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May 22, 2012

Five Freedoms

Morrison residents sue after town prohibits signs opposing wind turbines The couples have been posting signs opposing wind turbines over the past several years to encourage town officials to oppose turbine development, encourage neighbors not to sign contracts with developers and to direct people to websites with information about turbines, according to the complaint.(Green Bay Press Gazette)

Bill on sagging pants dies in Senate A bill sponsored by Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, that would have provided for fines against those publicly wearing pants drooping below the waist in Montgomery has died in the Senate.(Montgomery Advertiser)

Vaillancourt Apologizes The Statehouse erupted in chaos earlier today after a Manchester Republican used a Nazi chant to Speaker William O’Brien when responding to what he believed were autocratic parliamentary moves on the voter ID bill.(Concord Patch)

Federal judge blocks National Defense Authorization Act provision Federal district Judge Katherine B. Forrest issued an injunction against use of the provision on behalf of a group of journalists and activists who had filed suit in March, claiming it would chill free speech. (LAT)

Needham Town Meeting calls for constitutional amendment on campaign spending Supporters of the article reached back to the revolutionary roots of New England Town Meetings, arguing that it was the duty of the people to voice their outrage when the federal government acted against their interests. (BG)

Op-ed: A New First Amendment Right: Videotaping the Police The main reason the battle over recording the police is so important — and so highly contested — is that videos like these get results. That was clear last November, when a video of a campus officer at the University of California at Davis casually pepper-spraying student protesters went viral, and the university was pressured to suspend the chief of police — who later resigned — and two officers. (Time)

FTC: Skechers deceived consumers with shoe ads Skechers USA Inc. will pay $40 million to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that the footwear company made unfounded claims that its Shape-ups shoes would help people lose weight and strengthen their butt, leg and stomach muscles. Kardashian, Burke and other celebrities endorsed the shoes in Skechers ads.(AP)

Federal judge sides with Ga. State in copyright fight A federal judge has sided with Georgia State University on a range of copyright infringement claims filed by three publishing houses in a ruling that administrators say could set an important precedent for how educational data is used by schools.(AP)

Op-ed: School districts shouldn't ban books Not every book is right for every reader, especially when they are youngsters. But deciding that is the parents’ job — not the school board’s.(Patriot-News)

Appeals Panel Weighs Question on Press Rights At least two members of a three-judge federal appeals court panel appeared to express some skepticism on Friday about prosecutors’ request that they overturn a district judge’s order protecting a journalist from being forced to identify his confidential sources in the trial of a former Central Intelligence Agency officer.(NYT)

Op-ed: The Police, the iPhone and Your Right to Record Since Occupy Wall Street began last September, more than 75 journalists have been arrested.(HP)

Professor Makes the Case That Google Is a Publisher Is Google search an intermediary like the phone company — simply connecting people with the information they seek? Or is Google search a publisher, like a newspaper, which provides only the information that it sees fit and is protected by the First Amendment?(NYT)

Romney keeps news media at bay as he sticks to script Mitt Romney is trying harder these days to stay on script — and keep his traveling national press corps at arm’s length.(AP)

11th Circuit: Fla. teacher can sue religious school over firing A federal appeals court ruled yesterday in favor of a fourth-grade teacher who claimed she was wrongly fired by the principal of a Christian school in Florida after she disclosed that she got pregnant before she married.(AP)

Editing displayed Ten Commandments not option, many say At the judge's request, the two sides are trying to broker a settlement in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, which wants the display removed, arguing it violates the First Amendment's establishment clause.(Valley News Dispatch)

D.C. police: Sikh officers can wear beards, turbans Sikh community leaders said they know of no other major metropolitan police department with a written policy ensuring that Sikhs can maintain turbans and full beards while serving as full-time officers, though other law enforcement agencies have made less formal accommodations.(AP)

Controversial Cross Can Stay Joan and Richard Downing, owners of the Chapel of The Holy Family on Darling Hill Road, have won a nearly five year crusade to keep their cross on Darling Hill Road. (Caledonian Record)

N.Y. town’s pre-meeting prayers wrongly favored Christianity An upstate New York town violated the constitutional ban against favoring one religion over another by opening nearly every meeting during an 11-year span with prayers that stressed Christianity, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday.(AP)

NATO protesters target Boeing, Emanuel, Obama HQ Anti-NATO demonstrators who targeted the Boeing headquarters earlier today have ended their peaceful rally outside President Barack Obama's re-election headquarters. (CT)

Peaceful rally and march followed by police/protester stand-off The marchers were all different ages and people had signs to support their various causes.(WBEZ)

