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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

Post Frequency: 38.7/day

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

Despite accidents, natural-gas pipeline info is elusive

Posted on September 20, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO ? Public records can reveal a lot about a neighborhood: who's not paying their taxes, where sex offenders live, whether a house for sale has lead paint. Yet if a 2½-foot-wide pipeline carrying highly pressurized, explosive natural gas runs beneath the neighborhood, it's a different story...

N.J. nude bar can keep go-go going

Posted on September 19, 2010
TRENTON, N.J. ? A divided New Jersey appellate court has overturned a lower court ruling that could have shuttered a nude go-go bar in Middlesex County. The Borough of Sayreville claims the club violates a state law prohibiting sexually oriented businesses within 1,000 feet of a park or residential area...

Federal judges' financial disclosures hard to get

Posted on September 19, 2010
WASHINGTON ? If you're looking for a senator's most recent report on personal finances, you can walk into an office in the Capitol complex, sit down at a computer and print out the report in minutes. You can look up a House member's report on any computer connected to the Internet...

Utah AG joins fight against Calif. video-game law

Posted on September 19, 2010
SALT LAKE CITY ? Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has decided to join a legal fight against a California law prohibiting the sale of violent video games to children. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Shurtleff joined colleagues in nine other states by signing onto a friend-of-the-court brief asking the U...

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Pa. appeals court: Trooper incident reports aren't public

Posted on September 18, 2010
HARRISBURG, Pa. ? Incident reports filed by Pennsylvania state troopers do not have to be released to the public, a state appeals court has ruled, reversing a decision by the state open-records office. The 6-1 ruling by the Commonwealth Court said the State Police forms are covered by an exception to the state Right-to-Know Law that allows agencies to withhold criminal investigative records...

SEC head defends public-records exemption

Posted on September 17, 2010
WASHINGTON ? The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said this week that the public shouldn't be able to see details of the SEC's policing of financial firms because such access could make the agency's job more difficult. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro told a House panel Sept...

Ohio deal frees up political ads near elections

Posted on September 16, 2010
COLUMBUS, Ohio ? An agreement between Ohio elections officials and an anti-abortion group voids a state ban that kept corporations and unions from funding broadcast ads in support of specific candidates within 30 days of an election. The agreement reached Sept...

Seattle cartoonist goes into hiding on FBI advice

Posted on September 16, 2010
SEATTLE ? A Seattle cartoonist who became the target of a death threat with a satirical piece called "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" has gone into hiding on the advice of the FBI. Seattle Weekly Editor-in-Chief Mark D. Fefer announced in the Sept. 15 issue that Molly Norris' cartoons would no longer appear in the paper...

Full 9th Circuit orders new hearing in Calif. headscarf case

Posted on September 13, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court has ordered a new hearing for a Muslim woman who was made to remove her headscarf by Orange County deputies in a courthouse holding cell. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said yesterday that a majority of its 27 judges voted to set aside an earlier 9th Circuit ruling in the case...

News rater, anti-Palin group win government contracts

Posted on September 13, 2010
WASHINGTON — The federal government hired a New Orleans man for $18,000 to appraise whether news stories about its actions during the Gulf oil spill were positive or negative for the Obama administration. The administration was keenly sensitive to comparisons between its response and former President George W...

Proposed NYC mosque site isn't 'hallowed ground,' imam says

Posted on September 13, 2010
NEW YORK — It is two blocks from ground zero, but the site of a proposed mosque and Islamic center shouldn?t be seen as ?hallowed ground? in a neighborhood that also contains a strip club and a betting parlor, the cleric leading the effort said yesterday...

Hartford City Council says no to Muslim prayer

Posted on September 12, 2010
HARTFORD, Conn. ? Hartford officials now say they won't include Muslim prayers before City Council meetings in September, after getting mostly negative feedback from the public on an earlier plan to invite Islamic invocations. The reversal has prompted the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Connecticut to plan a prayer vigil tonight at City Hall in protest...

Federal judge lifts donation limits for Ky. school board races

Posted on September 12, 2010
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge late last week suspended a law limiting campaign contributions in Kentucky school board races to $100, making candidates in those races eligible for the $1,000 cap from individual contributors allowed in other races...

5th Circuit turns back GOP-led campaign-finance challenge

Posted on September 12, 2010
NEW ORLEANS ? A divided federal appeals court in New Orleans has rejected a Republican-backed challenge of federal campaign-finance restrictions. U.S. Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana and the Republican National Committee filed suit in November 2008...

Kan. journalism teachers fret over state funding

Posted on September 12, 2010
TOPEKA, Kan. ? Kansas journalism teachers are worried that changes in the way the state funds high school programs could bring student newspapers and yearbooks to an end. At issue is the state Department of Education's decision to modify what qualifies for vocational education funds...

