Boston transit fare system, as part of a class project. That’s what a federal judge…

Aug 19, 2008 8:31 PM CDT

Calif. Supreme Court Rules for Gay Couple Denied Fertility Treatments

The California Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s anti-discrimination law bars two physicians from refusing to provide artificial insemination to a lesbian couple because of their sexual orientation. “The First Amendment’s right to the free exercise of religion,” the court said, “does not exempt defendant physicians here from conforming…

Aug 19, 2008 10:55 AM CDT

‘Dorm Dudes’ May Be Right in Miami’s Gay Porn Fight

The city of Miami is fighting an uphill battle in its effort to close down a house in which “dorm dudes” are paid by a gay porn website to live there and have sex on schedule. Although the city contends that the so-called porn dorm is in violation of residential…

Aug 14, 2008 5:56 PM CDT

Unabomber Protests Museum Display of his Cabin in Appeals Court Letter

Convicted Unabomber Ted Kaczynski has written a letter to a federal appeals court protesting the display of his cabin in a news museum exhibit called “G-Men and Journalists.” The FBI had loaned the 10-by-12-foot cabin to the Newseum in Washington, D.C., the Washington Post reports. A video tour on the…

Aug 13, 2008 12:36 PM CDT

Pentagon Papers Leaker Daniel Ellsberg Sees Parallel in Disclosure of Wiretap Program

The man who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971 is still eager to expose government secrets. Daniel Ellsberg told an ABA Annual Meeting panel today that he disclosed the 7,000-page study of the history of the Vietnam War in hopes that President Richard Nixon could…

Aug 9, 2008 5:40 PM CDT