Balough
December 23, 2013
The outtakes from a documentary film produced by Ken Burns and others on the Central Park Five are protected from discovery under the First Amendment. In 2012, Florentine Films released The Central Park Five, a documentary film. Florentine Films group includes Ken Burns, David McMahon, and Sarah L. Burns. The Central Park Five were convicted for the 1989 […]
Balough
December 22, 2013
A statute that prohibits a person amplifying sound that could be heard more than 25 feet from a vehicle while at the same time allowing such amplification for business or political purposes is an unconstitutional restraint on the freedom of expression and thus invalid. The Florida Supreme Court found the statute was an “unreasonable restriction […]
Balough
December 15, 2013
The Stolen Valor Act is unconstitutional because it imposes a criminal penalty for merely uttering a false statement of fact without anything more, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found In a 2-1 decision, the majority said, while Congress has an interest in preserving the integrity of honoring military men and women, the Act’s speech […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Prohibiting a mother of a kindergartener from reading from the Bible as part of his “All About Me” week did not violate her constitutional rights, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals found. The mother who wanted to read verses 1-4 and 14 of Psalm 118 from the King James Bible to the class in a […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
It takes an entire city council to fire a psychologist. Unless the psychologist can show that his membership in a conservative organization was a motivating factor behind the city’s decision to terminate his contract, there is no violation of his First Amendment right of freedom of association, the Seventh Circuit has found. The City of […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Florida has joined a minority of states in rejecting a privacy cause of action for false light. The Florida Supreme Court found that the tort of “false light is largely duplicative of existing torts, but without the attendant protections of the First Amendment.” The tort of false light invasion of privacy concerns publicizing a matter […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
A law requiring persons selling sexually explicit materials to register with the Indiana Secretary of State and pay a $250 registration fee was struck down the day before it was scheduled to go into effect. U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker found that the statute was not narrowly tailored to meet a compelling government […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
In a narrowly written opinion, the Seventh Circuit has granted permission to a Naperville high school student to wear a T-shirt with the slogan “Be Happy, Not Gay” as part of a “Day of Truth” at the school. The ruling reverses the granting of a preliminary injunction by the trial court that upheld the Neuqua […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
The three-count conviction of spammer Jeremy Jaynes has been upheld by a 4-3 vote of the Virginia Supreme Court. Jaynes was convicted for forging the header information on thousands of unsolicited commercial electronic messages that he sent out from his Raleigh, N.C. home. The Virginia statute criminalizes forging headers and makes it a felony to […]
Balough
December 14, 2013
Attorneys in New York will be able to advertise using pop-ups on other websites, a New York federal district court ruled. A total ban on pop-up advertising for lawyers on websites other than the firm’s own website violates the First Amendment because the state failed to show that regulation of pop-up advertising was any more […]
