CFIF Launches Federal Lawsuit Challenging the Constitutionality of West Virginia’s Election Law
CFIF filed its complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, alleging that several provisions of state law are vague and overbroad, and thus violate the First Amendment...[more]
CFIF Files Motion in Federal Court Seeking to Solidify its First Amendment Rights in Pennsylvania
The Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) last week filed a motion with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania seeking, among other things, to further solidify its First Amendment rights to run issue ads in the state...[more]
CFIF Prevails Against Pennsylvania's Attempt to Muzzle Our Speech
This morning the Commonwealth Secretary of the state of Pennsylvania and the State Attorney General (AG) filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) from airing its television ad in Pennsylvania...[more]
On Thursday, November 1, Pedro Cotes, the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, announced that he would seek an injunction in state court to stop the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) from running its television ad in Pennsylvania...[more]
CFIF Secures Free Speech Victory in Pennsylvania
Lawsuit Clarifies that Enforcement of State Campaign Finance Law Must be Limited to "Express Advocacy," Enabling CFIF and Other Similarly Situated Speakers to Broadcast Independent Issue Ads Close to Elections...[more]
Center
For Individual Freedom Sues to Strike Down Pennsylvania Speech Restriction
The Center for
Individual Freedom (CFIF) last week filed a lawsuit to hold unconstitutional
a Pennsylvania law that forbids independent issue ads during election periods...[more]
'No Reasonable' Chance of Survival for McCain-Feingold
"Enough is enough," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his principal opinion, making it perfectly clear that "when it comes to drawing difficult lines in the area of pure political speech ... we give the benefit of the doubt to speech, not censorship." ...[more]
Winning a Unanimous High Court Decision While Gaining Nothing
The nine justices of the Supreme Court of the United States issued their ruling in Davenport v. Washington Education Association a week ago Thursday -- one of the most highly anticipated decisions of the term...[more]
One Small Step for Free Speech, One Giant Leap for Big Media
Don't get us wrong. By all accounts, last week certainly can be tallied in the win column for those of us who understand that "campaign finance reform" is just a euphemism for restricting political speech at the core of the First Amendment...[more]
CFIF Urges U.S. Supreme Court to Preserve the Right of Anonymous Free Speech and Association
Amicus Curiae Brief Urges High Court to Hear and Ultimately Reverse Lower Court Decisions in Rongstad v. Lassa...[more]
A Very Little Political Free Speech?
This week, at their conference, the justices of the highest court in the land will decide whether to hear the case of Wisconsin Right to Life v. Federal Election Commission for a second term in a row...[more]
Busy Week for CFIF at U.S. Supreme Court
The Washington Post recently reported that the U.S. Supreme Court is once again on track to take its least number of cases in modern history. A case in which the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) is a named party recently contributed to that statistic...[more]
Petitioners, which include a Louisiana District Attorney, members of the Louisiana Board of Ethics, and the Supervisory Committee for Campaign Finance, seek Supreme Court review on the grounds, in part, that the Fifth Circuit erred by not referring this case to the Louisiana Supreme Court...[more]
Friend of the Court Brief Implores High Court to Protect the Free Speech and Association Rights of Non-member, Fees-Paying Workers...[more]
CFIF Urges Supreme Court of North Dakota to Protect Free Speech "Today, with unconstitutional regulations such as McCain/Feingold already stifling Americans' free speech rights during critical election periods, individual states simply have no right to restrict cross-state political speech," said Timothy Lee, the Center's Director of Legal and Public Affairs...[more]
Free Speech Restored in Louisiana
After nearly two years of litigation, the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) won an important free-speech decision last week when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Louisiana's campaign finance law does not restrict or regulate independent political issue advertising...[more]
Vermont Is Corrupt: State Attorney General Says So
Pity poor William H. Sorrell, Attorney General of Vermont. On February 28, he went before the U.S. Supreme Court. He said political corruption in Vermont is a serious problem. Then under tough questioning from Chief Justice John Roberts he said he hadn't prosecuted anyone for it...[more]
The First Amendment's Lifeline
Is Buckley dead? That's the question the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States will consider next week...[more]
Senator Russell Feingold didn’t ask Judge John Roberts any questions about the constitutionality of campaign finance “reform” during his four-day-long confirmation hearing...[more]
Pledging Allegiance to More Constitutional Uncertainty?
