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Tag Archives: Constitutional

Ex-judge claims officials punished her for speech

Where a former state court magistrate judge was terminated after she made comments to a local paper about pending matter, her First Amendment retaliation claim may proceed. Background Elizabeth Fuller was employed as a magistrate judge in the Eighteenth Judicial ...

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Lawsuit over ‘firehouse primary’ is dismissed

Where multiple people sued the Commonwealth of Virginia, Commonwealth officials and Democratic Party officials over the locations and timing of a “firehouse primary,” but the Commonwealth officials were immune from suit, the plaintiffs lacked standing and their claims failed as ...

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Livestreaming police stop constitutionally protected

A federal court declared a town’s ban on livestreaming certain interactions may not survive First Amendment scrutiny, and that a plaintiff who was barred from livestreaming an interaction due to the policy “plausibly alleged” a constitutional violation. “Defendants have thus ...

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Law criminalizing false statements likely unconstitutional

Where a North Carolina law punishing certain “derogatory reports” about candidates for public office likely criminalizes at least some truthful speech, and draws impermissible content-based distinctions in identifying which speech to criminalize, it is likely unconstitutional. Background A 90-year-old North ...

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Livestreaming police during stop constitutionally protected

Where a passenger in a vehicle plausibly alleged that the Town of Winterville had a policy that prevents a passenger from livestreaming their traffic stop, and such a policy violated the passenger’s First Amendment rights, his suit against the town ...

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No ‘taking’ of beach house during COVID lockdown

Beach houses

A public health restriction that prevented non-resident property owners from entering a county during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t a governmental taking, according to a ruling from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A Virginia couple ...

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