Archive for the ‘First Amendment’ Category

North Carolina – First Amendment Center

State Supreme Court says attorney-client privilege means documents involved in redistricting can remain confidential.

4th Circuit rules that officials did not violate mans rights when it fined him for painting Screwed By The Town of Cary on his house.

Brian France, who has fought for years to keep confidential the details of his 2008 divorce, had appealed judges ruling that documents in the case should be made public.

Religious colleges in North Carolina, Illinois are challenging rules that require the schools to provide free contraceptives to employees.

Game operators had argued that 2010 law banning sweepstakes machines as a form of gambling violated their free-speech rights.

North Carolina cant offer anti-abortion license plates unless it also makes plates available for people who support abortion rights, court finds.

At issue is a new North Carolina law that strengthens a cyberbullying statute to provide extra protection to school employees from online defamation.

ACLU says statute, which may be the first of its kind in the country, could chill students speech and vows to seek plaintiffs for a possible court challenge.

North Carolina elementary school that told girl to remove reference to God before reading her poem to students was technically defensible, but it probably would have been better to let her read it as written.

Federal appeals panel finds inmate failed to explain how denial of outdoor circle for Asatru ceremony violated his religious beliefs.

All of America used to be a free-speech zone, says John Murdock of New York after police direct convention protesters who disrupted traffic into designated fenced-in area.

Critics fear that in enforcing new Charlotte, N.C., ordinances, authorities could trample on peoples constitutional rights in the name of protecting public safety.

During discussion about candidates, North Carolina social studies teacher tells high school students they could be arrested for criticizing the president.

Anti-abortion protesters sued after Jacksonville police, citing safety concerns, refused to issue them a permit to picket outside a womens clinic.

Split three-judge panel says law is overbroad and infringes on the free-speech rights of game operators.

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North Carolina - First Amendment Center

First Amendment Activities | United States Courts

Apply landmark Supreme Court cases to contemporary scenarios related to the five pillars of the First Amendment and your rights to freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances."First Amendment, U.S. Constitution

Cox v. New Hampshire Protests and freedom to assemble

Elonis v. U.S. Facebook and free speech

Engel v. Vitale Prayer in schools and freedom of religion

Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier Student newspapers and free speech

Morse v. Frederick School-sponsored events and free speech

Snyder v. Phelps Public concerns, private matters, and free speech

Texas v. Johnson Flag burning and free speech

U.S. v. Alvarez Lies and free speech

Excerpt from:
First Amendment Activities | United States Courts

First Amendment to the United States Constitution – Wikiquote

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, relating to the rights to free speech, a free press, freedom of assembly, freedom to petition, and free exercise of religion, was enacted as part of the Bill of Rights, its ratification occuring on December 15, 1791 with the support of the Virginia Legislature.

The First Amendment, as passed by the House and Senate and later ratified by the States, reads:

Reasonable minds can disagree about how to apply the Religion Clauses in a given case. But the goal of the Clauses is clear: to carry out the Founders plan of preserving religious liberty to the fullest extent possible in a pluralistic society. By enforcing the Clauses, we have kept religion a matter for the individual conscience, not for the prosecutor or bureaucrat. At a time when we see around the world the violent consequences of the assumption of religious authority by government, Americans may count themselves fortunate: Our regard for constitutional boundaries has protected us from similar travails, while allowing private religious exercise to flourish. [...] Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: Why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?

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First Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikiquote

First Amendment (U.S. Constitution) – The New York Times

Latest Articles

If the court takes up cases regarding the names of the N.F.L. team and an Asian-American band, it could test a distinctly American commitment to free speech.

By ADAM LIPTAK

When a New Jersey police officer was mistakenly accused of political activity and demoted, he was still protected by the First Amendment, the Supreme Court decided.

By ADAM LIPTAK

A tawdry trial about sex tapes and celebrity shows how we should rethink information in the digital age.

By ROBERT LEVINE

Arguments in the jury trial start Monday in a case the celebrity wrestler says is about privacy, but the defendant, Gawker, argues is about the First Amendment.

By ERIK ECKHOLM

The state is one of eight that are considering blanket legal protection for discrimination on religious grounds. Its bill is one of the most alarming.

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

The company, in its fight with the F.B.I., is defending its phones on grounds that its code represents free speech, and there is some precedent.

By STEVE LOHR

Crisis pregnancy centers in California are in a battle with the state over a new law requiring them to post a notice that free or low-cost abortion care is available.

