News

A vocal Jacinto City, Texas citizen cannot be sued for defamation after repeatedly accusing a police officer of corruption and calling for his firing during city council meetings, a judge ruled Monday, relying on a state anti-SLAPP statute. Harris County District Judge Elaine Palmer threw out the defamation suit three days after a hearing explored whether Jacinto City Police Sgt. Dennis Walker could sue resident Larry Schion.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that negative online reviews about a local neurologist were not defamatory and are protected under the First Amendment.

A federal appeals court Friday denied a journalist access to reports on American International Group (AIG) prepared by an independent consultant under an agreement with federal regulators for alleged securities law violations. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., unanimously reversed an earlier opinion granting journalist Sue Reisinger access to the documents.

Maine’s highest court reversed a trial judge's decision and ordered jury selection to be public in a notable prostitution prosecution. “A generalized concern that juror candor might be reduced if [jury selection] is conducted in public is insufficient . . . to bar the public or media from the entirety of the process,” according to the majority opinion, written by Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley. The trial court did not consider other less restrictive alternatives to closure that would still preserve the defendant’s rights, the opinion stated.

A Tennessee judge ruled this week that the state Department of Children’s Services must make public child fatality records, allowing news organizations to investigate the high number of fatalities of children under the state’s care.

A District Court judge ruled this week that the Detroit Free Press must hand over documents and provide a witness in a long-running case involving former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino and his quest to reveal a reporter’s anonymous source. Judge Robert Cleland’s ruling requires the Michigan newspaper to turn over documents directly or indirectly related to Convertino and present a witness who can testify at a February deposition for the former prosecutor's lawsuit against the Department of Justice.

A Washington state appellate court on Monday upheld the dismissal of a defamation lawsuit filed by a Seattle transitional housing service against a local television news station, while avoiding ruling on a challenge to the constitutionality of the state's anti-SLAPP law. The defamation suit stems from stories televised in 2010 by KIRO TV and later published on its website detailing the practice of U.S. Mission Corporation in using residents of its transitional shelters, some of whom had criminal backgrounds, to solicit door-to-door donations.