Rahm’s not home, but protesters streaming past his house The mental health clinics — and their closures — gave the protesters outside Emanuel’s house a cause for their march. They tied it to the summit arguing money spent on NATO could be used to help the mentally ill.(CST)

Gun owners rally in Lansing for expanded firearms rights Armed with rifles, pistols, flags and banners, about 150 people rallied for gun rights Saturday on the lawn of the Capitol, warning lawmakers not to rollback firearms possession laws such as “stand your ground.”(Lansing State Journal)

Student Freedoms

Banned Capital High students will walk at graduation The punishment has been adjusted for 21 Capital High School students who were banned from participating in tonight's graduation ceremony for wearing a shirt forbidden by Principal Clinton Giles, said Giles and Kanawha County Superintendent Ron Duerring.(Charleston Daily Mail)

Nine-Year-Old Josef Miles Stages Counter-Protest Against Westboro Baptist Church Protesters After reading some of the signs on display, Akrouche said that Miles asked her if he could create one of his own. Using a small sketch pad, he wrote out his message in pencil and held it out while he stood across from the picket line. (HP)

Post-It Note Prank At Cascade High School Leaves Students Suspended, Janitor Fired Now, Fox59 News reports that students are protesting the suspensions and firing of the school janitor by staging a sit-in in the school gym. In response, the school has been suspending more students.(HP)

CCSU suspends soccer coach, fines athletic department $100K over newspaper theft CCSU President Jack Miller announced that head coach Shaun Green will be suspended for 60 days without pay, suspended from coaching four games next season, is required to issue a written apology to the Recorder and financially compensate the paper for destroying the copies. (SPLC)

Lenoir City school board to investigate yearbook flap The Lenoir City School Board on Wednesday promised parents and residents that a full investigation will be conducted into the publication in the high school year book of an article about the experiences of a gay student.(Knoxville News-Sentinel)

Former Rutgers student gets 30 days in jail for hate crimes Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi, convicted of a hate crime for spying on his gay roommate with a webcam, received a 30-day jail sentence and probation on Monday. (Reuters)

Chesapeake schools, police at odds over searches In the last year and a half, Chesapeake school resource officers - police officers who work in schools to improve security - have filed at least 12 search warrants in which they describe school administrative staff as "uncooperative" or as having "failed to provide all necessary information/evidence."(Virginian-Pilot)

Madigan sues Illinois State High School Association over barring disabled athletes from state competitions The Illinois High School Association is violating the rights of disabled students by not allowing them to compete in state athletic events, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.(CT)

The Struggle Continues

Oregon bans Native American mascots in schools Oregon is no longer the home of the Braves. Or Indians, Savages or Redskins. Native American mascots at schools across the state will be banned.(LAT)

Op-ed: Oregon Bans Native American-Themed School Mascots, But Battle Goes On Elsewhere Molalla and the other 14 schools in Oregon affected complain that, in a time of tight school budgets, having to spend money to dump their uniforms and redecorate their gyms and hallways is unnecessary and hurtful. And, they argue, the community treats the mascots with deep respect.(Forbes)

ND, Catholic Diocese, others file suit regarding HHS mandate The University of Notre Dame, the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend and several other area organizations filed suit Monday challenging the constitutionality of a federal regulation that requires religious organizations to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives and other services that go against Catholic Church teachings. (South Bend Tribune)

Registry tallies over 2,000 wrongful convictions since 1989 The national database, said to be the largest of its kind, covers the period since DNA testing came into common use. Its sponsors hope to shed light on the legal system's failings. (LAT)

Maryland high court blocks request to reconsider DNA ruling The decision puts the case on track for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. States and federal courts are split over whether taking a DNA sample before a suspect is convicted violates a person's Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.(BS)

Revised La. Facebook ban for sex offenders passed A similar previous law was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge, so lawmakers rewrote the provision, hoping tightened language could withstand judicial scrutiny.(AP)

‘Super PACs’ Let Strategists Off the Leash They have no field offices and few paid staff members and spend virtually all of their money on political advertising, traditionally the best-paying political work. For brand-name political operatives, super PACs offer much of the impact of campaign work with few of the headaches.(NYT)

Mont. campaign-finance restrictions ruled unconstitutional The judge determined that state laws requiring attack ads to disclose the targeted candidates’ voting records and barring such ads from containing knowingly false statements are unconstitutionally vague.(AP)

Ads highlight cozy campaign-PAC relationship By law, campaigns and the outside groups are forbidden from working with each other. But at times like this, the lines of separation seem blurred if not crossed.(AP)

