Two blows for freedom of speech and access
The courts this week struck two blows for freedom of the individual in the face of bureaucratic recalcitrance.
In the first, appropriately coming during Sunshine Week as the Review-Journal story noted, the state Supreme Court refused to grant an emergency stay of a district court order telling the Clark County School District to turn over e-mail files of school board members to a Henderson education activist.
The district had attempted to charge her thousands of dollars to separate “private” information that was supposedly commingled with public information. The lower court said that was not of her doing and not something she should pay for.
In the second, a federal judge struck down a city of Las Vegas ordinance meant to limit free speech activities on the Fremont Street Experience pedestrian mall.
The judge stated plainly, “These ordinances clearly include the sale of merchandise that carries political or religious messages or the use of tables for religious, political, or charitable solicitation, which are fully protected speech.”
The ACLU was instrumental in both cases.
