Comm Law

This story about an edition of a high school newspaper pulled because it had stories about birth control and tattoos should have mentioned Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. Instead we get “First Amendment experts were critical of the seizure.” More »

The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates broadcast, could be down three members with the planned departure of Kathleen Abernathy. More »

The Federal Election Commission has handed free speech advocates a victory. By a unanimous vote, the FEC today issued Advisory Opinion 2005-16, which concludes that the Fired Up! Network of blogs qualifies for the “press exception” to federal campaign finance law. The opinion states: More »

Now Walter Pincus has been found in contempt for refusing to reveal his sources in his story about the criminal investigation of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee.

Michael Newdow, who challenge the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, plans to file suit seeking to have “In God We Trust” taken off U.S. currency.

This story from the L.A. Times has all sorts of communication law issues – obscenity, forum theory, police prior restraint, libel, privacy. I could write an entire exam based on this scenario.

Bloggers say political Web sites and advertising shouldn’t be regulated by campaign finance restrictions. As we’ve discussed in class, commercial speech and political speech are on opposite ends of the spectrum of protection. Which is this? More »

The Freedom Forum has the ultimate cache of stories on Judge Alito and his First Amendment jurisprudence. Take a look. There are 15 of them, so I wouldn’t expect you to study all of them, but wise Comm Law students will pay close attention to this one on commercial speech, which we’re handing this week in class. More »

The New York Times has a good analysis of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito’s free speech jurisprudence. More »

Here’s more on international governments seeking to gain some control over ICANN, the organization that manages the Internet. More »