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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

New 'I Believe' license plates may fly in S.C.

Posted on August 25, 2010
COLUMBIA, S.C. ? South Carolina drivers might be able to buy a license plate with the words "I Believe" and three crosses, despite a federal judge's ruling against a previous attempt to make similar tags. Nine months after a federal judge barred the state from making legislatively approved plates with the religious message, Attorney General Henry McMaster says a similar plate designed by a nonprofit group is legal...

Campus newspapers ask high court to overturn alcohol-ad ban

Posted on August 24, 2010
RICHMOND, Va. ? The ACLU of Virginia has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court ruling that upholds a ban on alcohol advertising in Virginia's college newspapers. In a 2-1 ruling in April, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission ban is a minimally restrictive approach to combat problem drinking...

Railroad worries EPA will keep destroying records

Posted on August 24, 2010
OMAHA, Neb. ? The Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to stop destroying records Union Pacific requested about lead contamination in Omaha, but the railroad worries the federal agency won't protect all relevant information. Documents filed yesterday show Union Pacific Corp...

Calif. televangelist can sue ABC for defamation, 9th Circuit says

Posted on August 24, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court yesterday reinstated a televangelist?s defamation lawsuit claiming ABC?s ?20/20? news program used a fictionalized sermon in which he portrayed himself as a wealthy braggart out of context. A trial court judge had earlier tossed out the lawsuit filed by the Rev...

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Ohio activist challenges Tenn. open-records law

Posted on August 24, 2010
NASHVILLE, Tenn. ? The Midwest director of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network is suing the state of Tennessee after he was denied access to public records because he is not a resident of the state. A lawsuit filed yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee on behalf of Richard Jones claims the state's Open Records Act violates the privileges and immunities clause of the U...

Supporters: Church ignored in NYC mosque furor

Posted on August 23, 2010
NEW YORK ? Supporters of a Greek Orthodox church destroyed on Sept. 11 say officials willing to speak out about a planned community center and mosque near ground zero have been silent on efforts to get the church rebuilt. But the World Trade Center site's owner says a deal to help rebuild St...

Bloggers cry foul over Philadelphia business fee

Posted on August 23, 2010
PHILADELPHIA ? Bloggers in Philadelphia are upset over a city business fee that they say is an unfair tax on their Internet musings. The city's so-called business privilege license costs $50 a year or $300 for a lifetime. If a blog takes money for advertising, or sells photographs or other goods, the city says it's a business and must pay for a license ? no matter how little it makes ? plus taxes on profits...

Neb. prosecutors, funeral protester reach deal

Posted on August 23, 2010
Editor?s note: The original version of this story contained erroneous information from the Associated Press that has since been removed. PAPILLION, Neb. ? Prosecutors and a member of Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church have reached a deal that will keep both sides out of court over actions stemming from the church?s 2007 protest of a serviceman?s funeral...

Miss. campus-speech policies questioned

Posted on August 22, 2010
JACKSON, Miss. ? Students at Mississippi universities may have to watch what they say more than those in other states because of policies that free-speech advocates say are oppressive. At Ole Miss, people could theoretically get into trouble for sending an e-mail about how much they "hate" rival Mississippi State...

7th Circuit upholds Ind. judicial-speech rules

Posted on August 22, 2010
INDIANAPOLIS ? An Indiana anti-abortion group has lost its latest attempt to block state ethics rules that prohibit judges from speaking out on issues that might come up in court. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago on Aug...

ACLU claims Ill. eavesdropping law violates free speech

Posted on August 22, 2010
CHICAGO ? Last fall, the Perteet brothers and their roommate decided to take a break from studying and headed to a McDonald's in DeKalb on a late-night food run. Their trip was interrupted when a police officer pulled them to the side after they got their food...

Pa. high court OKs unsealing files in investigation of state senator

Posted on August 21, 2010
PITTSBURGH ? The Pennsylvania Supreme Court says an Allegheny County judge should unseal documents in the grand jury probe of Republican state Sen. Jane Orie and her sister, Janine. The high court said in its ruling Aug. 18 that Judge John Zottola should conduct whatever proceedings were necessary to determine which documents should be unsealed...

Mich. House takes aim at SLAPP suits

Posted on August 20, 2010
LANSING, Mich. ? The Michigan House has approved a bill supporters say protects people from retaliatory lawsuits for certain free-speech activities, including what they post on social-networking sites. The bill passed 68-34 yesterday in the Democratic-run House and advances to the Republican-led Senate...

Calif. appeals court overturns judge's photo ban

Posted on August 19, 2010
LOS ANGELES — The California Court of Appeal has overturned a judge?s order barring the Los Angeles Times from publishing photos of a murder defendant, ruling her action was an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech. Superior Court Judge Hilleri Merritt vacated her order after the appeals court ruled yesterday, which allows the paper to publish pictures of Alberd Tersargyan, who is accused of murdering a Hollywood family...

N.M. court: Complaints against police must be released

Posted on August 19, 2010
SANTA FE, N.M. ? Citizen complaints brought against police are subject to public disclosure, according to a state Court of Appeals ruling that reinforces a New Mexico sunshine law granting access to government records. The court ruled this week against the state Department of Public Safety, which refused to release complaints against one of its law enforcement officers on grounds that they were confidential personnel records...

