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An Oregon man made headlines recently for a lawsuit he filed against local police. He claims officers have repeatedly pulled him over, not for his driving, but because he keeps giving them the middle finger. Professor Ira Robbins says the American courts generally protect the right to flip the bird.
In March of 2005, Leslie Weise was ejected from a Town Hall meeting with the president because she arrived in a car with a bumper sticker that read, “No More Blood For Oil.” Were her First Amendment rights violated? ACLU senior counsel Chris Hansen argued just that in court. He explains.
The Supreme Court ruled this week to overturn a century-old limit on corporate spending in political elections. Corporations, unions and political groups can now spend as much as they want on political advertising, so long as they don't give directly to a candidate. No one's exactly sure what this means for future elections, but all are fairly certainly that we'll be seeing a lot more ads.
The Medill Journalism School and the Cook County District Attorney in Chicago are locked in a legal battle over a murder investigation conducted by Medill students as part of the Innocence Project. The DA has subpoenaed the students' academic records. Medill Dean John Lavine says the students are journalists, protected under the Illinois Shield Law.
This week, an appeals court issued some major decisions in the AIPAC lobbyists case which could determine the future legality of leaking classified information to reporters or anyone else. The Federation of American Scientists' Steven Aftergood explains why anyone who's ever pursued, heard or disseminated classified information should be watching the case closely.
Twenty years ago this week, the Ayatollah Khomeini called for the death of author Salman Rushdie for insulting Islam in his book The Satanic Verses. Rushdie's lawyer Geoffrey Robertson gave Rushdie a place to hide out in those days and defended Rushdie against the crime of blasphemy. Robertson reflects back on that time.
Every time bloggers hit publish they risk being sued for copyright infringement, invasion of privacy or defamation. While the risk seems small, groups like the Media Bloggers Association say frivolous lawsuits are chilling free speech in the blogosphere. So MBA founder Robert Cox has helped start insurance for bloggers in an attempt to protect against costly litigation.
A group of Canadian Muslim students has filed a complaint under their country's Human Rights Act against Maclean's magazine for a piece they feel violated their human rights. The case has sparked a debate in Canada about press freedoms and multiculturalism. One of the students who filed the claim, Naseem Mithoowani, explains why they did it.
