Prior Restraints

A federal appellate court recently declined to further consider an earlier ruling that journalists and others are sufficiently harmed by the U.S. government’s amended international surveillance law, which provides broader surveillance power with less court oversight, and therefore have standing to challenge it.

Police officers in Washington state are seeking to unmask and prosecute the anonymous creator of a series of videos critical of the department in what officials describe as a cyberstalking investigation.

Postings by an anonymous message board commentator predicting and encouraging the assassination of a presidential candidate do not qualify as true threats capable of criminalization, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

A federal judge in New York last week blocked a New York City ordinance that was designed to force religious “pregnancy centers” to make certain disclosures about their services after the judge found that the centers would likely succeed with arguments that the law conflicts with the First Amendment.

Online newspaper The Daily on Wednesday refused to comply with a federal judge’s order to remove from its website video clips of former BP CEO Tony Hayward’s deposition in the ongoing litigation related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year. That decision may prove to be vindicated, as the judge today indicated an intent to withdraw the order.

A Native American newspaper in a remote region of northern California will not be able to publish again unless editors can justify the publication's budget and content to tribal leaders, one of the paper's editors said Wednesday.

In striking down a California law that would have regulated the purchase of violent video games, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday signaled that it is unwilling to create new categories of prohibited speech to regulate expression.