Seeking to mitigate the negative publicity swirling around his client ahead of a murder trial, defense attorney Charles Grose asked a judge to expand a gag order to include the victim’s mother, other members of her family and all their online supporters.

Tagged with: First Amendment Social Media

A coalition of clergy members is challenging North Carolina's constitutional ban on gay marriage with an unusual approach in a federal lawsuit: They say it violates their religious freedom.

Tagged with: First Amendment gay marriage

ACLU of North Carolina v. Tata (Lawyers Weekly No. 14-01-0163, 28 pp.) (Wynn, J.) No. 13-1030, Feb. 11, 2014; USDC at Raleigh, N.C. (Fox, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: The 4th Circuit upholds a decision striking a North Carolina law that ...

Tagged with: First Amendment

U.S. v. Hassan (Lawyers Weekly No. 14-01-0140, 104 pp.) (King, J.) No. 12-4061, Feb. 4, 2014; USDC at Raleigh, N.C. (Flanagan, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: The 4th Circuit upholds terrorism-related convictions of three defendants who conspired to support violent jihad, ...

Tagged with: First Amendment

The Supreme Court appears likely to strike down a Massachusetts law setting a 35-foot protest-free zone outside abortion clinics, with liberal and conservative justices alike expressing misgivings about the law in arguments Wednesday.

Tagged with: Abortion First Amendment SCOTUS

Hunter v. Town of Mocksville Although the plaintiff-police officers have made a sufficient showing that their First Amendment rights were violated when they were fired after reporting suspected corruption in the Mocksville Police Department, they have not shown that their right to make the report was clearly established at the time they were fired

Tagged with: First Amendment

North Carolina owns the license plates it issues to motorists and has the right to use them to convey its preferred anti-abortion message, an assistant state attorney general told a federal appeals court Wednesday.

Tagged with: Abortion First Amendment

Robinson v. Bowser The interest of protecting the privacy of non-parties to this action outweighs the First Amendment right of access to certain materials included in or with the Parties’ summary judgment filings. However, because Plaintiff made her own personnel information a matter of public concern by bringing this action, because said information appears critical to resolution of this case, and because Plaintiff has failed to articulate any specific harm that might result from the disclosure of that information, Plaintiff’s desire to keep said information from the public’s view does not outweigh the public’s First Amendment right of access.

Tagged with: First Amendment

Cooksey v. Futrell A plaintiff who operated a “Diabetes Warrior” website advising on the “Paleolithic” diet for diabetics can sue on a First Amendment claim after a state agency that licenses dieticians sent him a “red-pen” review of “areas of concern” that could be construed as the unlicensed practice of dietetics;

Tagged with: First Amendment

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has come out strong for passing a federal shield law. And maybe that’s the one good thing – the only good thing – to come out of the recent controversy over the Justice Department’s seizure of phone records at The Associated Press and the surveillance of Fox News reporter James Rosen.

Tagged with: First Amendment Freedom of Speech