Federal judge throws out N.D. Ten Commandments suit

Posted on September 11, 2010
FARGO, N.D. ? A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit over a Ten Commandments monument in downtown Fargo. The lawsuit by the Red River Freethinkers group claims the city gave the monument a religious purpose in voting three years ago to keep it. The city argued that the case should be dismissed for lack of merit...

Mo. school board keeps ban on award-winning book

Posted on September 10, 2010
STOCKTON, Mo. ? A southwest Missouri school board voted to keep in place its ban on a National Book Award-winning novel about a Native American boy after hearing from parents who object to its strong language and sexual imagery. The Stockton School Board voted 7-0 Sept...

Calif. city can't ban tattoo parlors, 9th Circuit rules

Posted on September 09, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court struck down a city ban on tattoo parlors yesterday, ruling the artistic expression is entitled to free-speech protection under the U.S. Constitution. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Southern California city of Hermosa Beach to allow tattoo parlors to operate...

Quran-burning on again, off again

Posted on September 09, 2010
GAINESVILLE, Fla. ? As thousands of Afghans protested a tiny Florida church's plan to burn the Quran, the church's pastor said he wouldn't follow through with the burning if he were able to meet tomorrow with the organizers behind a mosque planned near ground zero in New York...

Federal judge: 'Don't ask, don't tell' is unconstitutional

Posted on September 09, 2010
LOS ANGELES ? A federal judge yesterday declared the U.S. military's ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional and said she would issue an order to stop the government from enforcing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy nationwide. U...

Afghan war book delayed over 'classified' material

Posted on September 09, 2010
WASHINGTON ? A former Army intelligence officer's attorney is questioning whether a new Defense Department security review of his client's memoir on the Afghanistan war is a retaliatory move that has forced a delay in the book's publication...

Military blasts video game, won't allow sale on bases

Posted on September 08, 2010
WASHINGTON ? Military bases across the U.S. have banned the sale of a new video game that lets a player pretend to be a Taliban fighter and "shoot" U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Gamers are scoffing at the decision, saying that advanced technology has made it commonplace in the gaming world to let players switch sides and play the bad guy...

Obama implores minister to call off Quran-burning

Posted on September 08, 2010
WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama is exhorting a Florida minister to "listen to those better angels" and call off his plan to engage in a Quran-burning protest on Sept. 11. Obama told ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview aired today that he hoped the Rev...

Muhammad cartoonist receives German prize

Posted on September 08, 2010
BERLIN ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel commended the bravery of a Danish cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad at an award ceremony honoring his achievements for freedom of speech. In her speech praising illustrator Kurt Westergaard, who, she said, ?has had to fear for his life since the publication of the cartoons in 2005,? Merkel emphasized yesterday that media freedom is an important element of rights in Europe...

Fla. pastor cancels Quran bonfire on Sept. 11

Posted on September 08, 2010
GAINESVILLE, Fla. ? The leader of a small Florida church that espouses an anti-Islam philosophy says he is canceling plans to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11. The Rev. Terry Jones said today he had decided to cancel his protest because the leader of a planned Islamic Center near ground zero had agreed to move its controversial location...

ACLU challenges searches of laptops at borders

Posted on September 07, 2010
NEW YORK — Civil rights lawyers sued the government yesterday to stop authorities from snooping in the laptops, cell phones and cameras of international travelers without probable cause. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn against the Department of Homeland Security as well as U...

Federal judge tosses Wash. limit on late campaign spending

Posted on September 07, 2010
OLYMPIA, Wash. ? State officials are mulling their next steps after a federal judge overturned a state law limiting campaign contributions in the final weeks of ballot-measure campaigns. If the ruling stands, money could flow even more freely to this year's crop of voter initiatives...

Plan to burn Quran at church draws outrage

Posted on September 07, 2010
MIAMI ? Florida pastor Terry Jones will undoubtedly offend and infuriate many people around the world if he follows through on a plan to burn Muslim Qurans at his church this weekend. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution will protect him, in the same way it allows the Ku Klux Klan to burn crosses and for protesters to torch the American flag...

Snooki fined 500 clams for seashore antics

Posted on September 07, 2010
SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. ? Calling her "a Lindsay Lohan wannabe," a judge today fined "Jersey Shore" star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi $500 and ordered her to perform community service after she pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace on a New Jersey beach in July...

Feds have mixed record on openness, report says

Posted on September 06, 2010
WASHINGTON — A group that opposes secrecy in government says the federal government significantly reduced its backlog of document requests from the public last year but also slowed its pace of opening previously confidential material to public view...

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