News & Media
Can trump break the backs of sanctuary cities? Maybe.
Trump pledges to crush sanctuary cities. He is not powerless to do so, but there are constitutional constraints on how far he can go. Can Trump command cities to enforce immigration law, if they don’t want to? Can he just withhold federal funds to coerce them? The federal government has limited powers. Where it has constitutional authority or power, it can not compel the state or local governments to cooperate. If the federal government wants to pass a law against possession or sale of marijuana, Colorado can say “lol, no.” Of course, the state and local governments certainly have the right to
Sweden Takes Aim at User Generated Content Sites
SYNOPSIS OF THE ISSUE Sweden has introduced a legislative proposal that would make it a crime to purchase “sexual acts performed remotely.” The justification? Protecting children from sexual abuse and the elderly from fraud. On its face, that’s difficult to argue with. Nobody opposes protecting the vulnerable. But scratch just below the surface, and you’ll find a troubling reality: this proposal has little to do with predators or scams. It’s about criminalizing consensual adult behavior that happens to involve sex, money, and the internet — a combination that makes the political class deeply uncomfortable. The law specifically targets digital transactions
Largest Anti-SLAPP award in history goes from $1.3 million to negative $2800
Thomas Retzlaff and Neal Rauhauser spent years tormenting James McGibney, the man behind Bullyville.com. The whole dispute started when McGibney financed the legal fight to destroy the revenge porn website isanyoneup.com,, Retzlaff and Rauhauser, apparent fans of the site, began a relentless onslaught of harassment towards McGibney. Retzlaff, in particular, was very upset that McGibney shut down the website since he had posted naked images of his own daughter on the site. Retzlaff was irate about the loss of control of his victim, and directed this anger toward McGibney. Yes, that’s right. Thomas Retzlaff posted photos of his own daughter
TRUMP VIOLATES THE FIRST AMENDMENT WITH HIS SWIPE AT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The White House informed The Associated Press that its access to the Oval Office and the Diplomatic Room would be restricted if AP did not start using the term “Gulf of America.” The Trump administration’s actions are Constitutionally wrong. This lesson is for you, whether you want to call it the Gulf of America, the Gulf of Mexico, or The Gulf of Mar del Norte. The Constitution is a neutral principle that transcends politics. And the Constitution restricts the government’s power to take punitive action against the media based on a media outlet’s editorial decisions. This applies whether that media
Bill Would Give Wyoming Strongest Laws In Country To Fight Frivolous Defamation Lawsuits
Wyoming is set to implement the strongest anti-SLAPP law in the nation, reinforcing protections against frivolous defamation lawsuits. Marc Randazza, a leading First Amendment attorney and anti-SLAPP advocate, commended the bill, noting it would surpass even Nevada’s robust protections, which he helped develop. He highlighted its significance in safeguarding free speech and ensuring stronger legal defenses against meritless claims.
Op-ed: Did Stephen Richer really beat Kari Lake in court? I doubt it
Marc Randazza weighed in on the fallout of Stephen Richer’s defamation suit against Kari Lake, offering his signature no-nonsense take on why it fizzled out. Calling it “very common” for cases like this to end with both sides shouldering their own costs, Randazza questioned whether Richer got anything out of the settlement—especially since Lake never issued even a token retraction. A veteran of high-stakes speech battles, Randazza defended ASU’s First Amendment Clinic for backing Lake’s legal argument, emphasizing that free speech protections apply to all, no matter how controversial. “My client list is worse than the guest list at Mos
These Pro-Lifers Don’t Love Abortion Bans
Audra Worlow thinks of herself as pro-life. A 32-year-old, married stay-at-home mom in Ohio, Worlow takes her Catholic faith seriously. She’s against both in vitro fertilization (IVF), which she calls “another form of eugenics,” and surrogacy. She thinks abortion is not only harmful to babies but also “psychologically damaging to women.”
Randazza Legal Group Shuts Down Scam Website
Consumer Opinion, LLC runs the website www.pissedconsumer.com. A scam artist copied the website and registered the domain <pissedconsumercomplaints.com> in an attempt to scam users into believing that his website was affiliated with Pissed Consumer, and siphon off not only web traffic, but it may have also been used to unethically gather information about its users. Led by RLG Partner Ron Green, assisted by Partner Marc Randazza, the firm filed a complaint before the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) seeking to shut down the scam website as a form of cybersquatting. Attorney Green was the pioneering attorney for domain
Marc Randazza quoted in Worcester Telegram regarding his appellate arguments in the ‘Canton 9’ First Amendment case
Randazza – a colorful Las Vegas attorney whose work has involved Satanists, neo-Nazis, porn websites and rights to the Klingon language – complained that First Amendment rights are nonnegotiable. “We don’t ask the government where we can speak or assemble. We presumptively can, and it’s up to the government to show why we can’t.” “Are you flatly saying that you’re unwilling to have any discussion with Canton?” Lynch asked. “I can’t think of anything more constitutionally uncomfortable than saying you have to have a discussion with the government before having a protest,” he answered.
