Commentary
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Prop 8’s victory, reinstating ban on same sex marriage, is big loss for California Supreme Court, but damage not irreparable By Peter Scheer Although its name did not even appear on the ballot, the California Supreme Court was perhaps the state’s biggest loser in Tuesday’s historic elections. The voters’ narrow approval of Proposition 8 effectively reverses the high Court’s controversial decision, earlier this year, extending the right to marry to same-sex couples. The Court knew the risks. The statute it declared unconstitutional in In re Marriage Cases was itself the result of a state…
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Posted in: News & Opinion
Commentary
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Disclosure--or the lack of it--is a major cause of the current financial crisis By Peter Scheer Economists and historians will be debating for years the causes of the financial crisis that, like a global array of dominoes, now threatens to take down the “real” economies of countries big and small, both “developed” and “emerging,” in a massive flight from investment risk unlike anything experienced since 1929. To the experts’ lists of causes, let me add a lack of information--specifically, the systemic failure of lenders to disclose ample information about the risks of the mortgage…
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Posted in: News & Opinion
CFAC awards
Thursday, October 16, 2008
CFAC announces awards to FOES and friends of free speech, open government. “Darkness Awards” zap Orange County judge, Capistrano school board, San Bernardino assessor The California First Amendment Coalition has named the 2008 recipients of its “Darkness Award,” given in recognition of conduct that thwarts freedom of speech and the public’s right to know. The awards, to be presented Saturday, October 18 at UC Berkeley, are given to: -- Orange County Superior Court Judge David C. Velasquez, who attempted to bar the Orange County Register from covering public testimony in a lawsuit against the paper. His…
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Posted in: News & Opinion
News
Friday, October 03, 2008
New state law adds protections for anonymous online speech California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill that greatly strengthens the right to anonymous speech online. Assembly Bill 2433 raises procedural obstacles to out-of-state companies that subpoena California-based internet service providers for the IDs of anonymous posters. Unless there is a demonstrable basis for the underlying lawsuit, the subpoena will be thrown out and attorney’s fees charged to the out-of-state company. Corynne McSherry of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (one of the co-sponsors of the bill) explains: One of the most pernicious threats to anonymity…
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Posted in: News & Opinion
Editorial
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
LA Times editorial backs CFAC suit against State Bar The LA Times, in its lead editorial in today’s newspaper, endorsed CFAC’s lawsuit (filed together with UCLA Professor Richard Sander) to force the California State Bar to make available records needed for Sander’s research on affirmative action in law schools. CFAC’s mission is to provide access--subject to strict confidentiality guarantees--to both Sander and to other researchers who disagree with him.-PS Los Angeles Times:
Affirmative action and the bar exam
A California professor studying affirmative action should have access to…
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Posted in: News & Opinion
Response
Friday, September 12, 2008
Equal Justice Society Criticizes CFAC Suit against State Bar for records on affirmative action. Group Says Issue is Privacy, not Political Correctness.
CFAC’s lawyer responds. CFAC’s executive director recently criticized the California State Bar for its refusal to cooperate with a UCLA professor who is seeking bar records for academic research on affirmative action in law school admissions. CFAC has filed suit, together with the UCLA Professor, Richard Sander, to force release of the data for analysis by Sander--and by other academic researchers who dispute his theory that…
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Posted in: News & Opinion
Commentary
Friday, September 12, 2008
Recent court decisions transform legal tools for protecting free speech into an instrument for the suppression of the public’s speech and access rights By James Chadwick Recent decisions by two California Courts of Appeal have turned California’s anti-SLAPP law into a legal Frankenstein’s monster. In doing so, they have turned a law designed to protect the public’s exercise of free speech and petition rights into a tool for government suppression of those rights. The decisions in Holbrook v. City of Santa Monica and Californians Aware v. Orange Unified School District both…
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Posted in: News & Opinion
CFAC News
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Using Trade Agreements As a Tool to Further Rights of Free Speech By Luke Eric Peterson Embassy: As the curtain fell on the Beijing Olympic Games, a U.S.-based coalition is striving to keep the spotlight squarely focused on China. The California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) is urging the U.S. government to launch a formal complaint against China at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization, alleging that the country’s heavy-handed Internet censorship violates world trading rules. The CFAC points to blocks placed on popular foreign websites—including Youtube and BBC news—that “are either…
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Posted in: News & Opinion
Commentary
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
CFAC files suit in affirmative action case to defend researcher’s academic freedom and oppose State Bar’s claim that it is above the law of access By Peter Scheer Richard Sander, a highly regarded UCLA law professor and statistician, is conducting research with important implications for higher education. To complete the research, which has been the subject of many scholarly articles and intense academic interest, he needs access to a California government database. So why has the State Bar, which controls the database, denied Sander and his research team access to the records? Because Sander’s…
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Posted in: News & Opinion
CFAC News
Thursday, August 07, 2008
CFAC, scholars sue CA State Bar for access to records on affirmative action A debate about the effects of affirmative action in higher education has moved from the classroom to the courtroom following the filing today of a lawsuit against the State Bar of California to force it to disclose years of statistical records on bar exam results. The records are sought for an academic research project that will test the controversial theory that affirmative action policies at law schools harm the very minority students they are intended to help. The State Bar has blocked access to the…
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Posted in: News & Opinion
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