Pelosi questions who's 'ginning up' resistance to NYC mosque

Posted on August 18, 2010
WASHINGTON ? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she supports questioning who is funding the opposition to a proposed Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York. The California Democrat yesterday said Muslim leaders have the right to build a proposed Islamic center, including a mosque, two blocks from the World Trade Center site and that the decision should be made by local leaders...

Fla. city denies permit for 9/11 Quran burning

Posted on August 18, 2010
GAINESVILLE, Fla. ? Officials in a Florida city have denied a burn permit for a church that is seeking to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11. Interim Fire Chief Gene Prince said yesterday that the open burning of books is not allowed under Gainesville's burning ordinance...

10th Circuit: Utah memorial crosses violate establishment clause

Posted on August 18, 2010
SALT LAKE CITY ? The 14 crosses erected along Utah roads to commemorate fallen state Highway Patrol troopers convey a state preference for Christianity and are a violation of the First Amendment?s establishment clause, a federal appeals court said yesterday...

Immigration judge blasts leak in Obama's aunt's asylum case

Posted on August 17, 2010
BOSTON ? A judge who granted asylum to President Barack Obama's African aunt ruled she deserved to stay in the United States because a federal government official leaked her status to a news organization, making her a potential target for persecution in her native Kenya...

Divided 9th Circuit strikes down Stolen Valor Act

Posted on August 17, 2010
PASADENA, Calif. ? A 3-year-old federal law that makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail to falsely claim to have received a medal from the U.S. military is unconstitutional, a divided federal appeals court panel in California ruled yesterday...

N.C. appeals court: Religious college can't have state police force

Posted on August 17, 2010
RALEIGH, N.C. — A prestigious North Carolina private college cannot have police officers with the power to arrest suspects and enforce state law because the school is a religious institution, the state Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. A three-judge panel agreed that the state Attorney General?s Office shouldn?t have commissioned Davidson College officers as law enforcement with powers similar to city police or county sheriffs...

Miss. student sues over rejected yearbook tux photo

Posted on August 17, 2010
JACKSON, Miss. ? Another Mississippi teenager is suing a rural school district, this time over a policy barring young women from wearing tuxedos in senior yearbook portraits. Ceara Sturgis' dispute with the Copiah County School District started in 2009, well before a student in another Mississippi school district, Constance McMillen, found national attention in her fight to wear a tuxedo and take a same-sex date to prom...

Supreme Court won't block 'birther' penalty

Posted on August 16, 2010
WASHINGTON�? The Supreme Court has let a $20,000 fine stand against a leader of the movement challenging President Barack Obama's citizenship. The high court yesterday refused to block a federal judge's October 2009 ruling that required California lawyer and dentist Orly Taitz to pay the $20,000 fine for filing a "frivolous" litigation...

Federal court strikes down Mo. funeral-protest laws

Posted on August 16, 2010
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. ? A federal judge ruled yesterday that Missouri laws restricting protests near funerals are unconstitutional. Missouri legislators passed two laws in 2006 in response to protests at U.S. service members' funerals by the Westboro Baptist Church...

Pa. court bars release of county official's e-mails

Posted on August 16, 2010
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania courts? broad exemption from the Right-to-Know Law shields judicial records from public scrutiny even when they are in the hands of agencies that are subject to the law, a three-judge panel of the state Commonwealth Court has ruled...

Wis. Supreme Court blocks political-ad rule

Posted on August 16, 2010
MADISON, Wis. ? The Wisconsin Supreme Court has temporarily halted enforcement of a new rule regulating political issue ads that's been the subject of multiple lawsuits by both liberal and conservative activists. In a 4-3 decision issued on Aug. 13, the justices granted the injunction request by a variety of Wisconsin tea party groups in a lawsuit challenging the regulation in state court...

Federal judge OKs size limit for political signs

Posted on August 15, 2010
A Baltimore County ordinance prohibiting political signs larger than 8 square feet does not violate the First Amendment, a federal judge has ruled. Stephen V. Kolbe had challenged the constitutionally of the ordinance after being told that he needed to remove a 32-square-foot sign that he placed on his yard last May supporting Maryland gubernatorial candidate (and former governor) Robert Ehrlich...

Federal judge tosses Kan. ban on nonresident petition circulators

Posted on August 15, 2010
WICHITA, Kan. ? A federal judge struck down as unconstitutional late last week a part of a Kansas law that prohibits nonresidents from circulating petitions within the state. U.S. District Judge Sam Crow ruled Aug. 13 that the law violates the First Amendment and issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Secretary of State Chris Biggs from enforcing it...

Calif. appeals court: Mall can't bar strangers from chatting

Posted on August 15, 2010
ROSEVILLE, Calif. ? A suburban shopping mall's policy barring people from approaching strangers to chitchat has been found unconstitutional by a California appeals court. The court said that the rules would prohibit people from talking about the weather or offering directions to strangers...

Obama supports 'the right' for ground-zero mosque

Posted on August 15, 2010
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. — Weighing his words carefully on a fiery political issue, President Barack Obama said Aug. 14 that Muslims have the right to build a mosque near New York?s ground zero, but he did not say whether he believes it is a good idea to do so...

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