Just as we predicted, the Supreme Court didn’t do anyone any favors a year ago by relying solely on a legal technicality to overturn the 9th Circuit’s misguided Pledge of Allegiance decision...[more]
The Privileged Press, May We All Enjoy the Freedom
America learned just how privileged the press is after the Federal Election Commission released one of its rulings last week...[more]
Safire Urges Federal Journalist Shield Law
By William Safire: On July 13, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to consider a proposed federal law that would protect journalists' right to protect the identities of confidential sources...[more]
Judith Miller Goes to Jail…for You
A journalist — Judith Miller of The New York Times — is in jail today. Her lost freedom is ours. Long before some of this country’s judges decided that the Constitution does not mean what it says, that Constitution prioritized freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press first and foremost against government intrusion...[more]
Considering the Reporter’s Privilege … Secretly
Over the past few months, courts across the country have issued a flurry of decisions on whether and to what extent newsgatherers may assert a privilege to protect their confidential sources...[more]
Injudicious Secrecy and an Unfree Press
Apparently the public doesn't have a right to know. That's the lesson that will be learned from Tuesday's federal appeals court decision announcing "there is no First Amendment privilege protecting journalists ... from testifying ... or otherwise providing evidence ... regardless of any confidence promised by the reporter to any source." But reading further into the decision, it only got worse...[more]
On Advice of Counsel: The Media vs. Robert Novak
Specifically, the story focused on Novak’s silence in the aftermath of his naming Valerie Plame as the CIA officer who recommended that her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, be sent to Niger to investigate an alleged sale of nuclear bomb-making stuff to Iraq. Big flap, Novak’s story caused, still Energizer Bunnying along...[more]
Florida’s School Voucher Program Fails Appeal
Nearly 700 Florida school children attending religious schools using public vouchers may someday be sent back to public schools. Last week, the full Court of Appeal of Florida, First District, ruled (8-5-1) that the voucher program violates Florida’s Constitution because it allows tax dollars to be spent at religious schools...[more]
Last week, the Center for Individual Freedom’s Renee Giachino, who hosts the radio talk show "Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense" on WEBY 1330 AM in Northwest Florida, spoke with Clark Neily, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, about school choice and the Florida voucher program...[more]
Down the Slippery Slope to ‘Newspeak’
By Vanessa Legget: This is not about another journalist going to jail. This is not about federal officials getting locked up for media leaks. Though any or all of these people could end up behind bars, and the government has already decreed the journalist should be the first. This is about every American losing a significant measure of freedom, a certainty if the federal government succeeds in strong-arming Matthew Cooper or any other journalist into betraying confidential sources...[more]
Letter to the Mayor of Independence, Kentucky
On August 5, the Center's Assistant General Counsel, Reid Cox, submitted this letter informing the Mayor and City Council of Independence, Kentucky, that limiting when political signs can be posted raises constitutional concerns...[more]
Slam Dunking the First Amendment in the Kobe Bryant Case
A bare majority of the Colorado Supreme Court last week found what even the U.S. Supreme Court had never found before — a perfectly "constitutional prior restraint." In so discovering, four Colorado justices injected uncertainty into one of the few areas of constitutional law that had been completely clear. In other words, make that one less constitutional certainty...[more]
The Pledge of Allegiance Decision: Imprudently Standing on a Technicality
On Monday, when eight of America’s preeminent legal minds decided a constitutional challenge to the public acknowledgement of our nation’s common religious heritage, the result was nothing less than jurisprudential incoherence...[more]
Apparently it is possible for consumers to know too much about the products they buy and use everyday. After all, that is precisely the message being sent by a growing number of restrictions and lawsuits that target advertisements for stating — wait for it — just the facts. That’s right, for products ranging from food and drugs to alcohol and tobacco, companies are increasingly being forced not to tell the public the truth for fear of being hit with draconian penalties simply because those facts are packaged in a 30-second television spot or a glossy magazine layout...[more]
