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Constitutional Law

First Amendment Center

News related to the first amendment of the US Constitution and freedom of speech issues.
By First Amendment Center

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Last Entry: March 29, 2011 at 21:00:00

Del. candidate's ad reminds voters of rival's church-state remarks

Posted on October 21, 2010
WILMINGTON, Del. ? A Democratic congressional candidate's ad is reminding voters that Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell isn't the only Delaware Republican who has questioned the idea of separation of church and state. Republican Glen Urquhart likened the concept to Nazism at a campaign event in April, and his remarks, captured on video, are being used by his opponent John Carney...

Ruling: Conn. shouldn't release info about secret sex-offender list

Posted on October 21, 2010
HARTFORD, Conn. — Details cannot be disclosed about how some convicted Connecticut sex offenders are placed on a confidential registry rather than the list available to the public, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The court?s unanimous ruling, which will be released officially on Nov...

9th Circuit keeps military's 'don't ask' policy for now

Posted on October 20, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO ? A federal appeals court has frozen a judge's order halting the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, even as the Pentagon has announced it will accept openly gay recruits. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday temporarily granted the U...

Questioning in Tenn. mosque case hinges on Islam

Posted on October 20, 2010
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — A lawyer for opponents of a proposed mosque in Murfreesboro veered away from the procedural issues at the heart of a legal challenge and peppered witnesses yesterday with questions about the religion Islam. The attorney equated Islamic religious law with terrorism during a hearing in Rutherford County Chancery Court and taunted a witness who said he believed Islam was a religion, in part, because it was defined as such by the federal government...

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Google ordered to unmask N.Y. woman's cyber foe

Posted on October 20, 2010
NEW YORK ? A business consultant who wants to know who's been anonymously disparaging and fixating on her online has won a court order to force Google to tell her. As she joined a growing number of people who have persuaded courts to unmask troublesome cyber ciphers, Carla Franklin said yesterday that she hoped her case would help others faced with similar problems...

N.D. law barring video voyeurism is unconstitutional, court says

Posted on October 20, 2010
FARGO, N.D. — The case against a male North Dakota State University student accused of secretly recording nude videos of a female roommate has been dismissed by a judge who says a new state law dealing with the subject is poorly written. Judge Steven McCullough says the law passed by the Legislature last year barring the secret creation of sexually expressive images is unconstitutional because it?s overly broad and outlaws material protected by free-speech rights...

Mont. judge tosses out corporate campaign-finance law

Posted on October 19, 2010
HELENA, Mont. ? A state judge has ruled that Montana's century-old ban on corporate political spending is unconstitutional, paving the way for activist groups organized as corporations to spend as much as they want this election season. The Montana attorney general promised a quick appeal to the Montana Supreme Court...

CIA sues ex-employee for publishing book

Posted on October 19, 2010
WASHINGTON — The CIA has sued a former officer who published a book highly critical of the agency without completing the CIA?s lengthy review process. The lawsuit accuses the officer of breaking his secrecy agreement with the U.S. The former CIA staffer worked under deep cover before publishing the book in July 2008 under the pseudonym ?Ishmael Jones...

Litigious prisoner barred from filing new legal claims

Posted on October 19, 2010
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge is calling a halt to new legal actions by a prison inmate who has filed more than 5,000 lawsuits and targeted the famous, the infamous and even the long-dead. Under an order issued Oct. 18 by U.S. District Judge Karl F...

Feds: People can snap photos outside courthouses

Posted on October 18, 2010
NEW YORK ? Federal officers who patrol the perimeters of federal courthouses across the country will be reminded that the public can shoot pictures and videos in public spaces outside the buildings, according to the terms of the settlement of a lawsuit brought by a photographer who was arrested...

Researcher, human rights group not protected by reporters' privilege

Posted on October 18, 2010
WICHITA, Kan. — A federal judge has rejected arguments by a human rights group and a former researcher who claim notes and the identities of informants used for a book on the Rwandan genocide are protected from disclosure by the First Amendment and reporters? privilege...

In Del. debate, O'Donnell questions church-state separation

Posted on October 18, 2010
WILMINGTON, Del. ? Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell of Delaware today questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to disagree or not know that the First Amendment bars the government from establishing religion...

Feds file legal brief in support of Tenn. mosque

Posted on October 18, 2010
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Federal attorneys yesterday jumped into a court battle over the construction of a Tennessee mosque by offering legal proof that Islam is a recognized religion entitled to constitutional protection. U.S. Attorney Jerry E. Martin of Nashville said his office would not sit by while mosque opponents raised questions in court about whether Islam is a recognized religion...

Don't publish any new classified WikiLeaks info, military asks press

Posted on October 17, 2010
WASHINGTON ? The Pentagon today asked news organizations not to publish any classified war files released by the WikiLeaks Web site, as the U.S. braces for the potential disclosure of hundreds of thousands of secret Iraq war documents. In July, WikiLeaks obtained and released nearly 77,000 classified military reports from Afghanistan...

7th Circuit: Ill. moment-of-silence law is constitutional

Posted on October 17, 2010
CHICAGO — A federal appeals court ruled late last week that the Illinois law requiring a moment of silence in public schools is constitutional because it doesn?t specify prayer. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 15 ruled that legislators who supported the bill said the moment of reflection had a secular and practical purpose in settling down students at the start of the school day...

