First Amendment expert named to Florida legislative panel on transparency

From The Florida Senate:  Senate President Don Gaetz (R-Niceville) today announced the appointment of Barbara A. Petersen, President of Florida’s First Amendment Foundation, to a legislative panel that will evaluate and recommend how to provide better public access to state financial records and contracts.

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Senators ponder if bloggers deserve First Amendment protection

From Yahoo! News:  The Senate Free Flow of Information Act of 2013 would establish a national “shield law” that would give journalists protection from testifying in situations when investigators want the sources of confidential information used in media reports.

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S.C. Supreme Court rules public bodies cannot say FOIA hurts speech

From Miami Herald:  Public bodies in South Carolina cannot use the Freedom of Information Act to justify decisions not to release records or hold open meetings, the state's highest court ruled Wednesday.

In a 3-2 decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that a circuit judge should not have allowed the South Carolina Association of School Administrators to argue that open records requirements harmed its members' free speech rights.

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Gene Policinski: Second try at a shield law echoes the first

Opinion from the First Amendment Center:  An irony of timing twice has put U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning in the headlines at critical moments in gaining congressional approval of a federal shield law that would protect journalists and their confidential sources.

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Can public business ever be ‘private’ conversation?

By Gene Policinski, senior vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, via Pocono Record:

The First Amendment protects our free speech from government control, punishment or interference — but when public officials speak freely through private e-mail accounts or mobile phones, are they free to ignore freedom of information laws?

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U.S. judge bars Delaware’s Court of Chancery secret arbitrations

From Reuters:

Delaware's push to expand the state's legal industry was dealt a blow on Thursday when a federal judge ruled its high-profile Court of Chancery judges could not preside over arbitration proceedings that are closed to the public.

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