Courthouse News Covers Marc Randazza’s Appellate arguments in First Amendment case for Karen Read protesters
BOSTON (CN) — Police in Canton, Massachusetts — already under fire for supposedly framing Karen Read for the death of her police officer boyfriend — came under further attack in the First Circuit Wednesday for arresting citizens who peacefully protested about the case. But the judges seemed disinclined to rule on the issue and instead used the oral argument to urge the parties to resolve their dispute out of court.
(PAYWALL) Health supplement company accuses former COO of trade secret theft
International Health Brands takes aim at former COO alleging trade secret theft of ingredients in immunity gummies | Accusations include deceptive marketing strategies, infringement, unfair competition, and misappropriation of trade secrets.
Silly Banana “Art” Case Highlights Serious Copyright Legal Issues
If you ever wonder why court cases take so long to resolve, maybe it is because sometimes the courts are bogged down in really silly lawsuits like this one. But, silly as it is, it is a great opportunity to learn some fundamental copyright issues. In this case, Joe Morford duct taped a banana and an orange to a wall and called it “art.” See right. Some time later, Maurizio Cattelan much more famously, for some reason, duct taped a banana to a wall, called it “art” and got paid $100,000 by some imbecile. Morford sued Cattelan for copyright infringement
Marc. J. Randazza Quoted by Fox News on Telles Trial
A Las Vegas attorney weighed in as the start of the trial of the former Las Vegas-area politician accused of killing an investigative journalist began on Monday with jury selection. Robert Telles, a former Democrat Clark County administrator of estates, has remained jailed since his arrest in September 2022, days after Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German was found slashed and stabbed to death outside his home over Labor Day weekend.
FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION WIN FOR A MOTHER SEPARATED FROM HER SON!
In Foy v. Florida Commission on Offender Review, Attorneys Carrie Goldberg, Andrew Greenlee, and Marc Randazza prevailed when seeking a court order that a mother could communicate with her formerly incarcerated son. Ms. Foy’s son was a drug addict who, while under the spell of this evil, committed heinous crimes against her. Foy’s maternal instincts and religious conviction eventually compelled her to find forgiveness for her son. Ms. Foy and her son are close now. Her son has been released from prison after 13 years, and both he and his mother were looking forward to being reunified. But, the government would
Randazza Legal Group Secures First Amendment Victory in First Circuit
Randazza Legal Group has secured a significant victory for free speech rights in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The case, Berge v. School Committee of Gloucester, No. 22-1954, sets a crucial precedent protecting citizen journalists and public speech. In a rare application of the obvious unconstitutionality exception to the qualified immunity doctrine, the First Circuit denied qualified immunity protection to public officials who threatened legal action against a citizen journalist for publishing a video of their interactions. The First Circuit’s opinion stated, “If the First Amendment means anything in a situation like this, it is that
Foy v. Florida Commission on Offender Review
CASE OVERVIEW UPDATE – ON 25 JULY, THE COURT GRANTED OUR MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION, ALLOWING MS. FOY TO COMMUNICATE WITH HER SON! ORDER HERE This is a case about the right to forgive. This “Right to Forgive” is an admittedly novel First Amendment theory, but we believe in it wholeheartedly. This case could also be characterized as a right to due process for crime victims case. This right to forgive resides at the confluence of the free association and free exercise rights found in the First Amendment. Further, the Florida Constitution protects a crime victim’s rights, which must also
Journalist Suppression Case on Appeal – McBreairty v. Brewer School Department
Brewer, Maine: A group of students circulated a petition pertaining to bathroom policies at Brewer High School. The school shut down the petition, threatening the students with discipline if they continued circulating it. The students also report that they were threatened that the petition was a “hate crime.” (The school denies this). Shawn McBreairty is a journalist who wrote about the story, and included a photograph that was widely circulating on social media. The school district sent a threat to McBreairty. The DrummondWoodsum law firm, on the district’s behalf, sent a threat telling McBreairty that if he did not remove
The Right to Protest – Condemned in the Same Courthouse as Sacco and Vanzetti
The Karen Read case is, to put it lightly, high profile in Massachusetts. Many believe that she is being framed for a murder. Others find that ridiculous, and think those who believe it are conspiracy theorists. The New York Post has a good primer on the case, here. I am agnostic about Karen Reed’s guilt or innocence. Nevertheless, in the prosecution, the First Amendment has been under attack by the Government, and as of the date of this post, the Massachusetts courts have supported that attack. I initially leaned toward thinking that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts wouldn’t ever
Spearmint Rhino sues competitor over ‘South Park’-inspired name
A pair of Las Vegas strip clubs are in court to decide whether one’s parody-based name is too close to the other’s. Spearmint Rhino, a chain of adult entertainment clubs since 1992 with a Las Vegas location near the Strip, alleges that competitor Peppermint Hippo infringes on the club’s trademark because the names are “confusingly similar,” according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Nevada.
Protester Case – The Canton Four
In 1927 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts executed Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. History has shown that they were framed, and the Commonwealth has at least acknowledged that they did not get a fair trial. Nearly a century later, in the same courthouse where the Commonwealth gave itself an indelible stain of shame, there is another trial that has many hallmarks of government impropriety and corruption. Citizens have a right to call attention to that fact. Citizens have a right to protest. Citizens have a right to stand on the side of the road holding a sign that says “JUSTICE” without