Center’s Attorneys Present Oral Argument Before Ninth Circuit in Beef Case
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral argument on March 31st in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the beef checkoff program identified with the popularly recognized "Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner" generic advertising campaign. Erik S. Jaffe presented oral argument on behalf of Jeanne and Steve Charter and hundreds of other independent cattle ranchers who oppose the per-head charge on cattle to pay for promoting beef consumption. Center’s counsel Reid A. Cox and Montana attorney Kelly J. Varnes co-represented the Charters before the Ninth Circuit...[more]
Let the Sunshine In On Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
In a setback to efforts by physicians at self-help medical malpractice tort reform, a new national database set to track litigious patients, attorneys and expert witnesses was pulled from the Internet last week. After opening in November under the direction of a Texas physician, the site’s slogan read, "they can sue, but they can’t hide." For a nominal monthly fee, physicians were encouraged to query the database of public records of litigation in order to "assess the risk of offering [their] services to clients or potential clients." In a nutshell, a physician could learn the litigation proclivities of potential patients before, rather than after, rendering services...[more]
The Slippery Slope Down Janet’s Breast
Sunday night’s nearly live telecast of the 76th Annual Academy Awards confirmed that the real casualty of Janet Jackson’s revealing Super Bowl performance wasn’t Justin Timberlake and his wholesome boy band image, network television and its charge to serve the public interest, or even some standard of public decency and its protection of civil society. No, the victim claimed by the split-second female half-flash seen around the world was the First Amendment itself...[more]
Locke v. Davey: Why ‘Play in the Joints’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Read Between the Lines’
Circling themselves like dogs chasing their own tails, advocates for the complete separation between church and state have twisted the Supreme Court’s most recent Establishment Clause opinion in an attempt to eliminate other "religious" programs, including school vouchers and President Bush’s Faith-Based Initiatives...[more]
A federal appeals court declared the federal dairy checkoff program unconstitutional Tuesday concluding that forcing farmers to pay for generic advertising constituted compelled speech in violation of their First Amendment rights...[more]
Beef: It’s What’s in Our Courts
Beef, it’s not just "what’s for dinner" these days. Beef is the main entrée in courtrooms throughout the country, from the highest in the land to the rogue Ninth Circuit. The Center for Individual Freedom received notice this week that oral arguments have been scheduled before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in Charter, et al. v. USDA, et al., a case challenging the constitutionality of the beef checkoff program...[more]
Forget the fight to allow cameras in federal courtrooms. In this post-9/11 world, the battle for open judicial proceedings is being fought over whether the public is allowed to know certain cases exist at all. Case in point: a petition currently pending at the U.S. Supreme Court known to the public only as M.K.B. v. Warden, No. 03-6747. The petitioner is known by his initials alone, and the High Court’s docket reflects neither what court decided the case below nor when that decision was issued – two facts that routinely appear on the docketing statement of every case brought before the nine Justices...[more]
Is Truth in the Eye of the Beholder?:
Does the First Amendment Protect Fact-Based Speech that Could Be "Misleading"?
From fast food to sneakers, more and more frequently manufacturers, retailers and their advertisers are facing lawsuits brought by consumers who allege injury after buying, consuming or using well-marketed products. But while false advertising has always been fair game in the world of torts, many plaintiffs today do not claim they were duped by untrue statements. Instead, the latest trend in consumer protection is liability based on "misleading" speech, even when the sales pitch may be fact-based and literally true. The Federalist Society’s Law and Advertising Subcommittee, which is chaired by Center for Individual Freedom Assistant General Counsel Reid Alan Cox, is hosting a panel discussion on these important issues on January 15, 2004, from 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. To attend the panel discussion, RSVP to the Federalist Society by phone at 202.822.8138, or register online by visiting here.
The Archives
First Amendment: 2001 • 2002 • 2003