{"id":2828,"date":"2020-03-23T23:38:11","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T03:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/?p=2828"},"modified":"2020-03-23T23:38:11","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T03:38:11","slug":"newsflash-2-24-3-9-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/newsflash-2-24-3-9-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NEWSFLASH! 2\/24-3\/9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As the world still reels from the COVID-19 outbreak, UNC Law (and its many student-led organizations, like First Amendment Law Review) is learning how to best react to the virus. Accordingly, our journal (and all of the effort it requires&#8211;writing, editing, staff meetings, and the like) is now operating remotely. We appreciate your patience as we, like you, our readers, learn how to navigate these new normals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, here are a couple of First Amendment headlines that are worth brief mention: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Surprisingly, despite federal- and state-level bans on large gatherings, few news-making First Amendment complaints have arisen. The loudest voices seem to be clergy and churchgoers now restricted from meeting in-person to worship. For example, pastors in Florida and Louisiana continue to <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2020\/03\/20\/these-churches-refuse-to-close-over-covid-19-does-the-constitution-protect-their-right-to-remain-open\/\">defy<\/a> executive orders limiting gatherings. The legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina has expressed some skepticism towards such state limitations, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/health\/covid19\/charleston-area-gathering-restrictions-infringe-on-but-don-t-violate\/article_8142c398-6859-11ea-b06b-8b174ae0b468.html\">noting<\/a> concern about how long these measures may last. Surely, more challenges are to come as these restrictions are expanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has again <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2020\/digital\/news\/donald-trump-violated-first-amendment-twitter-blocking-1203542245\/\">upheld<\/a> its holding that President Donald Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking critics on Twitter. While the court&#8217;s decision was initially given this past summer, lawyers for President Trump requested an en banc review. That request was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ca2.uscourts.gov\/decisions\/isysquery\/05ff0afe-5274-487a-be46-369bd94d9387\/2\/doc\/18-1691_complete_rhrg_ord.pdf\">denied<\/a>. Thus, the court&#8217;s initial holding that the President&#8217;s Twitter account serves as an &#8220;official communications channel&#8221; and therefore access to it cannot be restricted, remains in place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the world still reels from the COVID-19 outbreak, UNC Law (and its many student-led organizations, like First Amendment Law Review) is learning how to best react to the virus. Accordingly, our journal (and all of the effort it requires&#8211;writing, editing, staff meetings, and the like) is now operating remotely. We appreciate your patience as <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/newsflash-2-24-3-9-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[57,83,87,163,349],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/firstamendmentlawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}