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Ask The Mayor: Bloomington's Hamilton On First Amendment Rights, 4th Street Garage - Indiana Public Media

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF) The attorney for a Murfreesboro doctor has refiled a $25,000 lawsuit against a woman who left a negative Yelp review against him. This comes one week after the attorney voluntarily dropped a lawsuit against the Wilson County woman.

Kelly Beavers is accused of defamation and false light - invasion of privacy for a post she made about Dr. Kaveer Nandigam of Nandigam Neurology.

The post read, "This "Dr's" behavior today was totally unprofessional and unethical to put it mildly. I will be reporting him to the State of TN Medical Review Board and be filing a formal complaint. How this guy is in business is beyond me. Since when did they start allowing Doctors, to throw a complete temper tantrum in front of Patients and slam things when they get upset? He does not belong in the medical field at all."

Read more: Woman faces $25K lawsuit over Yelp review about Middle Tennessee doctor

It has since been hidden by Yelp and can only be found under a section that reads "Reviews for Nandigam Neurology that are not currently recommended."

Beavers told NewsChannel 5 in December that Nandigam threw a temper tantrum after he realized she was recording her father's appointment on her cell phone. She added that she has done with other doctor visits.

Bennett Hirschhorn, who is representing Nandigam, said recording video in a medical office is illegal.

"Not only did she put several patients privacy at risk by taking videos inside a doctors office, but then she posted a retaliatory review when she isnt even a patient, Hirschhorn said. Thats not what the First Amendment is supposed to protectshes doing it wrong."

Hirschhorn filed the original lawsuit against Beavers in November. He said after Beavers refused to take her post down, Nandigam had no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against her so a court would compel her to take it down. Beavers' attorney Daniel Horwitz responded by filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, citing the newly enacted Tennessee Public Participation Act. The statute is known as anti-SLAPP, Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, legislation.

Horwitz, who has fought similar cases in the past, said the lawsuit had no merit and was nothing more than a scare tactic for leaving a negative review.

Two weeks after Horwitz filed the motion, Nandigam's attorney voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit.

Read more: $25K lawsuit over bad Yelp review dismissed

Hirschhorn said this was done to adjust their strategy before refiling the lawsuit. Plaintiffs in Tennessee can do this twice during the early stages of a lawsuit.

"As Yogi Berra said, 'It aint over till its over.' We believe our client has been improperly defamed, and intend to take appropriate further legal action. The non-suit is just part of our legal strategy," Hischhorn told NewsChannel 5 after dropping the original lawsuit.

The lawsuit was refiled on Tuesday and is pending in the Wilson County General Sessions Court. It is asking Beavers to take down her post and pay Nandigam up for $25,000 in damages.

"Free speech is important, said Hirschhorn, but SLAPP isnt a get out of jail free card for defamation. The limit to constitutional free speech is that people are liable when they abuse it."

In General Sessions court, a judge will decide the case.

On Tuesday, Nandigam publicly addressed the Yelp review and lawsuit in a lengthy op-ed posted to Medium titled "Malicious review bomb could destroy my practice."

The post paints a different picture of Beavers visit to Nandigam's practice, stating it's standard for doctors' offices to have a policy against recording video.

It reads in part:

Later that day, my office learned that the daughter had left our practice a one-star-review on a social media website. She was not even a patient. How could she write a review? She accused me of being unprofessional and unethical. She referred to me as a Doctor, in quotes as an insult as if I am not a professionally trained and board certified physician. She accused me of having a temper tantrum. These things are certainly not true.

We understand she was angry when we found out she was recording video; maybe her false comments were in retaliation for her embarrassment.

You can read the whole statement here.

Continued here:
$25K lawsuit over negative Yelp review refiled against Wilson Co. woman - NewsChannel5.com

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that the Department of Education is taking several concrete actions to protect religious liberty and ensure the Department is acting in accordance with the First Amendment.

The Department announced aproposed ruleensuring the equal treatment and constitutional rights of religious organizations and faith-based institutions, as well as First Amendment freedoms owed to students on campus. As directed by Congress, the agency will also releaseupdated guidanceregarding constitutionally protected prayer in schools.

