First Amendment

Less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court held that the First Amendment protects a fringe church’s angry, anti-gay protests at military funerals, a lower federal court struck down a city ordinance that restricted the time and place of the protected picketing activities.

James Risen must testify about non-protected matters in the upcoming trial of an alleged ex-CIA leaker, per a court order allowing the New York Times reporter to keep his confidential source secret but requiring him to verify the accuracy of his reporting, according to a POLITICO article.

A series of newspaper articles and an editorial about a retired judge’s performance of his duties did not defame the former public official, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court ruled earlier this week.

The opinion by the court, which was established relatively recently in 2004, provides strong precedent for causes of action stemming from First Amendment-protected activities in the U.S. territory.

A New York Times reporter and an alleged CIA leaker fired back in court on Wednesday at the prosecution's request that a federal judge reconsider her decision to protect the reporter from disclosing his confidential source in court.

Both James Risen and Jeffrey Sterling believe further review of the issue is not necessary and filed documents opposing the prosecution's motion for "clarification and reconsideration" of the judge's prior order, which largely quashed a subpoena for Risen's testimony.

Federal prosecutors launched another offensive last week in the battle to force a New York Times reporter to testify in the upcoming trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, claiming he plans to defend himself by blaming others for leaked information.

The right to film police in the performance of their public duties in a public space is a “basic, vital, and well-established liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment,” a federal appellate court held last week, marking a major victory in a time when arrests for such activities have been on the rise.

Legal experts are warning that a Tennessee bill signed into law earlier this month could subject news organizations to criminal prosecutions if they publish crime scene photographs, biting political cartoons or anything else that might upset people.

The law’s sponsor said the concerns about criminalizing free speech are overblown, as the law is an effort to update the state’s harassment statute to punish perpetrators who target their victims using electronic communications.

A Colorado prosecutor violated a student blogger’s constitutional rights when she approved a search warrant of his mother's home over a criminal libel allegation, a federal judge ruled on Friday.