First Amendment Newsflash 3/26-4/8

Federal Court News

Federal judge allows lawsuit over Kentucky driver’s “I’m God” license plate to move forward.

The Virginia woman who was fired from her government contracting firm for flipping off President Trump’s motorcade sued her employer.

Recent lawsuit settlement over Maryland Governor’s Facebook page requires Maryland’s governor to be more permissive of social media commenters who disagree with him after ACLU lawsuit alleged the plaintiff’s First Amendment rights were violated when the governor deleted the constituents’ comments and blocked them from his official Facebook page.

Federal judge denied plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction to prevent Kentucky governor from blocking anyone on his social media accounts after he was sued for allegedly violating free-speech rights by blocking people from his Twitter and Facebook accounts.

An attorney argues for one of two women charged with burglarizing a mosque while making derogatory comments about Muslims that his client’s case is about exercising her free speech rights and not about hate speech.

An Iowa man won a free-speech lawsuit after city officials threatened him with legal action for saying on a website that his hometown smelled like “rancid dog food.”

A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a man who was charged and ultimately acquitted for creating a parody Facebook account mocking a local police department.

A former CIA officer filed a lawsuit against the federal agency on First Amendment grounds after its pre-publication review of her upcoming memoir rendered the manuscript virtually unreadable.

A Charlottesville woman who claims she was wrongly arrested after protesting while topless during the Charlottesville rally filed a lawsuit claiming her First Amendment right to peacefully protest was violated.

A federal judge rejects Milo Yiannopolous’s request for a preliminary injunction requiring the Washington D.C. metro system to repost ads for his book after Yiannopolous sued the transit agency for pulling ads after receiving rider complaints.

A federal judge denied partial summary judgment based on an alleged First Amendment violation, ruling that AmeriCorps did not violate a former phone sex operator’s rights by terminating her after the agency discovered she wrote a book about explicit conversations she had with callers.

A popular D.C.-area chef filed a lawsuit against Virginia alleging his First Amendment rights are being violated due to the state’s law on happy hour advertising.

A federal judge ruled that YouTube is not a public forum run by a state actor in dismissing a First Amendment complaint filed by radio talk-show host against YouTube for censoring conservative viewpoints.

State Court News

California Court of Appeals rejected actress Olivia de Havilland’s right of publicity and false light claims against FX, ruling that the First Amendment protects creative works about celebrities whether the work is fact, fiction, or a combination of both.

Other News

Trump’s 2020 campaign manager is calling for CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta to be suspended or stripped of his press credentials after the journalist questioned Trump during the White House Easter Egg Roll.

A Gallup/Knight Foundation survey found that college students feel less secure in their ability to express First Amendment rights.