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Digital Journalist's Legal Guide
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Everything online journalists need to protect their legal rights. This free resource culls from all Reporters Committee resources and includes exclusive content on digital media law issues.

Briefs & Comments

  • Letter to U.S. Supreme Court on access to arguments in health care reform law cases
    November 18, 2011

    Request that the Court provide audio and video recordings of oral arguments in the three cases addressing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

  • Amicus brief in Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations and Federal Communications Commission v. ABC Inc.
    November 11, 2011

    Urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the lower court ruling that the FCC's indecency policy is unconstitutionally vague and its subjective enforcement restricts broadcasters' news reporting.

  • Amicus brief in Asgeirsson, et al. v. Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott and State of Texas
    October 27, 2011

    Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (New Orleans) to hold that the criminal sanction provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act are not an unconstitutional restraint on government officials' First Amendment rights.

  • Amicus brief in Project Vote/Voting for America v. Long
    October 21, 2011

    Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to hold that Virginia voting applications are subject to the public disclosure provisions of the National Voter Registration Act.

  • United States v. Brice
    September 21, 2011

    Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to further consider a judge's decision to seal documents related to the government's involuntary detention of crime victims to ensure their appearances as trial witnesses.

  • Amicus brief in Castello v. City of Seattle
    September 20, 2011

    Urging the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold the constitutionality of the Washington anti-SLAPP statute, which provides broad protection for action involving public participation and petition.

  • Letter to U.S. Supreme Court on sealed records
    September 14, 2011

    Proposal to create a Supreme Court Rule addressing the submission of sealed records and documents.

  • Amicus brief in Chicago Tribune Company v. Univ. of Ill. Bd. of Trustees
    August 19, 2011

    Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to hold that the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act is not a valid basis to withhold records under the Illinois open records laws related to official university misconduct regarding a secret preferred admissions process for privileged applicants.

  • Amicus letter brief in Conaway v. Meister
    July 7, 2011

    Urging the Baltimore trial court to dismiss under the Maryland anti-SLAPP statute City Councilwoman Belinda Conaway's defamation and emotional distress suit against Internet journalist Adam Meister over online posts asserting that Conaway lives outside Baltimore while representing its Seventh Electoral District, in violation of the City Charter.

  • Amicus brief in Baker & Baker v. Goldman Sachs & Co. et al.
    July 1, 2011

    Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to affirm the lower court's order granting former Wall Street Journal reporter Jesse Eisinger's motion to quash a subpoena seeking his testimony about non-confidential unpublished information.

  • Amicus brief in Data Trace Information Services, LLC v. Recorder of Cuyahoga County
    June 15, 2011

    Urging the Ohio Supreme Court to find that country recorders cannot impose a $2 per page statutory "photocopying" fee for electronic copies of public records and that such records must be provided "at cost" as required under the Ohio public records law.

  • Amicus brief in Leigh v. Salazar
    June 2, 2011

    Asking the Ninth Circuit to reverse a district court's denial of a preliminary injunction on behalf of a photographer seeking less restrictive access to federal lands for purposes of photographing the roundup of wild horses.

  • Amicus brief in State of Ohio ex. rel. The Vindicator Printing Co. v. Wolff
    May 6, 2011

    Urging the Ohio Supreme Court to recognize that bills of particulars function as supplements to public indictments and are subject to the public's First Amendment right of access to criminal proceedings and records.

  • Amicus brief in Karantsalis v. Dep't of Justice et al.
    May 2, 2011

    Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to rehear en banc a three-judge panel decision finding that a federal prisoner's privacy interest in his mug shot outweighs the public interest in its disclosure such that it may be withheld under exemption 7(C) to FOIA.

  • Amicus brief in ACLU v. Alvarez
    April 22, 2011

    Urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to find the Illinois Eavesdropping Act's criminalization of recording of conversations to which parties have no reasonable expectation of privacy unconstitutional