By ERIK ECKHOLM

A judges order to release secret documents raises questions about how much involvement courts should have over settlements related to corporate wrongdoing.

By PETER J. HENNING

Mr. Kennedy defended John Gotti Sr., Huey P. Newton and Timothy Leary and won freedom for Jean S. Harris, who killed the Scarsdale Diet doctor.

By SAM ROBERTS

In recent years, the Supreme Court has waved the First Amendment banner ever higher to undermine long-accepted governmental regulatory authority.

By LINDA GREENHOUSE

In a California case, the justices are considering whether government workers who choose not to join a union may still be required to pay for collective bargaining.

By ADAM LIPTAK

A federal judge has warned that prosecutors may be going too far when they ask witnesses to keep quiet about receiving a subpoena.

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Some legal scholars are asking whether it is time to reconsider the clear and present danger standard for curbing the freedom of speech.

By ERIK ECKHOLM

A federal appeals court, in a case involving an Asian-American dance-rock band, struck down part of a law that let the government reject trademarks it deemed offensive or disparaging to others.

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

An array of leading hip-hop artists, including T.I., Big Boi and Killer Mike, filed a Supreme Court brief in support of a high school student punished for posting a rap song that drew attention to complaints about sexual harassment.

The Alabama lawyer opposed The New York Times in a case that resulted in a Supreme Court decision establishing greater leeway for criticism of government officials and other public figures.

By BRUCE WEBER

On university campuses, First Amendment rights are colliding with inclusivity.

By NICHOLAS KRISTOF

Religious Arbitration Used for Secular Disputes | Soros Withdraws $490 Million From Janus Capital

A University of Michigan professor writes that many see this as yet another way the First Amendment is being hijacked.

A new class-action lawsuit says that New York City has a policy and a history of violating protesters constitutional rights.

If the court takes up cases regarding the names of the N.F.L. team and an Asian-American band, it could test a distinctly American commitment to free speech.

By ADAM LIPTAK

When a New Jersey police officer was mistakenly accused of political activity and demoted, he was still protected by the First Amendment, the Supreme Court decided.

By ADAM LIPTAK

A tawdry trial about sex tapes and celebrity shows how we should rethink information in the digital age.

By ROBERT LEVINE

Arguments in the jury trial start Monday in a case the celebrity wrestler says is about privacy, but the defendant, Gawker, argues is about the First Amendment.

By ERIK ECKHOLM

The state is one of eight that are considering blanket legal protection for discrimination on religious grounds. Its bill is one of the most alarming.

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

The company, in its fight with the F.B.I., is defending its phones on grounds that its code represents free speech, and there is some precedent.

By STEVE LOHR

Crisis pregnancy centers in California are in a battle with the state over a new law requiring them to post a notice that free or low-cost abortion care is available.

By ERIK ECKHOLM

A judges order to release secret documents raises questions about how much involvement courts should have over settlements related to corporate wrongdoing.

By PETER J. HENNING

Mr. Kennedy defended John Gotti Sr., Huey P. Newton and Timothy Leary and won freedom for Jean S. Harris, who killed the Scarsdale Diet doctor.

By SAM ROBERTS

In recent years, the Supreme Court has waved the First Amendment banner ever higher to undermine long-accepted governmental regulatory authority.

By LINDA GREENHOUSE

In a California case, the justices are considering whether government workers who choose not to join a union may still be required to pay for collective bargaining.

By ADAM LIPTAK

A federal judge has warned that prosecutors may be going too far when they ask witnesses to keep quiet about receiving a subpoena.

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Some legal scholars are asking whether it is time to reconsider the clear and present danger standard for curbing the freedom of speech.

By ERIK ECKHOLM

A federal appeals court, in a case involving an Asian-American dance-rock band, struck down part of a law that let the government reject trademarks it deemed offensive or disparaging to others.

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

An array of leading hip-hop artists, including T.I., Big Boi and Killer Mike, filed a Supreme Court brief in support of a high school student punished for posting a rap song that drew attention to complaints about sexual harassment.

The Alabama lawyer opposed The New York Times in a case that resulted in a Supreme Court decision establishing greater leeway for criticism of government officials and other public figures.

By BRUCE WEBER

On university campuses, First Amendment rights are colliding with inclusivity.

By NICHOLAS KRISTOF

Religious Arbitration Used for Secular Disputes | Soros Withdraws $490 Million From Janus Capital

A University of Michigan professor writes that many see this as yet another way the First Amendment is being hijacked.

