The opinion (Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee, Inc. v. Does (N.D. Cal. Mar. 8, 2012)) also in the process rules — correctly, I think — that signing one’s video “Vote Ron Paul” doesn’t violate federal trademark law, because it’s not a “commercial use”: Plaintiff argues that it has met the Lanham Act’s commercial use […]
Archive | Freedom of Speech
Court Orders Indiana Newspaper to Take Down Article from Web Site
[UPDATE: Marcia Oddi (Indiana Law Blog) reports that the Indiana Attorney General has withdrawn the state’s attempt to block the newspaper from running the article, so the order that it be removed is presumably being vacated by the court, and the article will presumably be reposted again shortly. I don’t know if the newspaper agreed […]
Ban on “Entertaining Displays” of Sweepstakes Results Violates the First Amendment
So holds the North Carolina Court of Appeals in Hest Technologies, Inc. v. State (N.C. App. Mar. 6, 2012). An excerpt: [Hest uses its] proprietary sweepstakes management software … to conduct promotional sweepstakes as a means of marketing their [long-distance telephone time and high-speed internet service] products at the point of sale…. A player who […]
Postal Workers Refusing to Deliver Religious Material They Disagree With
YNet News reports: Dozens of Israel Postal Company employees in Ramat Gan refused to distribute thousands of copies of the New Testament to city residents. They claimed such distribution is forbidden according to [Jewish religious law], and might even be illegal [under Israeli law]. Both religious and secular postal workers were asked to hand out […]
Sofa King Slogan (Prices “Sofa King Low”) Banned by British Advertising Standards Authority
Prof. Geoffrey Pullum (Language Log) has the details.
Nevada Supreme Court Reverses “Criminal Anarchy” Conviction
The case is Rosales v. State (Nev. Sup. Ct. Feb. 28, 2012) (unpublished 3-judge opinion). An excerpt: “Criminal anarchy is the doctrine that organized government should be overthrown by force or violence, or by assassination of the executive head or of any of the executive officials of government, or by any unlawful means.” NRS 203.115(1). […]
District Court Strikes Down Graphic Tobacco Labeling Requirement
The case is R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. United States FDA (D.D.C. Feb. 29); the opinion grants plaintiffs summary judgment, for much the same reasons given in November, when the court issued a preliminary injunction. The FDA had mandated that “the top 50% of the front and back panels of every cigarette package” must include […]
Challenge to Montana Ban on Ministers’ and Other Group Leaders’ Election-Related Advocacy in Private
As I mentioned last month, Montana law provides that, A person who is a minister, preacher, priest, or other church officer or who is an officer of any corporation or organization, religious or otherwise, may not, other than by public speech or print, urge, persuade, or command any voter to vote or refrain from voting […]
Federal District Court Strikes Down Ban on Much Internet Activity by Registered Sex Offenders
A Louisiana statute bans much Internet activity by registered sex offenders who had been convicted of child pornography or other sex crimes involving children (or of video voyeurism); the law, like most other laws dealing with sex offenders, includes within its coverage sex offenders who are no longer in prison or on probation. The law […]
Briefing in Obsidian Finance Group, LLC v. Cox
Some of our readers have been following Obsidian Finance Group, LLC v. Cox, the libel case in which our local counsel Benjamin Souede and I are representing defendant Crystal Cox. As you may recall, the Nov. 30 opinion in that case concluded, among other things, that only members of the institutional media are entitled to […]
Russian Authorities Ban Toy Protest Because Toys “Are Not Even People”
By Ilya Somin on February 18, 2012 1:10 am in Freedom of Speech, Restrictions on Campaign Contrbs. and Expenses, Russia
Officials in the Siberian city of Barnaul recently banned an anti-government protest using toys on the specious justification that “toys, especially imported toys, are not only not citizens of Russia but they are not even people” [HT: Julie Ershadi]: There hadn’t been many – indeed any – rallies like it before in Russia. Last month […]
The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act
Some people have been arguing that the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, 18 U.S.C. § 43 violates the First Amendment. (See, for instance, this column and the Complaint it links to.) I doubt that this is so, and I thought I’d briefly explain why. In relevant part (and with some minor oversimplifications), the statute outlaws “(A) […]
Teacher Who Said “I Hate [My Fifth-Grade Students’] Guts!” on Facebook Getting Her Job Back
From Matter of Rubino (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Feb. 1, 2012, posted online Feb. 7); the last three paragraphs, which discuss free-speech-related factors as to the magnitude of the penalty, are particularly interesting, though debatable: In 1995, petitioner, a tenured teacher, began working for respondent New York City ]Department of Education (DOE). (Pet.). In February of […]
Two Tourists Not Allowed in Country, Locked Up Overnight, Based on “Destroy America” Joke
The Daily Mail (UK) reports: Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to ‘destroy America’ and ‘dig up Marilyn Monroe’. Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was handcuffed and kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after landing in Los Angeles […]
Ban on Ministers’ and Other Group Leaders’ Election-Related Advocacy in Private
From Montana Code § 13-35-218, titled “Coercion or Undue Influence of Voters,” first enacted by referendum in 1913 and still in effect: A person who is a minister, preacher, priest, or other church officer or who is an officer of any corporation or organization, religious or otherwise, may not, other than by public speech or […]