Some Thoughts on the Avenatti v. Fox News Libel Lawsuit
Past perfect, libel-proof plaintiffs, substantial truth, “actual malice,” statutes of limitations, and more.
Free Speech
Lawyer Gets Temporary Injunction Against Gripe Site That Says He's a "Fraud," "Cowardly," "Cannot Be Trusted"
But I think the First Amendment prohibits such pretrial injunctions, and in any event the injunction targets opinions and not just false factual assertions.
TikTok Will Outlast Trump
Plus: Homeland Security says this election was "the most secure in American history," Chicago asks residents to stay home again, and more...
L.A. Suburban School District Forbids To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and More in High School Readings
Other excluded books: Huckleberry Finn, The Cay, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Trump v. CNN Libel Suit Dismissed for Now
The court finds that the Trump campaign didn't offer enough facts suggesting that CNN knew the statement was false (or was likely false); the campaign is allowed to file an amended complaint if it can make more specific allegations.
Gun Restrictions as Analogy for Justifying Speech Restrictions
"The state may restrict a convicted felon's right ... to possess a firearm," so a state may order a civil case defendant to stop saying things online about plaintiff that "severe[ly] emotional distress" that plaintiff.
No Sealing of Case Based on "Defendant['s] … Damaging Assertions Against Plaintiffs"
"Plaintiffs decided to file a publicly available case and then ask the Court to protect them because defendant might say horrible things about them throughout the course of this litigation.... But harsh words are not a basis to seal a case, especially where it appears that both sides have no qualms about tearing each other down."
"Seditious Conspiracy" Is Still a Crime
But unlike the Sedition Act of 1798, the federal seditious conspiracy statute doesn't focus on antigovernment speech (such as alleged lies about the government).
Michigan AG's #DetroitLeaks Takedown Demand, and Seditious Libel
The AG is threatening criminal prosecution because the videos allegedly contain "false and misleading information" about Michigan elections' vulnerability to fraud.
First, Sixth Amendments Require Allowing TV Coverage of Derek Chauvin Trial
So holds a Minnesota trial court, because ordinary public access is precluded as a result of the epidemic.
The First Amendment and Mandated Creation of Computer Code
"Plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged that the code they must draft to comply with the Dealer Law communicates substantively with the user of the program" and thus implicates the First Amendment.
Not Libel to Defame a Pseudonymous Chat Group User …
so long as the user's true identity is unknown to the audience, and the pseudonym has no "legally cognizable independent reputation" (as when the pseudonym is used by an author to sell books).
Protests, Roadways, and Liability
(1) Black Lives Matter demonstrations. (2) Trump-fans-vs.-Biden-bus demonstrations.
In Texas, Wearing the Wrong Thing to the Polls Could Land You in Jail
A new lawsuit says the state's electioneering statutes violate the First Amendment.
Supreme Court Sends DeRay Mckesson Black Lives Matter Protest Case Down to the Louisiana Supreme Court
The Court avoids, at least for now, the First Amendment question by instructing the Fifth Circuit to ask the Louisiana Supreme Court to decide whether Louisiana state law even allows negligence liability in the case.
How To Tell If You're Being Canceled
Kindly Inquisitors author Jonathan Rauch on the never-ending battle to defend free speech
Judge Whose A.G. Spouse Bashes Backpage Won't Recuse Herself From Backpage Trial
Judge Susan Brnovich said no reasonable person would question her impartiality just because her husband already says they're guilty.
Fifth Circuit Speaks Out Against Campus Speech Codes (in University of Texas Case)
Speech First, a pro-campus-free-speech advocacy group, can go on with its challenge to UT-Austin's speech codes—and the panel strongly suggests those codes (backed by anonymous reporting to the Campus Climate Response Team) are unconstitutional.
Published Criticism of Lawyer Isn't Retaliation Forbidden by Disability Law
"The Court cannot punish or hold Defendants liable merely for publishing a summary of Plaintiff's disciplinary action and their commentary about that decision."
Narcos TV Show Doesn't Infringe Virginia Vallejo's Memoir
A good illustration of a basic principle: Facts are not protected by copyright.
Criminal Libel Conviction Over Fake-Name Online Reviews
An interesting new case from Wisconsin.
Zoom's Refusal to Host Events That Include Terrorist Group Leader Leila Khaled
Prof. Steven Lubet (Northwestern Pritzker School of Law) has an excellent analysis.
Gossip About Real Housewives of Orange County "Bravolebrities" Is on "Public Issue"
So holds the California Court of Appeal, interpreting the California anti-SLAPP statute.
School District Bans All "Political Speech" on Student T-Shirts
Pretty clearly unconstitutional, it seems to me, whether applied to pro-Trump T-shirts (as in a recently-filed lawsuit) or to other such material.
Police Chief Gets Restraining Order Barring "Cop Watcher" from Publicly Videorecording Her
But the Oregon Court of Appeals rightly reverses.
Lawyer Dean Boland Asks Google to Deindex Court Opinions, Newspaper Articles, Blog Posts About Him
Including from Above The Law, Jonathan Turley, PopeHat, Simple Justice, TechDirt, Reuters, Bloomberg, L.A. Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and more.
Don't Be Fooled By Our Media Wars: Everybody Hates Free Speech
Treating free expression like an instrument of power means that the fight is more about who gets punished most when politicians write new restrictions.
"Fake News": Preventing Falsehoods in Candidate Statements in Ballot Pamphlets
The Washington Supreme Court overrules a trial court's order requiring the removal of one such statement; but what should the general rule on this be?
When Encryption Was a Crime: The 1990s Battle for Free Speech in Software
Part three in Reason's documentary series, "Cypherpunks Write Code," tells the story of the U.S. government's long battle to keep strong cryptography out of the hands of its citizens
Can't Seal Case Just Because It's Frivolous
"In nearly all civil and criminal litigation ..., one party asserts that the allegations leveled against it by another party are patently false"; but "if the purported falsity of the complaint's allegations were sufficient to seal an entire case, then the law would recognize a presumption to seal instead of a presumption of openness."
Courts Should Check 'Majority Rule'
Democrats and Republicans agree on that point, although they disagree about what it means in practice.
Conservative Commentator Candace Owens Sues USA Today and Fact-Checker "Lead Stories" for Libel
over allegedly false fact-checking "charging [Owens] with spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic on the internet in 'an attempt to downplay the severity' of the pandemic."
