Free Speech

Bigfoot Spotted Fighting for Free Speech at the New Hampshire Supreme Court

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Back in March, I wrote a snippet about a guy who brought suit against the State of New Hampshire for its burdensome permit requirements for filming in Monadnock State Park. See Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment.

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Hate Speech v. Freedom of Expression in a 'Pleasantly Authoritarian Country' (aka Canada)

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The United States is something of an outlier in the world when it comes to hate speech.  Whereas laws prohibiting hate speech in the U.S.

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'Act' of Valor: Ninth Circuit Decides First Amendment Does Not Protect People Who Sport Phony Medals

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David Perelman served in Vietnam for all of three months back in 1971, and returned to the U.S. without a scratch.

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The War on Terror, 'Material Support,' and the First Amendment

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The U.S. Department of State maintains a list of organizations it believes engage in terrorist activity, and under federal law it is illegal to provide material support to them.

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Zen and the Constitutionality of Twitter 'Cyberstalking'

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If you thought a spat between Buddhists couldn't devolve into a federal cyberstalking case of dubious constitutionality, consider the following.

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BART Phone Blackout: Did the S.F. Transit Agency Violate Free Speech Protections? Part 2

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This is the second half of an analysis of the free speech issues implicated by the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)'s shutdown of mobile phone service on Aug. 11 in order to prevent scheduled protests.  The first part of the blog is available here.

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BART Phone Blackout: Did the S.F. Transit Agency Violate Free Speech Protections?

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When the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) shut down cell phone service at various train platforms on Aug.

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At the Intersection of Anti-SLAPP and Anonymity

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Slap! by Vermin Inc, on Flickr

Consider two cases: In Colorado, clothing company Façonnable is attempting to sue an anonymous Wikipedia editor (or, possibly, more than one; the number is sort of up in the air) over some unflattering edits to the company's Wikipedia page. But first, Façonnable has to figure out who the editors are--thus, a subpoena to the ISP allegedly attached to the editors' IP address.

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The SLAPP-Happy Story of Rakofsky v. Internet

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By now, you've perhaps heard of the plight of one Joseph Rakofsky, the man who sued everyone who ever wrote about him on the Internet. In short: Man represents defendant in murder trial; judge declares mistrial; judge says scathing things about man's professional competence; newspaper covers the unusual mistrial; law bloggers pick up story; man brings 75-defendant lawsuit against everybody who wrote about him. CMLP's full run-down of the lawsuit is live; give it a click for the nitty gritty. Go ahead, I'll wait.

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