Archive for ‘Current Events’

This is a must-read for those studying the regulation of speech and expression. It’s opinion, but it contains reference to important concepts in media law. More »

The alphabet soup of TV mediocrity is thyinning with the merger of Warner Brother’s WB and CBS’s UPN. This is important because FCC rules prohibit the top networks from merging. But CBS still can own secondary networks. More »

The Senate Judiciary Committee has recommended, 10-8 (along a party-line vote), that Judge Samuel Alito be approved as a Supreme Court Justice. More »

New York Times reporter Timothy L. O’Brien reported in TrumpNation that Donald Trump is nowhere near being a millionare. Is that actionable?

Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail for refusing to cooperate with a special investigator. Now that former White House aide Scooter Libby has been identified as her source and charged with lying to a grand jury, he plans to subpoena other reporters’ notes in his defense. More »

We talked a little about this in class last week, but a Florida judge has ruled Daytona Beach’s anti-nudity laws are unconstitutional. More »

Two years ago, the Supreme Court struck down the Child Online Protection Act because it limited adult access to pornography because children could access it, too. But it looks like the federal government is seeking to revive the law. More »

The Supreme Court has already ruled that anonymous speech retains First Amendment protections (Talley v. California). And the court has held the Internet maintains the highest level of protection, along with newspapers and books. More »

The French and several other countries in Europe make it illegal to display Nazi symbols. Yahoo owes a French judgment for selling Nazi paraphernalia. An U.S. appeals court has dismissed Yahoo’s lawsuit arguing enforcement of it in the United States violates the First Amendment. More »