Supreme Court won't open Kan. pain-Rx case files

Posted on October 17, 2010
WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court has turned down a request to make public a national patient advocate's appeal in the case of a Kansas doctor linked to dozens of patient-overdose deaths. The Court today refused to allow the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to intervene in Siobhan Reynolds' case...

St. Louis suburb lifts ban on funeral protests

Posted on October 14, 2010
ST. PETERS, Mo. — A St. Louis suburb has lifted its ban on protests near funerals. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the St. Peters Board of Aldermen voted last night to lift the ban. The St. Louis suburb?s ordinance was similar to a state measure that was struck down by a federal judge earlier this year...

Mass. town to close schools for Muslim holiday

Posted on October 14, 2010
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. ? Cambridge will close its schools for one Muslim holiday each year beginning next year. The school will close for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, or Eid al-Adha, which celebrates the end of the hajj, or annual pilgrimage to Mecca...

Idaho GOP makes case for scrapping state's open primary

Posted on October 14, 2010
BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Republican Party finally got its chance this week to make a case for scrapping the state?s open primary, which they say allows Democratic voters to unfairly influence GOP politics and results at the ballot box. The job of defending Idaho?s 37-year-old system has put Secretary of State Ben Ysursa at odds with his own party?s wishes...

Reporting on religion in the post-9/11 world

Posted on October 14, 2010
WASHINGTON ? The Religious Freedom Education Project at the Newseum and the McCormick Foundation Civics Program are sponsoring a discussion on ?Covering Religion in the post-9/11 World? at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 26, at the Knight Conference Center at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave...

N.Y. newspaper wins $8 million in suit against Yonkers mayor

Posted on October 13, 2010
NEW YORK — A federal jury has awarded a newspaper in the suburbs north of New York City $8 million in its lawsuit against the mayor of Yonkers, who the paper claims wrongly confiscated copies after it ran articles critical of him. The jury yesterday also found that The Westchester Guardian did not defame Mayor Philip Amicone when it reported on the eve of the 2007 mayoral election that he visited strip clubs...

5th Circuit rejects parents' challenge of Texas pledge

Posted on October 13, 2010
DALLAS ? A federal appeals court has rejected a bid by Dallas-area parents to have "under God" removed from the Texas pledge of allegiance that is recited every day by public schoolchildren. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said yesterday's ruling in Croft v...

Federal judge suspends Pittsburgh ban on leafleting cars

Posted on October 13, 2010
PITTSBURGH ? A federal judge has handed two anti-abortion activists a victory by ordering a temporary halt to enforcement of a Pittsburgh ordinance that bans leafleting of parked cars. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge David Cercone halted enforcement of the ordinance pending a Nov...

Ala. high court refuses to change venue for murder trial

Posted on October 13, 2010
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Attorneys representing a man accused of killing an Auburn University freshman tried to get his trial moved to another county by citing hostile messages posted on a newspaper?s website that called for his immediate execution. Attorneys for Courtney Lockhart wanted the Alabama Supreme Court to address for the first time the impact that website messages might have on potential jurors for a trial, but the Supreme Court turned down their request 7-1 without explanation...

Justices turn away appeal over college admissions

Posted on October 12, 2010
LOS ANGELES ? The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from two Christian high schools in Southern California that wanted the University of California to grant college-prep credit for courses with religious viewpoints. The justices, without comment, denied a hearing to the Colorado Springs, Colo...

9th Circuit upholds Wash. campaign-disclosure laws

Posted on October 12, 2010
OLYMPIA, Wash. — A federal appeals court upheld Washington state?s campaign-disclosure laws yesterday, saying the requirements don?t violate the First Amendment rights of a group that didn?t want to reveal its donors in a 2008 opposition campaign to an assisted-suicide ballot measure...

Federal judge: Military can't enforce 'don't ask' policy

Posted on October 12, 2010
SAN DIEGO ? A federal judge ordered the military yesterday to immediately stop enforcing its ban on openly gay troops, bringing the 17-year "don't ask, don't tell" policy closer than it has ever been to being abolished. Justice Department attorneys have 60 days to appeal the injunction but did not say what their next step would be...

Inmate's Satanism can be factor in sentencing

Posted on October 11, 2010
Comment? E-mail me Prosecutors did not violate a convict?s First Amendment rights when they introduced evidence in the punishment phase of a death-penalty trial about his conversion to Satanism, a Texas court has ruled. In 2002, a jury convicted Irving Alvin Davis of murdering a 15-year-old girl while attempting to sexually assault her in El Paso, Texas, in June 2001...

Pa. school settles 2 webcam-spying lawsuits for $610K

Posted on October 11, 2010
PHILADELPHIA ? A Philadelphia-area school district agreed yesterday to pay $610,000 to settle two lawsuits over secret photos taken on school-issued laptops. The Lower Merion School District admitted it captured thousands of webcam photographs and screen shots from student laptops in a misguided effort to locate missing computers...

High court won't revive case of 2 ejected from Bush event

Posted on October 11, 2010
WASHINGTON ? The Supreme Court has turned down the appeal of two people who say they were kept from attending an appearance by then-President George W. Bush in Denver in 2005 because of their opposition to the war in Iraq. The Court refused today to get involved in a case concerning whether people may be excluded from taxpayer-funded events featuring public officials because of their political views...

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