• Alarm over administration seizure of personal emails of Fox News chief Washington correspondent James Rosen, described as “co-conspirator” for reporting classified material [WaPo, Yahoo, ABC News, Josh Gerstein/Politico, Julian Sanchez, Glenn Greenwald] Contra: Eugene Volokh, Charles Fried.
• “VP Joe Biden Believes There’s ‘No Legal Reason’ The Government Can’t Slap A Sin Tax On ‘Violent Media'” [Tim Cushing, TechDirt]
• “Vagueness in a defamation threat is the hallmark of meritless thuggery” [Popehat] India-based science publisher threatens Scholarly Open Access blogger that criticized its practices with $1 billion suit, three years in jail [Chronicle of Higher Education] Mockery is not libel: court tosses inmate’s suit against Tennessee governor [Volokh]
• Background of famous First Amendment case New York Times v. Sullivan: officials in South had exploited plaintiff-friendly jurisdictional rules [Wasserman]
• “6 Years + 300 Lashes in Saudi Arabia for Helping Woman Convert to Christianity” [Eugene Volokh]
• “A blueprint for speech codes?” [Alison Somin on feds’ Montana letter, Fed Soc EBR; Christian Science Monitor; earlier here, here, etc.]
• Rethinking SLAPP laws? [Recorder, Alex Kozinski opinion; ABA Journal]
• Tennessee governor vetoes “ag-gag” law on farm photography as First Amendment infringement [Linnekin; related, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Pa.)]

Filed under: agriculture and farming, First Amendment, libel slander and defamation, New York Times