Civil Liberties
Legislator Free to Block Users from Her Campaign-Focused Twitter Account
So the Eighth Circuit held yesterday, distinguishing the @RealDonaldTrump case on the grounds that the Trump account was used for much more official activity.
Can California Employee Be Fired for Attending the Jan. 6 Protest at the Capitol?
California statutes suggest the answer may be no, so long as the firing is based on the political activity, and not on criminal conduct.
Prison Guards Who Forced Menstruating Visitor To Expose Vaginal and Anal Cavities Are Protected by Qualified Immunity
A federal court said it did not violate her Fourth Amendment rights.
May N.Y. Businesses Fire Employees for Using Parler and Gab?
Colleen Oefelein was fired by the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, and the incident illustrates the vagueness of New York law on this point.
Sedition Cases Against Capitol Rioters 'Will Bear Fruit Very Soon,' Says FBI
Plus: Senators call impeachment trial unconstitutional, Biden cancels private prison contracts, Apple sued over Telegram, and more...
Public Has Right "to See What Is Going Into the Sausage Factory [of Litigation], Even if a Particular Sausage Is Never Made"
Federal court holds that documents accompanying motions are presumptively accessible even if the case settles before the court decides the motion.
Cops Must Destroy Illegal Surveillance Videos From Spa Visited by Robert Kraft
Authorities "shall destroy the videos unlawfully obtained through the surveillance of the Orchids of Asia Day Spa," a federal judge says.
Tennessee Cops Arrest Man For Posting Photoshopped Picture of Men Urinating on Dead Officer's Grave
"The only people who broke the law here were the police officers and TBI agents who participated in this flagrantly unconstitutional arrest."
Surely Rudy Giuliani's 'Conclusive Proof' of Machine-Based Election Fraud Will Save Him From Dominion's $1.3 Billion Defamation Lawsuit
The company says Donald Trump's leading lawyer perpetrated "a viral disinformation campaign" based on "demonstrably false" charges.
Dominion Files $1.3 Billion Defamation Suit Against Rudy Giuliani
The crackdown on crackpot Kraken claims continues.
Rock Legend Frank Zappa Battles Censorship, Communism, and Conformity in a New Documentary
Alex Winter's new film celebrates the Rock Hall of Famer's individualism, anti-authoritarianism, and entrepreneurship.
Pretrial Release Condition: Can't Speak About "the [Capitol] Protest or the Matters Related to the United States Government"
And can't "participate in any protests, rallies or demonstrations."
Might Federal Preemption of Speech-Protective State Laws Violate the First Amendment?
And, if so, what does this mean for 47 U.S.C. § 230?
Judge Warns Business Litigants (Including Facebook) About Excessive Sealing Requests
"These allegations stand at the heart of plaintiffs' claims, and sealing them would make this litigation virtually incomprehensible to the public."
Glenn Greenwald: 'Journalists Are Authoritarians'
What went wrong at the outlet he co-founded, what's wrong with the ACLU, and what might go wrong in the Biden administration
Do Critics of Police Have the First Amendment Procedural Protections That Nazis Get?
The Ohio S. Ct. will take up the question, in the Cincinnati prior restraint case in which we filed an amicus brief.
How the U.S. Covered Up the Murder of Journalist Jamal Khashoggi
Oscar-winning filmmaker Bryan Fogel fought Saudi censorship to make his new documentary, The Dissident.
More than 100 Civil Rights Groups Agree: We Don't Need New Domestic Terrorism Laws
Their letter to Congress warns about inevitable abuses against religious and racial minorities.
"On That Premise This Land Was Created, and on That Premise It Has Grown to Greatness"
"The greater the importance of safeguarding the community from incitements to the overthrow of our institutions by force ..., the more imperative is the need to preserve inviolate the constitutional rights of free speech ... to maintain the opportunity for free political discussion, to the end that government may be responsive to the will of the people and that changes, if desired, may be obtained by peaceful means."
Presidential Free Speech and the Congressional Impeachment Power
The First Amendment should not be a viable defense in an impeachment trial
Don't Let the Capitol Riot Reignite the War on Terror
Government grows in response to a crisis.
Our Post-9/11 Response Deprived Us of Liberty and Didn't Stop Terrorism. Let's Not Venerate or Expand It.
We don’t need new tools or agencies to track alleged domestic terrorists.
My USA Today Op Ed on Josh Hawley, Freedom of Speech, and Threats to Liberty From Left and Right
Both Hawley's "national conservatism" and similar ideas prevalent in many quarters on the left threaten free speech and liberty more generally.
"The First Amendment Is Interpreted by the Courts, not Tech Companies"
A nice line, though said in a narrow context (whether Facebook's decision not to remove comments from a government agency's page is relevant to whether the government agency could delete them).
Goodbye, Trump. Hello, War on Domestic Terror.
Plus: Biden pushes 8-year path to citizenship, Parler is back, Josh Hawley's book finds new publisher, and more...
Dominion Seeks to Beach the Kraken, Prompts Pillow Fight (UPDATED)
Threats of defamation suits have prompted corrective statements on Fox and Newsmax, but My Pillow CEO wants to fight.
An Abject Apology Highlights the Legal Exposure for Promoters of Trump's Election Fraud Fantasies
American Thinker says its claims about Dominion Voting Systems were "completely false."
The Armed March That Wasn't
In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the biggest story was all the reporters looking for a story.
Sex, Communism, Race, and Creative Freedom in Hollywood
Like the Hays Code and Waldorf Statement before it, new diversity requirements are Tinseltown's way of asserting cultural dominance through self-policing.
The Capitol Riot, Qualified Immunity, and Politics as Usual
Objections to police reform are often more rooted in partisan knee-jerk reactions than in sensible policymaking.
"The Law School Acknowledges That the Racial and Gender References on the Examination Were Deeply Offensive"
A controversy at the University of Illinois Chicago John Marshall Law School (not to be confused with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).
A New Report Casts Doubt on Both Fears and Hopes About the Consequences of Abolishing Qualified Immunity
A Connecticut law that made it easier to sue abusive cops is not expected to have a noticeable effect on municipal insurance costs.
Don't Let the Capitol Riot Become a 9/11-Style Excuse for Authoritarianism
Frightening events create openings for attacks on civil liberties.
42 People Now Face Federal Charges for the Capitol Riot
Plus: Happy birthday to Wikipedia, Airbnb's pandemic rebound, and more...
Court Can Let Pro-Vaccination Divorced Parent Vaccinate Child,
even when the parents had originally agreed not to vaccinate, and one parent later changed his mind.
Impeaching Trump for his Role in Inciting the Attack on the Capitol Doesn't Violate "Established Free Speech Rights"
A rejoinder to Josh Blackman and Seth Tillman.
No, AOC, It's Not the Government's Job to 'Rein in Our Media'
The First Amendment doesn't come with an exception for "disinformation."
Massive Illinois Police Reform Bill Ends Cash Bail, Limits Deadly Force, Mandates Body Cameras, and Makes It Easier To Dump Crooked Cops
Unfortunately, qualified immunity remains intact.
Is the Great Deplatforming of 2021 an Assault on Free Speech?
No, says Techdirt's Mike Masnick, but it is cause for expanding Section 230 and building a more decentralized internet.