Our actions today will protect the constitutional rights of students, teachers, and faith-based institutions, said Secretary DeVos. The Departments efforts will level the playing field between religious and non-religious organizations competing for federal grants, as well as protect First Amendment freedoms on campus and the religious liberty of faith-based institutions. I proudly share President Trumps commitment to religious freedom and the First Amendment.

The Departments rule addresses five general areas of importance to religious organizations, faith-based institutions, and their students. First, along with several other agencies, the Departments proposed rule seeks to implement President Trumps Executive Order 13831,Executive Order on the Establishment of a White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative. The proposed rule would ensure that religious and non-religious organizations are treatedequallyby the federal government and that organizations are not discriminated against simply because they are religious in nature, removing unequal, burdensome regulatory requirements imposed by the Obama administration. The proposed rule would ensure that the Departments direct grant programs and state-administered formula grant programs are implemented in a manner consistent with religious liberty protections in federal law, including the First Amendment and theReligious Freedom Restoration Act.

Second, student organizations, including faith-based student organizations, play an important role at public institutions of higher education. Their First Amendment rights, including the freedom of association, must also be protected. Accordingly, the proposed regulations require that, as a material condition of a direct grant or a subgrant from a state-administered formula grant program, a public institution of higher education not deny to a faith-based student organization any of the rights, benefits, or privileges otherwise afforded to non-faith-based student organizations.

Third, the Department proposes to amend regulations governing the Strengthening Institutions Program, the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program, the Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities Program, and the Strengthening Historically Black Graduate Institutions Program of the Higher Education Act. The proposed revisions address constitutional concerns about the prohibition to use development grants for activities or services if they merely relate to sectarian instruction and religious worship. The proposed regulations prohibit use of such grants for activities or services that constitute religious instruction, religious worship, or proselytization consistent with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and other federal laws. The Department also proposes to amend the definition of a school or department of divinity in a manner that is more consistent with the First Amendment and other federal laws.

Fourth, in its proposed rule, the Department also seeks to clarify how an educational institution may demonstrate that it is controlled by a religious organization for purposes of Title IX. Neither Title IX nor its regulations define what it means for a school to be controlled by a religious organization. Over the years, the Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has posted on its website several internal memoranda on this question. Because these OCR memoranda constitute only non-binding, non-regulatory guidance, the Department desires to engage in notice and comment rulemaking on this issue and to obtain the views of the public in crafting an appropriate final regulation.

Fifth, to implement Executive Order 13864,Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges and Universities, the Department also proposes regulations to ensurepublicinstitutions of higher education that receive federal research or education grants comply with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as a material condition of a direct grant or a subgrant from a state-administered formula grant program. The Department also proposes regulations to ensure thatprivateinstitutions of higher education that receive federal research or education grants comply with their stated institutional policies regarding freedom of speech, including academic freedom. Because state and federal courts remain the best arbiters of alleged violations of First Amendment freedoms, the Department proposes to determine that a public institution has not complied with the First Amendment only if there is a final, non-default judgment by a state or federal court that the public institution or an employee of the public institution, acting in his or her official capacity, violated the First Amendment. Similarly, the Department proposes to determine that a private institution has not complied with its stated institutional policies regarding freedom of speech only if there is a final, non-default judgment by a state or federal court that the private institution violated the institutional policy.

In a separate action, for the first time since 2003, the Department will also issue today updated guidance on constitutionally protected prayer in public elementary and secondary schools. The Department is required by theElementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965(ESEA), as amended by theEvery Student Succeeds Act, to update this guidance every two years. The guidance explains the ESEAs requirement that states report which local educational agencies have not certified that they do not have any policy that prevents, or otherwise denies participation in, constitutionally protected prayer. The ESEA also requires states to report complaints against a local educational agency that allegedly denies a person, including a student or employee, the right to engage in constitutionally protected prayer. The guidance clarifies that the ESEA requires states to provide a clear process for students, parents, and teachers to report violations of their right to pray. Under the ESEA, states must fulfill these reporting requirements by November 1 of each year.