Massachusetts marks 8th anniversary of same-sex marriages Massachusetts is marking eight years since it became the first state in the country where same sex couples could legally wed. Thursday marks the anniversary of the day when the historic Supreme Judicial Court ruling took effect and couples could marry. (AP)

NAACP endorses gay marriage The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People passed a resolution supporting gay marriage at a meeting of its board of directors in Miami, saying it opposed any policy or legislative initiative that "seeks to codify discrimination or hatred into the law or to remove the constitutional rights of LGBT citizens."(LAT)

20 years for warning shot: Case of misguided justice? After a Florida woman gets 20 years for firing at a wall – an incident in which nobody was hurt – critics question mandatory-minimum sentencing laws.(AP)

Use of state terrorism law is a risky tactic for prosecutors In Illinois, the anti-terrorism law remained covered in cobwebs until a few weeks ago when an investigation into a group of alleged anarchists in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood uncovered the alleged plot to hit several police stations and other high-profile targets with Molotov cocktails.(CT)

In Alaska, militia members accused of murder plot According to prosecutors, Cox, the 28-year-old head of the Alaska Peacemakers Militia, believed his group would eventually need to take up arms against the government, and "be sufficiently armed and equipped to sustain a take-over of the 'government' or become a new government in the event of a 'government collapse.'"(AP)

Changes outlined NYPD's 'stop, question and frisk' policy After mounting public pressure from advocacy groups and a class action lawsuit against the New York Police Department, Commissioner Ray Kelly detailed changes to the department's much-criticized "stop, question and frisk" policy.(CNN)

For Smokers, Extra Challenge in Apartment Hunt Finding an apartment has long been a contact sport in the city, where sacrifices are made and premiums paid, often for the pleasure of living in a broom closet. But for smokers who refuse to put on slippers and head down to the sidewalk every time they have a craving, hunting for a place to live here has become even more of a challenge.(NYT)

Justice and the Courts

Children Not Entitled to Dead Father’s Benefits, Justices Rule Children conceived with a dead father’s frozen sperm are not entitled to Social Security benefits if they were not eligible to inherit property from him under state law, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday.(NYT)

High court will take up wiretaps lawsuit The Supreme Court says it will consider whether to shut down a legal challenge to a law that lets the United States eavesdrop on overseas communications.(AP)

Court won’t reduce student’s music download fine The Supreme Court has refused to take up a Boston University student’s constitutional challenge to a $675,000 penalty for illegally downloading 30 songs and sharing them on the Internet.(AP)

Court upholds key provision of Voting Rights Act, Supreme Court review likely A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a signature portion of the Voting Rights Act, setting the stage for consideration by a Supreme Court whose majority is skeptical about the law’s continued viability.(WP)

Supreme Court refuses to hear Illinois redistricting challenge The Supreme Court will not hear a challenge to redistricting in Illinois despite complaints from the League of Women Voters of Illinois that the new congressional and legislative lines are unconstitutional. (AP)

Op-ed:When voters go to the polls in November, even the Supreme Court hangs in the balance Ordinarily when we vote in presidential years, two branches of the federal government are up for grabs. But this year it's all three, for whoever wins the presidency also likely will win control of the U.S. Supreme Court. (Arizona Republic)

This Day in History

On May 22, 1843 a massive wagon train, made up of 1,000 settlers and 1,000 head of cattle, sets off down the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri. Known as the "Great Emigration," the expedition came two years after the first modest party of settlers made the long, overland journey to Oregon.(History.com)

Source Abbreviations:

AP: Associated Press; BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation; BG: Boston Globe; BS: Baltimore Sun; BW: Business Week; CR: Chicago Reader; CSM: Christian Science Monitor; CST: Chicago Sun-Times; CT: Chicago Tribune; DH: Daily Herald; DMN: Dallas Morning DP: Denver Post; Drudge Report; EP: Editor & Publisher; FAC: First Amendment Center; HC: Houston Chronicle; HP: Huffington Post; IHT: International Herald Tribune; LAT: Los Angeles Times; MH: Miami Herald; MJS: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; NW: Newsweek; NYT: New York Times; PI: Philadelphia Inquirer; PEIJ: Project for Excellence in Journalism; RCP: Real Clear Politics; SC: San Francisco Chronicle; SJR: State Journal-Register; SLPD: St. Louis Post-Dispatch; SPI: Seattle Post-Intelligencer; SPLC: Student Press Law Center; SPT: St. Petersburg Times; ST: Seattle Times; TH: Townhall.com; UNWP: U.S. News and World Report; USA: USA Today; WP: Washington Post; WSJ: Wall Street Journal; WT: Washington Times.

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