A new class-action lawsuit says that New York City has a policy and a history of violating protesters constitutional rights.

The rest is here:
First Amendment (U.S. Constitution) - The New York Times

Is Facebook protected under the First Amendment? – May. 12, 2016

"If Facebook ignores this request they could receive a subpoena, so I suspect they will cooperate," said Stephen Strauss, a former journalist who is now an attorney at Bryan Cave specializing in First Amendment issues.

He was referring to a letter sent by Senator John Thune to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeking an explanation of how Trending stories are selected and whether any conservative stories were taken out of the list or liberal leaning stories were inserted.

Joe Larsen of Sedgwick Law agrees that it would be risky for Facebook to ignore the request.

"That's just not a good idea, even where... I can see no clear legal basis for Senator Thune's request," Larsen said. "I expect Facebook will provide quite a bit of information."

Related: Did Facebook suppress conservative news?

One piece of what Thune is seeking was revealed Thursday when The Guardian published Facebook's manual for people who manage the Trending topics feature. Facebook confirmed the veracity of the 20 page document, which reveals that there is a lot of human decision making in choosing the stories on top of what the company's algorithms suggest. The manual includes when stories can be "injected" into the Trending topics list.

The controversy began on Monday when Gizmodo published a report with anonymous allegations that former contractors had ignored Facebook's algorithms for its Trending topics section and that links to conservative news stories were "routinely" suppressed.

Thune demanded to know exactly how Facebook decides what news stories to publish and to see a list of all the stories that were previously not distributed or manually inserted into Trending topics.

As a platform that's used by over 222 million people in the United States, the company is able to influence the perceptions of a large chunk of the U.S. population, Thune said.

Facebook has denied that anyone improperly tinkered with the list or that they were instructed to do so. A company spokesman said, "We have received Sen. Thune's request for more information about how Trending Topics works, and look forward to addressing his questions."

Related: Facebook's 'trending topics' spark debate

According to Strauss, Thune's request was legitimate.

"I think that this situation is different than an inquiry into a news organization's content," he said. "In this case Facebook has a 'trending' feature, and Facebook affirmatively stated particular standards for this 'trending' feature, and now there is some question as to the veracity of those representations."

Mark Bailen, a media attorney at BakerHostetler, disagrees. He argues that Facebook has the same right to distribute the news "without interference from the government" as any company or individual.

"It's well established that the government has no role in dictating what is newsworthy," said Bailen. "The idea that the government is going back and looking into and investigating [Facebook's activities in distributing the news] conflicts with decades of jurisprudence under the First Amendment."

Floyd Abrams, a prominent First Amendment attorney, compares Thune's request to one issued by Congress in the 1970s when politicians sought to require CBS to turn over outtakes of a controversial CBS documentary, "The Selling of the Pentagon." The network refused and eventually the inquiry was dropped.

"It was an example of a news organization that was prepared to take great risks to defend its editorial independence," said Abrams.

Related: Senate demands answers from Facebook

"I don't mean to suggest that Facebook must remain silent when it is under attack. But it should take care not to cede its own hard won authority about what articles to cite or recommend to Congress."

One issue about this controversy that troubles some is the way that Facebook depicts its role in selecting what news is shown.

"It has always represented itself as an unbiased aggregator of news on its trending site," according to Larsen. "That is, Facebook says it doesn't have an editorial position."

After the Gizmodo report was published, Facebook Trending manager Tom Stocky wrote that the company has "rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality."

Those guidelines don't allow reviewers to suppress or prioritize political perspectives or media outlets, he says. And these are the guidelines that Thune and others want to know more about.

The company's official description of the feature is simply: "a list of topics and hashtags that have recently spiked in popularity on Facebook. This list is personalized based on a number of factors, including Pages you've liked, your location and what's trending across Facebook."

Until the Gizmodo report, many people weren't aware that Facebook had a team to oversee the Trending Topics feature.

Suzy Fulton, a technology lawyer said that it's possible someone might sue Facebook based on fraud or deceptive practices -- but it would be hard to see what the damages would be, "even assuming you have a valid claim to begin with."

"We are certainly a litigious society," she said. "[But] you can opt out, you can go to Fox or some other conservative news media for your news if you feel Facebook is not telling the right story on its Trending Topics."

CNNMoney (New York) First published May 12, 2016: 1:58 PM ET

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Is Facebook protected under the First Amendment? - May. 12, 2016