First Amendment Commons^™

Executive Watch: Zick On Executive Orders And Official Orthodoxies, Timothy Zick

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During his first term as president, Donald Trump signaled that he was not committed to pluralism and expressive liberty when it came to matters like patriotism, public protest, and other forms of dissent. During his second term, Trump has issued multiple executive orders that attempt to impose official orthodoxies or understandings regarding race, gender, patriotism, and other subjects.

As we have seen, these edicts are not merely symbolic. The executive orders call for agency actions and criminal investigations, and place hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding at risk. The orders have affected what universities teach, which immigrants can …

Executive Watch: The Breadth And Depth Of The Trump Administration's Threat To The First Amendment, Timothy Zick

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Given the Trump administration’s continued and varied assaults on the First Amendment, it is vital to monitor those attacks and then realize the gravity of the “sweeping and draconian sanctions ” imposed by unconstitutional executive fiat. Vigilance is especially important, as New York Times investigative reporter Michael S. Schmidt has noted, because “Mr. Trump has employed tactics including lawsuits, executive orders, regulations, dismissals from government jobs, withdrawal of security details and public intimidation to take on a wide range of individuals and institutions he views as having unfairly pursued him or sought to block his agenda.”

Mindful of such matters, …

Executive Watch: Trump's Weaponization Of Civil Lawsuits, Timothy Zick

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This post focuses on civil suits by government figures, mainly by the sitting president. It comes at a time when the legitimacy of the New York Times v. Sullivan case is being challenged, and while efforts to establish a national anti-SLAPP law are being thwarted.

Executive Watch: Introduction, Timothy Zick

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First installment in a regular feature on the Trump administration and the First Amendment.

Legal Scholars Weigh In On The Lasting Significance Of Dominion V. Fox, Samantha Barbas, Martin Garbus, Lyrissa Lidsky, Timothy Zick, Sandra Baron

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No abstract provided.

First Amendment Scholar Timothy Zick Dismantles Trump V. Cnn Lawsuit, Timothy Zick

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Former President Donald Trump filed a $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN arguing the network has maligned him with “fake news” for the purposes of damaging his political future heading into 2024.

The complaint filed Oct. 3 stated, “CNN has sought to use its massive influence – purportedly as a ‘trusted’ news source – to defame the Plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically, culminating in CNN claiming credit for ‘[getting] Trump out’ in the 2020 presidential election.”

First Amendment Watch asked First Amendment scholar Timothy Zick to annotate the 29-page …

Consider Freedom Of Speech: Perspectives On How To Hold Difficult Conversations With Respect, Vivian E. Hamilton, Andrew D. Stelljes

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What Does The Alex Jones Case Mean For The First Amendment And Disinformation? Leading Scholars, Lawyers Provide Analysis, George Freeman, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, Lynn Oberlander, Timothy Zick

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Seditious Conspiracy Charge Against Oath Keepers Founder And Others In Jan. 6 Riot Faces First Amendment Hurdle, Timothy Zick

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The Second Amendment Has Become A Threat To The First, Diana Palmer, Timothy Zick

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Protesting In America, Timothy Zick

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How New York Anti-Slapp Law Could Survive The 2nd Circ., Daniel Novack, Christina Lee

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On July 22, New York's Legislature passed sweeping reform to the state's anti-SLAPP law, intended to broaden the law and enhance protections for media and other First Amendment activity. The updated law awaits Gov. Andrew Cuomo's signature, but is sure to be tested by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit's recent decision in La Liberte v. Reid.

What The Lawyers Who Sue The Press Think Of The Press, And Media Law, Jonathan Peters

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“HAVE A SCORE TO SETTLE WITH THE PRESS? Charles Harder, the media lawyer who ground Gawker.com to dust, is your man.”

That was the subhead of a GQ profile of Harder published in 2016, after he won a $140 million jury verdict for Hulk Hogan against Gawker (later settled for $31 million). The profile went on to say that Harder had established himself “as perhaps the greatest threat in the United States to journalists, the First Amendment, and the very notion of a free press.”

Whether or not that’s true, Harder has said it would be “awesome” if the Gawker …

The Constitutional Case For "Red Flag" Laws, Timothy Zick

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The Legal Implications Of Synthetic And Manipulated Media, Thomas E. Kadri

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Ahead of the U.S. 2020 presidential election, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace convened more than 100 experts from three dozen organizations inside and outside Silicon Valley in private meetings to help address the challenges that synthetic and manipulated media pose for industry, government, and society more broadly. Among other things, the meetings developed a common understanding of the potential for synthetic and manipulated media circulated on technology platforms to disrupt the upcoming presidential election, generated definitions of “inappropriate” election-related synthetic and manipulated media that have informed platform content moderation policies, and equipped platforms with playbooks of effective and ethical …

Trust And Retaliation: The First Amendment And Trump’S Taxes, Timothy Zick

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The President’S Utterly Un-American Response To Dissent, Timothy Zick

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How Supreme A Court?, Thomas E. Kadri

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Facebook is planning an independent appeals process for content moderation decisions. But how much power will it have?

How To Make Facebook's 'Supreme Court' Work, Kate Klonick, Thomas E. Kadri

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The idea of a body that will decide what kind of content is allowed on the site is promising — but only if it’s done right.

President Trump: Challenging Core First Amendment Principles, Timothy Zick

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The First Amendment, The Second Amendment, And 3d Firearms, Timothy Zick

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Judge Kavanaugh And Freedom Of Expression, Timothy Zick

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Speech V. Speakers, Thomas E. Kadri

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Twitter's new rules about extremist speech blur the lines between people and words.

What Trump Misses About Free Speech, Timothy Zick

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Why You Should Doubt Reports That The First Amendment Would Protect Gen. Flynn From Prosecution Under The Logan Act, Timothy Zick

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Don’T Expect The First Amendment To Protect The Media, Ronnell Anderson Jones, Sonja R. West

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Op-ed in the New York Times about the limits on the protection of the press under the First Amendment.

'Serial' Should Release Bergdahl Interviews, Jeffrey Bellin

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The First Amendment And The World, Timothy Zick

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The Absurd Logic Behind Florida’S Docs Vs. Glocks Law, Dahlia Lithwick, Sonja R. West

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This article published at Slate.com on January 8, 2016, reviews the Wollschlaeger v. Governor of the State of Florida case in which the Florida legislature passed a law that bars health care workers from discussing or recording anything about their patients’ gun ownership or safety practices that could be deemed in bad faith, irrelevant, or harassing.

The Empirical Irony Of The Conflict Between Antidiscrimination And Religious Freedom, Nathan B. Oman

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No abstract provided.