News & Media
Randazza: THE (Nevada) SUPREME COURT HAS ROUNDLY REJECTED PRIOR RESTRAINT!
By Marc J. Randazza A Nevada court previously ordered the censorship of autopsy reports stemming from the Las Vegas massacre. (source) Today, the Nevada Supreme Court reversed that decision as an unlawful prior restraint. (Opinion Here.) The lower court’s order would have forced members of the press to allow government officials to freely rummage through its files to find and
Randazza: Section 2(a) Falls! First Amendment Wins!
First Amendment Prevails as Final Portion of Trademark Act’s Censorship Regime Falls by Marc J. Randazza The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit just struck down the final pillar in the U.S. Trademark Act’s censorship regime. 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a) (known best as “Section 2(a)”) is a portion of the Lanham Act, the federal trademark statute, that prevents
Randazza: The Neo-Nazi and The First Amendment
By Marc Randazza Andrew Anglin, a neo-Nazi whom many online publications refer to as a vicious online troll, is being sued by a Jewish citizen of Whitefish, Montana. Tanya Gersh accuses him of invading her family’s privacy, urging his supporters to attack her family with hateful and death-threatening messages, and unleashing an online anti-Semitic trolling campaign against her, her relatives, her
Randazza: Even Trump has a right to free speech
By Marc Randazza When then-presidential candidate Trump uttered the words, “Get’em out of here,” at one of his rallies, Trump’s supporters assaulted three anti-Trump protestors. The protestors now want to hold Trump liable for the assault, based on his speech alone. While I do not approve of Trump’s words, I am honor-bound to defend his right to free speech, as
Marc Randazza interviewed on Vice TV
Marc Randazza speaks to Vice about defending Andrew Anglin in the lawsuit filed by Tanya Gersh who alleged Anglin incited a troll storm against her. Randazza explains that Anglin’s speech is political, a category protected by the First Amendment, and justifies his representation of the Daily Stormer founder. “Whether or not I agree with somebody’s content is irrelevant to whether
Randazza: Public Masturbation as Protected Speech?
By Marc J Randazza The Oregonian reports, delightfully, Man arrested after ‘masturbating vigorously’ in public because he ‘hates Portland’. So would his rationale change this from just a run-of the mill date with Palmela Handerson into protected activity? It just might. After all, nudity can be so ennobled, so why not evicting the testicular squatters? A few years ago, a
What the Bleep Do We Know? How the Use of Volunteer Moderators, LiveJournal, and the Saga of Bleeping Computer Continues to Shape the Internet
Social networking sites and online message boards are an integral part of the Internet. Those websites are able to provide unfettered forums for the exchange of ideas because they enjoy certain legal immunities. But, those immunities are eroding. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides immunity from copyright infringement, and 47 USC § 230, commonly known as Section 230, applies
The “Pop-Up Keyboard” Defense: How Apps, Mobile Phones, and Terms of Use Work Together
Unlike the Blackberry keyboards of yesteryears, your smartphone probably has a pop-up touch-screen keyboard. Recently, the Northern District of California took issue with this modern design, and denied Uber’s motion to compel arbitration because a pop-up keyboard blocked Uber’s Terms and Conditions from view while a user registered for the app. This case is unique because it focused on the
Jail For Laughing Protester Is An Outrage
Marc Randazza’s most recent CNN column analyzes the recent conviction of Code Pink Protestor Desiree Fairooz after the media suggested she had been arrested merely for, “laughing at Jeff Sessions” during a Congressional hearing. There is, of course, more to the story. See – Jail for laughing protester is an outrage When Fairooz laughed loudly during Session’s confirmation hearing, Officer
Randazza: 400,000 Reasons to be a Good Little Pet
By Marc Randazza Barry (Obama, that is) is cashing in now. He’s going to rake in $400,000 to give a speech to Cantor Fitzgerald, a Wall Street investment bank. Some on the Left are flipping out that it cuts against everything Obama was supposed to stand for. The Right is screaming about it as well. But, in all fairness, much
Randazza: No Laughing Matter
By Marc Randazza The news is abuzz with the unfortunate, disturbing, and misleading reports that a member of the group Code Pink was convicted of a crime for merely laughing at Jeff Sessions. That isn’t exactly what happened, but I think what happened is even worse. I discuss it here, in my latest CNN column, and hopefully also infect the
Randazza: What is at Stake in the French Election
by Marc Randazza Well, something that is at stake. Whoever gets elected as French president will also become a co-prince, or co-princess, of Andorra. Yes, the French revolution did away with the French monarchy. Nevertheless, the President of the Republic of France is also the co-sovereign of the tiny Pyrenees micro-nation. Andorra itself has been open for business since 803,
Marc Randazza’s most recent CNN column analyzes U.C. Berkley’s decision to silence Ann Coulter
See Dear Berekely: Even Ann Coulter deserves free speech There has been a wave of violent outbursts against conservative speakers during the 2016 election season, including violent protestors at Berkeley driving Milo Yiannopolous off campus a few months ago. Berekley’s reaction? When the Berkeley College Republicans invited Coulter to speak, Berkeley canceled it, citing the recent violent outbursts as the
Randazza: I was on Infowars (and I liked it)
By Marc Randazza I’ve never been the biggest fan of Infowars. I’m glad it’s there, but it wasn’t my thing. When I got asked to be a guest on it, I expected hostility. I have to say, the interviewer, David Knight, was better than any I’ve had on CNN, Fox, or any other mainstream media. Rather than recap it, I’ll
Randazza: The March for Science … but was it?
By Marc Randazza The “March for Science” seemed like a great idea. Science is awesome. Making decisions based on evidence and the scientific method is superior to making decisions based on superstition and emotion. So yay science. I’m certain (or at least willing to believe) that the organizers were truly motivated by a desire for evidence-based policymaking to conquer superstition
Trademark counterfeiting and the new Las Vegas Raiders
Marc Randazza, the managing partner of Randazza Legal Group, comments on Trademark counterfeiting and the new Las Vegas Raiders. “[If] you sell merchandise with ‘Raiders’ on it, you better have the permission of the NFL,” Mr. Randazza told Las Vegas 13 Action News, “[j]ust because there may not yet be a Las Vegas Raiders, doesn’t mean that’s just open territory
Las Vegas New Porn Frontier
Right now, Las Vegas looks like the new frontier for porn. Marc Randazza, an entertainment lawyer who has studied the porn industry’s migration to Nevada, sees Kink.com’s move “in the larger context of adult entertainment companies looking just a few hours east, seeing much lower costs to doing business, and a much more business friendly environment, and more social tolerance
SPRING VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!
Randazza Legal Group is proud to sponsor Spring Valley High School Football. When they approached us to sponsor them, of course we said “yes.” When they told us that we got to put whatever we wanted on the back of the shirt, we saw it as a great opportunity to try and spread the gospel of the First Amendment. Of
Randazza Resoundingly Wins First Amendment Case
In Marc Randazza’s latest First Amendment victory, he once again fended off censorship in favor of wide open debate. In this appellate victory, the 11th Circuit Court of appeals upheld an earlier anti-SLAPP win, and a lower court decision that held that a plaintiff could not use a bogus “false advertising” claim in order to stifle free speech. This case
Randazza: Support Trump’s Pledge to Let Churches Engage in Politics
By Marc Randazza President Trump promised to get rid of a law that restricts churches from engaging in political speech. Trump said he would “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment. That law is believed to say that if a church endorses or campaigns for political candidates, it loses its tax exempt status. The result has been a wave of shock. Why,
