Law.com reports that a federal judge has sentenced two Muslim Americans to jail for conspiring to aid and abet terrorist organizations. The men had raised a First Amendment defense. The judge rejected that argument, saying they were being sentenced for their conduct, not their speech or religious faith.
The New York Times reports that two groups have sued the City of Pittsburgh for its treatment of them when they showed up to demonstrate at the G-20 meeting in September. The groups are Seeds of Peace Collective and Three Rivers Climate Convergence. The suit alleges the city intentionally interfered with the groups’ ability to exercise their First Amendment right to protest. The groups are represented by the ACLU of Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Business Times also covers the story.
The Washington Post reports that the Congressional Research Service has declined to reinstate an assistant director it recently terminated. According to the article, the assistant director used to be the chief military prosecutor at Guantanamo, and was terminated after writing critically about the Obama adminstration’s handling of detention issues. He alleges he was terminated in violation of his First Amendment right to free speech.
Jurist reports that the Ninth Circuit has denied same-sex marriage supporters access to the internal campaign emails of those working for passage of California’s proposition 8. The Court held that disclosure of these emails in discovery in the ongong lawsuit challenging the proposition would impermissibly chill the First Amendment-protected freedom of association. Jurist reports that the Ninth Circuit established the rule that “the party seeking discovery must demonstrate a need for the information sufficiently compelling to oughtweigh the impact on” associational rights.