Overlawyered » First Amendment

Judge: flashing headlights to warn of speed trap is protected speech

Walter Olson — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:57:21 +0000

Florida cops have made a practice of ticketing drivers who warn others about speed traps by flashing their lights, despite uncertainty as to whether state law actually does prohibit such flashing. Now a judge in Sanford, Fla. has ruled that Ryan Kintner of Lake Mary not only was within his rights under state law when he flashed his headlights, but was engaging in speech protected by the First Amendment. [More, Jalopnik, Volokh; Orlando Sentinel] (& welcome Above the Law, Reason, Cato at Liberty, Amy Alkon readers)

Tags: First Amendment, Florida, traffic laws

Judge: flashing headlights to warn of speed trap is protected speech is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“‘People’s Rights Amendment’ Would Knock Out People’s Rights”

Walter Olson — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:01:38 +0000

George Will gets to the essence of this grotesque assault on civil liberties, fed by demagoguery over the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision:

McGovern [Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.] stresses that his amendment decrees that “all corporate entities — for-profit and nonprofit alike” — have no constitutional rights. So Congress — and state legislatures and local governments — could regulate to the point of proscription political speech, or any other speech, by the Sierra Club, the National Rifle Association, NARAL Pro-Choice America or any of the other tens of thousands of nonprofit corporate advocacy groups, including political parties and campaign committees.

Newspapers, magazines, broadcasting entities, online journalism operations — and most religious institutions — are corporate entities. McGovern’s amendment would strip them of all constitutional rights.

Incredibly, versions of this radical rights-stripping measure has been endorsed through resolutions by the state legislatures of Vermont, Hawaii, and New Mexico, with backing from groups like Public Citizen. [Ilya Shapiro and Kathleen Hunker, Cato; Hans Bader, CEI; earlier] More: Professor Bainbridge (“utterly moronic”)] Among sponsors of this extraordinary measure: Reps. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), David Cicilline (R.I.), Steve Cohen (Tenn.), John Conyers, Jr. (Mich.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), Peter DeFazio (Ore.), Eliot Engel (N.Y.), Sam Farr (Calif.), Bob Filner (Calif.), Gene Green (Tex.), Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), Janice Hahn (Calif.), Martin Heinrich (N.M.), Maurice Hinchey (N.Y.), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (Ill.), Walter B. Jones, Jr. (N.C.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Jim McDermott (Wash.), Christopher Murphy (Ct.), Richard Neal (Mass.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.), John Olver (Mass.), Chellie Pingree (Maine), Louise McIntosh Slaughter (N.Y.), Adam Smith (Wash.), John Tierney (Mass.), and Peter Welch (Vt.). Murphy is running for an open U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut.

Tags: constitutional law, First Amendment, free speech, Public Citizen

“‘People’s Rights Amendment’ Would Knock Out People’s Rights” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Marc Randazza

Walter Olson — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:15:46 +0000

Marc Randazza is a prominent First Amendment lawyer who has been a friend to this site and many others. Popehat, Eric Turkewitz, Amy Alkon and back-in-commission Scott Greenfield are all posting well-merited appreciations.

Tags: First Amendment, legal blogs

Marc Randazza is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Cyberbullying: ‘We know it when we see it’”

Walter Olson — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:18:06 +0000

Prof. Lyrissa Lidsky at Prawfsblawg, in contrast to some other academics, agrees that the First Amendment needs to be taken seriously in considering proposals for “criminalizing ‘adolescent cruelty.’” Scott Greenfield is not reassured.

Tags: bullying, First Amendment

“Cyberbullying: ‘We know it when we see it’” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Constitutional law roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:22:14 +0000

High court tees up case on ObamaCare constitutionality, potentially one of the most significant in decades [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
“Andrew Sullivan Is Wrong About the Supreme Court and Guns” [Damon Root]
Trade groups’ advocacy: judge quashes Tillery subpoena as chilling to free association [Madison County Record]
Takings: “California’s Kafkaesque Rent Control Laws” [Richard Epstein] Things may be worse in China, though: “more than one attendee described Beijing as Kelo-on-steroids” [same]
No, the federal government can’t find authority to overstep its otherwise delimited powers by entering into treaties calling for it to do so [Shapiro]
Authors: U.S. Constitution is becoming less influential as model to foreign nations [Law/Versteeg via Zick, ConcurOp]
Fight between strip-search lawyers leaves little to imagination [Kerr]

Tags: constitutional law, eminent domain, First Amendment, guns, international law

Constitutional law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Speech criticizing lawsuit = “retaliation”

Walter Olson — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:50:21 +0000

Brushing off First Amendment objections, a federal court has ruled that a union can be sued for “retaliation” after it defended itself in print against a lawsuit by two of its members. [Eugene Volokh]

Tags: First Amendment, labor unions, workplace

Speech criticizing lawsuit = “retaliation” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The “corporations aren’t people” campaign

Walter Olson — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:12:49 +0000

Neither Stephen Bainbridge nor Larry Ribstein is particularly impressed by it.

Tags: constitutional law, First Amendment, securities litigation

The “corporations aren’t people” campaign is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 05:24:11 +0000

Pre-terror-attack antibiotic availability? HHS doesn’t think you’re sophisticated enough to handle that freedom [Stewart Baker]
Uh-oh: some New York lawmakers want “a more refined First Amendment” [Slashdot, Lucy Steigerwald]
Wal-Mart v. Dukes decision could curb certification of some wage and hour class actions [Fox]
“Miss. Supreme Court Removes Judge from $322M Asbestos Case Because of Dad’s Lawsuits” [ABA Journal]
Mass. town wants to seize family motel under forfeiture law, IJ objects [Jacob Sullum, Mark Perry]
Will FDA use its new tobacco-regulatory power to stub out cigars? [DC]
“Dole settles pesticide litigation” [WSJ Law Blog, background]

Tags: banana pesticide litigation fraud, FDA, First Amendment, forfeiture, recusals, terrorism, tobacco, Wal-Mart v. Dukes

October 14 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“You have a right to record the police”

Walter Olson — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:44:38 +0000

The First Circuit federal court of appeals has ruled that the First Amendment protects the right to record police officers’ public activity, notwithstanding a Massachusetts law banning “wiretapping.” Meanwhile, in Chicago, a jury speedily acquitted Tiawanda Moore on charges that she had committed a similar offense by using her Blackberry to record the visit of officers who were attempting to talk her out of a sexual harassment complaint against a member of the force. [Glenn Reynolds, Examiner, Gizmodo; earlier here, here]

Tags: First Amendment, police

“You have a right to record the police” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“$60,000 Damages for Blogging the Truth About Someone, Intending to Get the Person Fired”

Walter Olson — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:49:42 +0000

Eugene Volokh predicts that a Minnesota jury’s award will not stand; not only are people “constitutionally entitled to speak the truth about others, even with the goal of trying to get them fired,” but the “First Amendment constrains the interference with business relations tort, just as it constrains the infliction of emotional distress and other torts.” [Volokh Conspiracy]

Tags: First Amendment, libel slander and defamation, Minnesota

“$60,000 Damages for Blogging the Truth About Someone, Intending to Get the Person Fired” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system