First Amendment, the law and the Occupy movement

Occupy Wall Street protesters have a First Amendment right to protest in a public park, but they don’t have the right to camp overnight or to physically block police officers trying to remove their tents. If officers try to forcibly remove protesters, the police may use reasonable, but not excessive force.

That is the consensus of legal experts in the wake of police actions all across the country aimed at removing Occupy encampments. It explains why courts, including U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson in St. Louis, have permitted police to remove permanent encampments.

Some civil libertarians believe that the U.S. Supreme Court should give a more robust interpretation of the First Amendment in order to protect peaceful, overnight assemblies such as Occupy’s. But they acknowledge that current court decisions do not recognize the right to camp overnight in a park.

SIUC sets off Facebook controversy over faculty strike

Only half of the students in my media ethics class showed up on Thursday (Nov. 3) because the Faculty Association at SIU Carbondale is on strike. But the students who came were eager to discuss the ethics and legality of the university’s decision overnight to delete comments about the strike from the university Facebook page.

By deleting the comments, the university had unwittingly ventured onto new, uncertain ground and might have violated the First Amendment, legal experts say.

Even as the university was coming to last-minute agreement with three of four unions late Wednesday and early Thursday, it was removing critical comments from a Facebook page that had been open to student, faculty and alumni comments. Some of the postings contained foul language and clearly could legally be removed. Others argued the pros and cons of the labor dispute. One message, repeatedly deleted, said, “Please settle.”

Judges weigh in on Illinois eavesdropping laws

Illinois’ toughest in the nation eavesdropping law has taken it on the chin twice in recent days. A judge in Crawford County ruled it unconstitutional and a jury in Chicago acquitted a woman who recorded her conversation with a police officer. Illinois law makes it a felony to record audio of conversations without the consent…

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Judge rules Protess students not protected by Shield Laws

A judge in Chicago has ordered the production of more than 500 emails between Northwestern University journalism students and their former professor, David Protess, whose Innocence Project was instrumental in freeing five death row inmates in Chicago. Cook County Circuit Judge Diane Cannon ruled last week that even though Illinois’ shield law protects student journalists,…

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Ladue's free speech legacy

A month after former Ladue Mayor Edith Spink died, the legal legacy of her fight against a little, anti-war sign provided the basis of a federal court decision striking down the St. Louis law that banned a large mural that opposed abuse of eminent domain. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of…

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