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Tag Archives: First Amendment

29 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Abortion, Appellate Law, First Amendment, United States Supreme Court

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Tags

Abortion Buffer Zone, American Civil Liberties Union, Civil Rights, Concurring Opinions Blog, First Amendment, Judge Posner, Massachusetts, McCullen v. Coakley, Ronald K.L.Collins, Walter Dellinger

FAN 20.4 (First Amendment News) — 9 Comments on McCullen, the Abortion Buffer Zone Case, by Ronald K.L.Collins, Concurring Opinions Blog

http://tinyurl.com/lj44njo

Mr. Collins shares excerpts from nine commentaries on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in McCullen v. Coakley, which removed the “buffer zone” around abortion clinics in favor of First Amendment rights of those who protest abortion. -CCE

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U.S. Supreme Court’s New Pleading Standards For Qualified Immunity.

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Appellate Law, Excessive Force, First Amendment, Governmental Tort Claim Act, Qualified Immunity, United States Supreme Court

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Excessive Force, First Amendment, Iqbal, Qualified Immunity, Supreme Court, Twombly

SCOTUS Decision in Wood v. Moss: Guidance on Pleading Standards?, by Adam Steinman, Civil Procedure and Federal Courts Blog 

http://tinyurl.com/pvgjemj

Today the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Wood v. Moss, with Justice Ginsburg authoring the opinion for the Court. As covered earlier here, Wood v. Moss is a Bivens case brought by plaintiffs who had been protesting against President George W. Bush during his 2004 visit to a restaurant in Oregon. The plaintiffs claim that the defendants, who were secret service agents, violated their First Amendment rights by moving them farther away from the President than a similar group that was expressing support for the President.

In today’s decision, the Court unanimously rules that the defendants are protected by qualified immunity. To most, this conclusion did not come as a surprise. For many proceduralists, however, the case was of particular interest because of its potential effect on pleading standards in the wake of Twombly and Iqbal. . . .

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Court Bars Woman From Facebook. First Amendment Violation?

18 Sunday May 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Criminal Law, First Amendment

≈ Comments Off on Court Bars Woman From Facebook. First Amendment Violation?

Tags

Civil Rights, Facebook, First Amendment, Matt Moreno, NEWSY, Rants, Social media

Woman Barred From Ranting About Family On Facebook, by Matt Moreno, NEWSY

http://www.newsy.com/videos/0518facebook/

Hate it when people rant on Facebook? Well, one New Jersey mom has actually been banned from doing just that.

A judge has ordered one unidentified woman not to go on Facebook rants about her children or ex-husband. . . .

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Federal Court Rejects Portland’s Panhandling Ordinance.

15 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Constitution, First Amendment, Municipal Code, Municipal Law, Panhandling

≈ Comments Off on Federal Court Rejects Portland’s Panhandling Ordinance.

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Anti-Camping, First Amendment, Homeless, Mayor Charlie Hales, Muncipality, Oregon, Panhandlers, Portland, U.S. Constitution, U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal

 Our View: Rejection Of Median-Strip Panhandling Ban Right Call For Portland, Portland Press Herald

http://tinyurl.com/l6o3gdp

It is estimated that 4,000 homeless people sleep on Portland’s streets. Portland’s Mayor Charlie Hales has been taking various measures since last summer to address with Portland’s homeless situation. Mayor Hales has said he wants to crack down on homeless camps by increasing homeless shelters, but has not set any specific amount for pay for shelters.

The Mayor’s anti-camping law allows police to “sweep” homeless  on sidewalks. In a “sweep,” the police discard the homeless’ few possessions, including warm clothing and blankets, in spite of the number of homeless who have frozen to death.

Mayor Hales says this law is not about homelessness but about lawlessness. Unfortunately for Mayor Hales, his actions have galvanized grass roots protesters to head this week towards City Hall with – literally – pitchforks and torches.

To the Portland Police Department’s credit, it responded to the recent extremely cold conditions by moving people to shelter. The Fire Department also did its part to help. Normally around 1,000 shelter beds are available for the homeless, but various agencies, such as the Red Cross, provided 350 more shelter beds.

This will, I hope, give you an idea of the scope of the homeless situation in Portland, the struggle to address it, and set the stage for the case discussed in this post from the Portland Press Herald.  An ordinance forbidding panhandling purportedly to address “public safety” has been struck down by a federal judge in support of the First Amendment. -CCE

There is something disturbing about seeing men and women standing near the roadway holding signs and asking for help. It’s hard to ignore a median-strip panhandler when you are sitting in a car stopped at a red light. It makes some people feel angry, others threatened.

Moving panhandlers off the median strips did not fix any of the real problems of poverty in Portland, but neither does knocking down the ordinance that banned them. City leaders should keep working to address the real problems of homelessness and extreme poverty.

But that’s not enough to override the First Amendment to the Constitution, according to U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal. In his ruling Wednesday, Singal struck down a Portland ordinance that banned standing in median strips by pedestrians as ‘content-based restriction on free speech.’

Judge Singal saw right through the city’s claim that the goal of the ordinance was to protect public safety, correctly pointing out that the ordinance did not prohibit people from posting campaign signs on the medians, which is at least as dangerous as standing still. . . .

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North Carolina’s “Woman’s Right to Know Act” Unconstitutional Under First Amendment.

19 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in Abortion, First Amendment

≈ Comments Off on North Carolina’s “Woman’s Right to Know Act” Unconstitutional Under First Amendment.

Tags

Abortion, City University of New York, Constitutional Law Prof Blog, First Amendment, North Carolina Supreme Court, Ruthann Robson, Stuart v. Loomis, The Woman's Right to Know Act, U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles, Ultrasound

Federal District Judge Invalidates North Carolina Abortion Provision on First Amendment Grounds, by Ruthann Robson, City University of New York, Constitutional Law Prof Blog

http://tinyurl.com/jvu9scb

In her opinion in Stuart v. Loomis, United States District Judge Catherine Eagles held the ‘speech and display’ provisions of North Carolina’s ‘The Woman’s Right to Know Act’ unconstitutional under the First Amendment. . . .

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During Trial, Court Should Have Admonished Jury Not to Google Plaintiff’s Lawyer Rather than Ordering Removal of Verdict Successes from Attorney’s Website

01 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by Celia C. Elwell, RP in First Amendment, Jury Instructions, Law Firm Web Sites, Law Office Management, Legal Ethics, Marketing, Trial Tips and Techniques

≈ Comments Off on During Trial, Court Should Have Admonished Jury Not to Google Plaintiff’s Lawyer Rather than Ordering Removal of Verdict Successes from Attorney’s Website

Tags

Censorship, First Amendment, Jury instructions, Law Firm Websites

Jurors Might Google Law Firm’s Website, but Judge Can’t Censor It During Trial, by Scott Graham, The Recorder (with hat tip to Allen Mihecoby, CLAS, RP® on LinkedIn)

http://perma.cc/0UvXPVmc3Fg

[T]the decision sets new boundaries in an area of increasing concern for trial attorneys and judges: the balance between attorney free speech rights and potential jury contamination in a networked world.

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