Media & Communications Law

CIA to Release Documents on Misconduct

The CIA will release hundreds of classified documents next week about illegal conduct beginning in the 1950s and spanning three decades. The materials document overseas assassination attempts, domestic surveillance, break-ins, theft and civilian experiments, according to the Washington Post. Most of the activities have already been revealed in congressional investigations,…

Jun 22, 2007 3:26 PM CDT

Judges Become Libel Plaintiffs

Judges are suing the news media for libel in big numbers—and winning some big verdicts. Judges were plaintiffs in nearly 10 percent of the libel suits filed in 2005, Tony Mauro writes for Legal Times. Twenty-five judges sued for libel that year. The Boston Herald recently lost its appeal of…

Jun 22, 2007 2:15 PM CDT

N.Y. Post Defamation Suit Dismissed

A New York appeals court has dismissed a former basketball star’s defamation suit against a sports writer for the New York Post. The court said ex-pro player Latrell Sprewell failed to present evidence of actual malice on the part of reporter Marc Berman, the New York Journal Law Journal reports.…

Jun 20, 2007 12:52 PM CDT

Plaintiff is Top Judge; Who Hears Appeal?

It’s a basic premise of constitutional law that litigants are entitled to a fair trial. Thus, when a judge is even peripherally involved in a lawsuit, he or she routinely steps aside and lets another jurist hear the case. But what happens when all the judges in the system are…

Jun 19, 2007 12:05 AM CDT

Lawyer Rankings Rankle, Suit Results

Rankled by lawyer rankings that reportedly gave the dean of Stanford Law School a lower score than that of a dead and disbarred lawyer, affected attorneys are–surprise!–suing. John Henry Browne, a Seattle trial lawyer who is also unhappy about his own score, has filed a federal class action suit against…

Jun 18, 2007 10:05 PM CDT

Editor’s Book Hits Media Lawyer

A book that chronicles the legal fight to protect a Time reporter and his sources criticizes the high-profile lawyer who represented the magazine. The book, Off the Record, is written by former Time editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine. He takes aim at media lawyer Floyd Abrams, saying he was more interested in…

Jun 18, 2007 1:40 PM CDT

Judge to FBI: Release Spying Records

According to a party, a federal judge in a FOIA case today ordered the FBI to release on an expedited basis records of the agency’s domestic spying on Americans under a controversial National Security Letters program that allows warrantless surveillance. “The reports we’ve seen so far about NSL abuse are…

Jun 16, 2007 1:55 AM CDT

Back in Ball Game: O.J. Book ‘If I Did It’

A highly controversial, near-confessional account by fallen football hero O.J. Simpson of how he might have killed his former wife and a male companion could still be published. The father of Nicole Brown Simpson’s companion, Ron Goldman, can pursue the rights to the book, “If I Did It,” from an…

Jun 15, 2007 8:57 PM CDT

New Argument: Beware of Bloggers

Lawyers for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr. argued against release of letters in his support on the ground that the authors would be subjected to ridicule on the Internet. Lawyers said there was “the real possibility that these letters, once released, would be published on the Internet and their authors…

Jun 11, 2007 2:17 PM CDT

Judge: Stop Web Attack on Crime Author

In an unusual and perhaps unenforceable order, a federal judge in Virginia has told a self-published author to end a longstanding Internet vendetta against Patricia Cornwell, a best-selling crime novelist. Formerly a resident of Richmond, Cornwell, 50, says she moved from Virginia to Massachusetts in 2001 largely because of her…

Jun 7, 2007 8:16 PM CDT

2nd Circuit: F-Word Not Really Indecent; FCC: Enforcement Threatened

The F-word isn’t indecent enough to trigger Federal Communications Commission penalties when inadvertently used in television and radio broadcasts, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided today. Its ruling focused on a 2003 Golden Globes presentation on NBC television by U-2’s lead singer, who made the comment “f-ing brilliant”…

Jun 5, 2007 2:06 AM CDT

Court Finds Media Right to Juror Names

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that the media has a First Amendment right to juror names. Writing yesterday (PDF) for a unanimous court, Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy said disclosing jurors’ names furthers the objective of a fair trial and assures society of fairness. Cappy wrote that names could…

Jun 1, 2007 7:48 PM CDT

Outed CIA Agent Claims Prior Restraint

Outed CIA agent Valerie Wilson has sued her former employer for refusing to allow her to publish the dates she worked there. Wilson notes the information has already been published in the Congressional Record and says the CIA’s stance violates her rights to free speech, according to a New York…

Jun 1, 2007 4:19 PM CDT

Panhandler Gets Arrest Tossed

A city court judge in New Rochelle, N.Y., has found the arrest of a panhandler violated his free speech rights. Eric Hoffstead had asked his lawyer to challenge his arrest after reading about a 1992 federal judge’s ruling that struck down a ban on panhandling. The court also tossed a…

May 31, 2007 3:51 PM CDT

Libel Suit OK’d for Financial Reports

A California appeals court is permitting Overstock.com’s libel suit against a financial analysis company to go forward. Overstock.com had claimed Gradient Analytics conspired with a hedge fund to publish negative reports about the online retailer, according to the Recorder. The hedge fund allegedly profited by taking short positions in the…

May 31, 2007 1:07 PM CDT