Contemplating Media & the First Amendment
To some, the term whistleblower is synonymous with leaker. The word leaker has a negative connotation is attached to it. However, a whistleblower should not have this undertone associated with it. It is not the take-out box from dinner that drips curry sauce, the unnecessary nuisance. A whistleblower is the rubber band wrapped around a... Continue Reading →
I want to start this out by saying that Pittsburgh is my second home. My grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins all live ten to fifteen minutes away from Pittsburgh. I’ve visited three times a year every year for over two decades and have for some summers lived in Pittsburgh. It is my favorite city... Continue Reading →
On October 26, The Republic of Ireland voted to remove an arcane law in the Constitution outlawing blasphemy. Specifically, they removed a section of Article 40.6.1, which ironically guarantees "the right of the citizens to express freely their convictions and opinions," and then a few sentences later states, "The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or... Continue Reading →
In most landmark decisions, the opinion of the Court is written by the Chief Justice or most senior justice joining in the opinion. Because they are the cases that will studied for many years to come, justices want be the ones to pen the opinion and determine its language. It is through their written opinions... Continue Reading →
On Saturday, eleven people were murdered and four were injured in a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The shooter, Robert Bowers, was a frequent poster on the social media platform Gab, where he wrote virulent anti-semitic remarks and threatened to carry out acts of violence against Jewish people. This weekend’s mass shooting adds to the... Continue Reading →
What happens when the rights protected under the First Amendment conflict with national security efforts? This question is at the core of one of the most important First Amendment conflicts in the United States, the Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers contained 7,000 pages of classified information from a secret study ordered by the Department of... Continue Reading →
"That people find free speech offensive is not a sufficient reason for suppressing it. If Indeed it is the speaker’s opinion that gives offense that consequence is a reason for according it constitutional protection": By Chief Justice William Rehnquist FCC v Pacifica Foundation Chief Justice William Rehnquist delivered the above statement for the case Hustler Magazine v Falwell... Continue Reading →
The question of whether journalists should have to give up their sources is less about actual journalists than it is a question of whose rights are valued more - the right to the freedom of the press, or the right of the judicial system to function at maximum strength. The Supreme Court ruled in 1972... Continue Reading →
The conflict between securing the freedom of Americans to say, write, and publish what they please, and protecting Americans from the abuse of this freedom, defines the struggle of considering First Amendment legal issues. Every First Amendment topic we’ve discussed so far--obscenity, libel, privacy--deals with this tension between freedom and safety. The issue of confidential... Continue Reading →
Last week, PEN America, a nonprofit that works to defend free expression, sued President Donald Trump in federal court. The lawsuit claims Trump’s statements and actions violate the First Amendment protections of free speech and a free press. “PEN wants the court to block the president from using his office to retaliate against media criticism,”... Continue Reading →
Free Press Free Speech 