This is a press release from the US Department of Education.

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DeVos Announces Proposed Rule Regarding Equal Treatment of Faith-Based Education Institutions - All On Georgia

Project Veritas Action Fund (PVA) Appeared in the United States First Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to Challenge the Nations Broadest Recording LawSection 99 of Massachusetts Law. PVA Argued that Undercover Recordings are at the core of citizens First Amendment Rights.Massachusetts is the Only State in the Country to Outright Ban All Secret Audio Recordings.Eleven States have Found Ways to Respect Both the First Amendment and Privacy Concerns; PVA Expects the Same from the Massachusetts Legislature.The ACLUs Sister Lawsuit was Also the Subject of the District Court Judges Decree and Appeared in Court with PVA, Focusing its Arguments Solely in Favor of Secretly Recording Police Officers.

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(Boston, MA) Project Veritas Action Fund appeared in the US First Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit yesterday to challenge Section 99 of Massachusetts law. This is a law that broadly restricts any sort of undercover recording.

PVA argues that, as a result of this law, the American public will miss out on newsworthy information derived from such recordings. Further, PVA states that Section 99 infringes on citizens First Amendment rights.

There are eleven states that believe it is the legislatures responsibility to provide some level of privacy protection in conversations, but Massachusetts is the only state to fully apply privacy protections without consideration for the citizens right to secretly record. PVA argued that Massachusetts, like those eleven states, should narrow its law.

PVA has asked the court to strike down the Section 99 law facially, that is to declare it entirely void. PVA wants the court to allow the Massachusetts legislature a chance to go back to the drafting table and write a new law that complies with the First Amendment.

According to PVAs attorney Ben Barrs observation of the oral argument, it appeared that all of the judges (including former US Supreme Court Associate Justice, David Souter) expressed real skepticism about the Constitutionality of the Massachusetts lawreferring to it as sweeping too broadly in several of their questions.

Ben Barr also observed that the specific line of questioning examines the states interest in securing privacy against the means the state employs to secure that privacy. In this case, an outright ban is simply too suppressive of speech and narrower tools could be used to protect truly private conversations.

In addition, the judges hinted that individuals were free to guard their own privacysuch as removing a discussion to a truly private placeinstead of needing a law that simply prohibits newsgathering of items disclosed in public.

Here are a few of the exchanges between PVA Attorney Ben Barr, Judge Barron, and Judge Selya:

Ben Barr: Massachusetts makes a mockery of the most effective form of newsgathering, undercover journalism, by denying citizens the right to be able to go out into public, and to be able to gather information in the most effective way possible, that is, secret audio recording.

Judge Barron: What do you mean by public?

Ben Barr: I mean a place in particular where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. It brings me to the truly exceptional nature of Section 99.

Judge Barron: Just so I get it straight with the idea that everybody in this courtroom right now would have a First Amendment right to record these proceedings?

Ben Barr: Yes.

Judge Barron: Thats your position?

Ben Barr: Yes.

Judge Barron: Do you have a narrower position?

[laughter among those present]..

Judge Selya: Commonwealth has an interest in protecting the privacy of conversations. Everyone has some sort of right to the privacy of their conversations, full stop. And you can disagree with that as a matter of policy, but youve got to figure out why thats wrong as a matter of Constitutional law

Ben Barr: Primarily, it amounts to the tailoring and overbreadth issue, Judge Selya, while there is a legitimate governmental interest in protecting conversational privacy and 11 states have worked out test to do that. On the other end of the Constitutional equation is a right to be able to acquire information in public and report on that to the American people. So, being able to record a bribe occurring with a police officer on a

Judge Selya: But Massachusetts is talking not only about governmental privacy, theyre talking about the privacy of all participants in these conversations, which typically take place between a government official and a private citizen.

