Digital Media and Data Privacy Law Blog

As has been widely reported, the U.S. Supreme Court will review a case this session involving a federal statute that criminalizes the sale of depictions of animal cruelty.  Last year, in United States v. Stevens, the Third Circuit declared the statute unconstitutional and vacated the conviction of Robert Stevens, who was prosecuted for selling videos of illegal dog fighting.  (Law.com covered the Third Circuit decision when it was released last year.)

The basic question for the court is whether or not the statute on its face runs afoul of the First Amendment.  As the Third Circuit framed ... Read More 

Federal reporter’s shield legislation has met with opposition in the Senate Judiciary Committee.  The committee addressed S. 448, the Free Flow of Information Act of 2009, in a hearing on September 17 but, ultimately, failed to report the bill out of committee and onto the Senate floor.   The inability to move the bill to the floor for a vote by the full Senate is a disappointment to the media and surely to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the chairman of the committee and co-sponsor of the bill.

S. 448, as amended, generally protects journalists from having to disclose source information in a ... Read More 

North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue vetoed a bill last week that would have allowed certain documents used in the legislative process to remain confidential.  

House Bill 104 would have, among other provisions, made legislative "drafting requests," "information requests," and certain other documents submitted in connection with such requests confidential as a matter of state law -- the bill expressly exempted such materials from the state pubic records statute.  Documents prepared by legislative employees at the request of lawmakers would also have been deemed ... Read More 

Earlier this month, the North Carolina Court of Appeals released an opinion paving the way for Michael Pressler, former coach of the Duke University lacrosse team, to sue Duke University and a university spokesperson for slander and libel related to statements made in the aftermath of the Duke lacrosse case. 

Pressler was the Duke lacrosse coach in 2006 when the Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong initiated a high-profile, and later discredited, investigation into allegations that members of the lacrosse team raped a dancer at an off-campus party. The North Carolina Attorney ... Read More 

Last week, as reported by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg denied a request to stay an order of the Connecticut Supreme Court ordering the disclosure of more than 12,000 documents filed in 23 now-settled lawsuits involving allegations of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests. 

The emergency request for stay to the U.S. Supreme Court followed the Connecticut Supreme Court’s decision in Rosado v. Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp. in June 2009. In Rosado, the defendants (the diocese and certain individual clergy members ... Read More