News & Analysis as of September 26, 2024

First Amendment › Journalists

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The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the government from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech or the press, preventing citizens from peacefully assembling, or interfering with citizens' ability to petition the government for redress of their grievances. The First Amendment is one of the most sacred aspects of the American legal tradition and has spawned a vast body of jurisprudence and commentary. less -

Pennsylvania Protects Press Freedom, Passes Anti-SLAPP Statute

Ballard Spahr LLP on 7/18/2024

Yesterday, July 17, 2024, Pennsylvania joins more than 30 states that have enacted anti-SLAPP laws, providing protection to journalists and media outlets from meritless claims....more

Federal Court Rules Texas Drone Law Not Facially Unconstitutional

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider on 10/27/2023

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a district court’s 2022 ruling on the constitutionality of Texas Chapter 423 law (i.e., the drone law) which restricts the actions of drones. Nat’l Press Photographers...more

Truth Remains a Strong Ground for Summary Judgment in Texas

Jackson Walker on 7/7/2022

A Texas court reaffirmed last month that truth is still a strong defense, at the summary judgment stage, to a defamation claim against a newspaper regarding a matter of public concern. In Gallaher v. Denton Media Company, the...more

California Freelance Writers and Photographers Challenge the Constitutionality of AB 5

Epstein Becker & Green on 12/24/2019

We have written previously about California’s new statute, referred to as AB 5, which codifies and expands the “ABC test” for independent contractors set forth in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court....more

Federal Court Blocks Maryland's Online Political Ad Law Under First Amendment

Ballard Spahr LLP on 1/7/2019

In a 50-page opinion and order issued recently, a Maryland federal court ruled in favor of a coalition of Maryland and Washington, D.C.-based news organizations on their challenge to a Maryland law that would have placed...more

Jackson Walker Advises Journalists on Potential Legal Issues Regarding Election Day Coverage

Jackson Walker on 11/1/2018

Jackson Walker lawyers around Texas will be assisting the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in advising journalists on issues they may face at polling places on November 6, 2018. Journalists could face an array of...more

#MeToo and the Media

Troutman Pepper on 7/9/2018

In the past year, allegations of sexual misconduct have regularly made headlines in top news outlets across the United States. The #MeToo movement has encouraged many individuals to make public the details of sometimes...more

Fake News Redux

Jackson Walker on 6/1/2018

As I pointed out in my last (December 2017) VIA column, “Pop Fouls, Russians, Millennium Magazine, The New York Daily Inquirer and Fake News,” fake news has been with us for a long time and while not foreign to the Russians,...more

Strong Shield Law Protections for Journalists in California and Across the Country

Kelley Drye & Warren LLP on 4/11/2018

There has been a series of cases in recent months involving attempts by the government to expose journalists’ confidential sources of information. These cases tend to follow a familiar pattern: the government seeks the...more

Ag-Gag Law Update

Husch Blackwell LLP on 1/17/2018

On June 22, 2017, September 15, 2017 and October 12, 2017, we blogged about so-called ag-gag laws, laws designed to prevent investigative journalism about producers of food. These laws raise serious First Amendment questions...more

U.S. Attorney General Announces Plans to Pursue Leak Investigations

Jackson Walker on 9/1/2017

Earlier this month, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions signaled a potential sea change in the Department of Justice’s treatment of the news media. Sessions proclaimed that the Justice Department will pursue leak...more

Department of Justice Announces Review of Media Subpoena Policies

Latham & Watkins LLP on 8/29/2017

DOJ may revise policies on using investigatory tools to procure information about the media, with significant legal and business implications. Key Points: ..The review marks DOJ’s second significant evaluation of media...more

Of Free Speech and Thick Skin

Jackson Walker on 6/1/2017

It was a memorable 42nd season for Saturday Night Live, bookended by oddly compelling versions of “Hallelujah” by Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton and Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump. It has not been such a good season for the...more

News-Gatherer not Nightcrawler: District Court Denies NYPD’s Motion to Dismiss Photojournalist’s First Amendment Complaint

Genova Burns LLC on 3/9/2017

The U.S. District Court in Manhattan recently allowed a photojournalist’s complaint against the New York Police Department (NYPD) and City of New York to go forward. In Jason B. Nicholas v. The City of New York, 15-CV-9592,...more

Blogger-Journalist Protected From Defamation Suit By Anti-SLAPP Statute

Foley Hoag LLP - Making Your Mark on 2/20/2017

Are journalists protected by anti-SLAPP statutes? Until last week, the likely answer would have been: “probably not,” at least in Massachusetts. But that was before Cardno Chemrisk, LLC v. Foytlin, a recent opinion by the...more

Presidents and the Press

Jackson Walker on 2/1/2017

Here’s a quiz for you. Match the President to the quote: “He uses tweets to go directly to the public while bypassing journalists.” “[The President] directed [name] to make speeches attacking newspapers and the...more

Paul Watler Speaks: Texas Supreme Court Opinions Firm Up Anti-SLAPP Rights For Online Journalists

Jackson Walker on 4/28/2016

Online journalists and scholars from the Americas and around the globe recently gathered at the University of Texas at Austin to assess the state of internet-based journalism. The keynote address of the 16th annual...more

Hulk-Sized Damages in Sex Tape Privacy and Publicity Case

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on 3/28/2016

In 2006, Terry Gene Bollea, better known as “Hulk Hogan,” had sex with his best friend’s wife, Heather Clem. Apparently unbeknownst to either of them, his best friend Todd Alan Clem, now legally known as “Bubba the Love...more

Mizzou: A Personal Note on Racism, Firings and a Free Press

Gray Reed on 11/11/2015

I have been watching the events at my alma mater that led to the resignation of MU System President Tim Wolfe and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin from afar. While I had heard inklings of discontent, I had no idea it was at this...more

Does The First Amendment Allow Journalists To Lie To Their Subjects? U.S. Senator Accuses Documentary Film Makers Of Fraud

On April 1, 2014, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin issued a press release accusing Adroit Films of fraud. Manchin had agreed to be interviewed by the media company for a documentary about the Upper Big Branch mine disaster,...more

New California Law Protects Journalist’ Records Held By Third Parties

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP on 10/15/2013

Journalists in California must now receive advanced notice if their records are being subpoenaed either directly from them or through a subpoena issued to a third party. California’s new law—an amendment to California Civil...more

DOJ Leak Investigations Raise First Amendment Concerns

Brooks Pierce on 6/10/2013

Many journalists, constitutional lawyers, and plain old average Americans have expressed alarm at recent revelations about the Obama Administration’s “unprecedented number of leak investigations.”...more

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First Amendment › Journalists

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