Ben Barr: Yes, and actually as was noted by Judge Barron earlier, it is entirely capable that government officials and individuals are able to safeguard their own privacy. If they have a confidential conversation, or an informant, theyre able meet in a private place. We are not alleging the right to be able to invade doctors offices or police stations

Judge Barron: Yeah, but you are saying that if I think that Ive taken precautions, that I sometimes might sit on a bench in the park and speak in what I think is in pretty confidential tones with someone else, and youre saying but Im at risk of someone having a recording device, and if I didnt notice it, that can then be sent all over the place, right?

Judge Selya: I want you to note that even in his hypotheticals, Judge Barron sees himself sitting on a bench.

(Laughter)

Judge Selya also addressed Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General, Eric Haskell:

Judge Selya to MA Assistant Attorney General Eric Haskell: Meeting with a confidential informant, if its done in public, whats wrong with that being recorded? If the police officer wants that meeting to be truly confidential, the police officer can control where the meeting is held. Easy enough to hold it in private.

Judge Selya to MA Assistant Attorney General Eric Haskell: Youre saying that if John Doe comes along, sees a police officer conversing with a politician, for example, they both have their backs turned to him, he holds out, in plain view of everybody, a tape recorder and turns it on, or a cell phone, and turns on the recording function, alright? They have their backs turned, but its in plain view to anyone who wants to walk. Everyone in the Boston Common sees it, except maybe the two people who were talking, and youre saying that is, or isnt, a violation of the statute?

The ACLU had a more limited vision of how to tackle the Massachusetts recording law.

Representing the ACLU was Jessie Rossman, who said that They focus exclusively on police officers, who, unlike other officials, are armed by the state and have the authority to take people into custody.

After the hearing, Ben Barr said:

We were pleased that the court held the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to accountability. This law is an outright ban on the most effective form of newsgatheringundercover journalismand deprives the public of important information. It is difficult to imagine it surviving todays review before the First Circuit.

If the First Amendment means anything, it means that citizens possess the power to hold accountable those in power. In 2020, using smartphones and digital recording devices to uncover political hypocrisy and self-dealing is the most effective means to do so and should be protected by the First Amendment.

Project Veritas Action Fund will never cease fighting for Americans Constitutional rights. It is imperative that individual citizens are allowed to perform their FirstAmendment right to report on public and private corruption. For many citizen journalists, undercover recording is the most effective way of delivering newsworthy facts to the public.

Originally posted here:
Project Veritas Action Fund Defends Citizens' First Amendment Rights for Undercover Secret Recording in First Circuit Court of Appeals - Project...

Many people recoil at the notion that the First Amendment protects the speech that they most dislike or detest.

The late great Nat Hentoff captured this censorial impulse in his Free Speech for Me, But Not for Thee.

But the reality is that the First Amendment protects much speech that is obnoxious, offensive and repugnant.

Justice William Brennan captured this principle eloquently in his majority opinion in the flag-burning decision Texas v. Johnson (1989):

If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

The case involved the protest activities of Gregory Lee Johnson, who burned an American flag in 1984 in Dallas, the site of the Republican National Convention. While Johnson doused the flag with kerosene, others chanted, America, red, white and blue, we spit on you.

Johnson and others protested the policies of the Reagan administration and a coming second term for the president.

Of all the protesters, authorities arrested only Johnson and charged him with violating a Texas flag desecration law.

The court decided the case by the narrowest of margins, 5-4. Brennan emphasized that the state of Texas essentially was punishing Johnson for his dissident political views more than tarnishing a venerated object.

The way to preserve the flags special role is not to punish those who feel differently about these matters, Brennan wrote. It is to persuade them they are wrong.

In dissent, Chief Justice William Rehnquist analogized Johnsons burning of the flag to fighting words. But, in this case, Brennans view prevailed.

A lasting legacy of Brennans opinion in Texas v. Johnson is his bedrock principle phrase, which has come to represent a cardinal principle of First Amendment law that the First Amendment protects much offensive expression.

David L. Hudson Jr. is a First Amendment Fellow at the Freedom Forum Institute and a law professor at Belmont University.

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David L. Hudson Jr. | The 'bedrock principle' of the First Amendment - TribDem.com