The Maine County Commissioners Association Risk Pool is the first government entity in Maine to be penalized for wrongly withholding documents since the Freedom of Access Act became law in 1959.
first amendment
Posted inKennebec Journal, Local & State, News, Schools and Education
Free speech or uncivil discourse? Maine association advises tamping down on public comments at school board meetings
The Maine School Management Association has suggested schools adopt policies that prohibit offensive speech and complaints against specific staff or students at board meetings, but First Amendment advocates say it’s a step too far.
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Posted inKennebec Journal, Local & State, News
Augusta officials decline to regulate speech after murals, neo-Nazi demonstration prompt policy review
Existing city ordinances and state laws balance the need to protect the public and allow free speech, officials said.
Posted inLocal & State, Politics
U.S. Senate weighs measure to restrict AI use in elections
Susan Collins among backers of a bill eyed for swift passage by Senate leaders.
Posted inNation & World, News
Kansas reporter files federal lawsuit against police chief who raided her newspaper’s office
Marion County Record reporter, Deb Gruver said in a statement that by filing her lawsuit ‘I’m standing up for journalists across the country.’
Posted inNation & World, News
The initial online search spurring a raid on a Kansas paper was legal, a state agency says
The raid on the Record put it and its hometown of about 1,900 residents at the center of a debate about press freedoms protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Kansas’ Bill of Rights.
Posted inNation & World, News
Kansas police, small newspaper at center of 1st Amendment fight after newsroom raid
While a restaurant owner accused the newspaper of unlawfully seeking information on the status of her driver’s license, the newspaper countered that it received that information unsolicited, which it verified through public online records.
Posted inNation & World, News
Police face criticism for raiding central Kansas newspaper, seizing phones and computers
The newspaper plans to sue the police department and possibly others, its publisher and co-owner said and called the raid an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment’s free press guarantee.
Posted inKennebec Journal, Local & State, Maine Crime, News
Augusta officials look to ban hate-speech and other offensive materials from buildings in public view
City councilors cold to proposal to regulate murals, but direct city attorney to recommend changes to city regulations to ensure hate symbols and other offensive images or words can’t be placed on building walls visible to the public.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: Maine must stop trying to bypass SCOTUS decision on schools
The outcome in Carson v. Makin made clear that such religious discrimination in our education system must end. Why hasn’t it?