Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/first-amendment/)
In updated filings, Fullerton City attorneys have now significantly reduced the list of alleged secret city hall documents the city accused resident and blogger Joshua Ferguson of illegally downloading in a lawsuit filed against him and the blog earlier this year.
Fullerton City Councilman Bruce Whitaker is disputing that the City Council took a formal vote in September to sue local blogger Joshua Ferguson, and the blog he contributes to, for publishing secret city hall documents and seeking a publication gag against him and the blog.
Fullerton Resident and blogger Joshua Ferguson gained a national ally in his appeal against an OC Judge’s order barring him and the blog from publishing secret city hall documents after the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a support document on Ferguon’s appeal, calling the publication gag a Constitutional violation and the city accusations a “brazen misuse” of federal or state hacking laws by the City of Fullerton to target routine newsgathering activities.
Joshua Ferguson, is fighting a judge’s decision to bar him and the blog, Friends for Fullerton’s Future, from publishing secret city hall documents.
Local blog Friends for Fullerton’s Future and resident Joshua Ferguson have been ordered by an OC Superior Court judge to stop publishing confidential city documents. The move comes within a week of Ferguson suing the city for allegedly failing to produce police misconduct and other records. A full hearing on the issue is scheduled for Nov. 21.
After years of protest, the ACLU heads into superior court next month against the County of Orange seeking a court injunction against restrictive public comment rules. The hearing is scheduled for June 12 at 10 am in Dept. C25 in front of Judge Sheila Fell.
Voice of OC today stands alongside hundreds of news organizations across America, pushing back against President Trump’s assertion that reporters are enemies of the people, defending the notion that a free and independent press is central to our democracy, our freedom.
After Anaheim PD confronts a Voice of OC reporter who clearly identified himself, questions arise about Anaheim’s commitment to the First Amendment and the tone of neighborhood homeless sweeps.
American courts have held the public and journalists have the right to film government officials, including police, carrying out official actions in public.
Orange County’s five elected supervisors preside over $6 billion in public spending and pressing issues like homelessness, mental health and drug treatment, and how to balance spending between those programs and county jails, the Sheriff’s Department, and District Attorney’s Office.