September 30th, 2010
The
Supreme Court is to decide next week whether members of
Westboro Baptist Church have the constitutional right to picket military funerals. Al Snyder, the father of a US marine whose funeral was accompanied by the protesters’ anti-gay and anti-Catholic demonstrations is seeking damages for emotional distress. The fundamentalist church, which has
said that it plans to protest outside the court, will argue on 6 October that its actions are protected under the First Amendment. Snyder says the decision isn’t a free speech issue but a “
case of harrassment“.
July 27th, 2010
The first libel case in the new Supreme Court,
Joseph v Spiller was heard on 26-27 July.
The case concerns Motown tribute act,
the Gillettes, who sued after their former agent Jason Spiller posted on his website that the band were not professional and that they consider contractual terms and conditions to “hold no water in legal terms”.
William Bennett, representing Craig Joseph, a singer for the group who arranged their bookings, has argued that a “fair comment” defence should be rejected because the “comment” related to a false fact and no reference was made in the post to the truthful facts upon which the comment was based. In contrast lawyers for the agent, Spiller, contended that the false fact was not materially detrimental to Joseph and thus the defence should not fail. He further appealed to the justices to clarify and simplify the meaning of the “fair comment” defence, including renaming it “comment” to avoid misleading juries, since the defence protects both fair and unfair comments equally. A ruling, which could have serious effect on future definitions of fair comment, is expected in August or early September.
February 2nd, 2010
A lot, say the press and the Supreme Court agrees. Jen Robinson writes about the landmark decision that reversed an alarming trend of anonymity and ‘alphabet soup’ in the British justice system
(more…)
October 20th, 2009
A former British spy is in court today in an attempt to stop a ban on a book he has written. The UK government say the revalations in the book could harm national security.
Read more
here
Read Tamsin Allen’s article on the case for Index on Censorship
here
October 5th, 2009
Index on Censorship challenges anonymity at the new UK Supreme Court
(more…)
April 29th, 2009
The US government’s policy of fining broadcasters over the use of swear words on live TV is justified, the Supreme Court has ruled. Read more
here
