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A Florida Man Was Arrested for Filming Marion County Sheriff's Deputies. Now He's Suing.
By CJ Ciaramella
Reason
June 19, 2024
Numerous federal appeals courts have ruled that filming police is protected under the First Amendment, but police continue to illegally arrest people for it.
A Florida man has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit three years after a Marion County sheriff's deputy arrested him for filming officers from a public sidewalk.
In 2021, Marion County Sheriff's Deputy Neil Rosaci arrested George Nathansen and charged him with obstruction of justice for refusing to follow his orders to leave the scene of an investigation. However, body camera footage showed Nathansen standing at least 30 feet away on a public sidewalk before Rosaci walked over and handcuffed him.
In Nathansen's lawsuit, filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, he alleges that Rosaci and the Marion County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) violated his Fourth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights by falsely arresting and incarcerating him.
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Los Angeles will pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit against journalist over undercover police photos
By Jaimie Ding
Associated Press
June 17, 2024
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles has agreed to pay $300,000 to cover the legal fees of a local journalist and a technology watchdog group that had been sued by the city last year for publishing photos of names and photographs of hundreds of undercover officers obtained through a public records request, the journalist’s attorney said Monday.
The photos’ release prompted huge backlash from Los Angeles police officers and their union, alleging that it compromised safety for those working undercover and in other sensitive assignments, such as investigations involving gangs, drugs and sex traffickers. The city attorney’s subsequent lawsuit against Ben Camacho, a journalist for progressive news outlet Knock LA at the time, and the watchdog group Stop LAPD Spying Coalition drew condemnation from media rights experts and a coalition of newsrooms, including The Associated Press, as an attack on free speech and press freedoms.
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How a Christian group crafted Miami school board policy
By Sommer Brugal
Axios Miami
June 18, 2024
Liberty Counsel, an advocacy group that promotes a "historically Christian and biblical" worldview, helped write the Miami-Dade School Board's policy for opening invocations at meetings.
Why it matters: Public education advocates say conservative officials are increasingly pushing Christian ideals in Florida schools.
- Liberty Counsel, which describes itself as a ministry and legal advocacy organization, is classified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Driving the news: The Liberty Counsel's role in crafting the policy wasn't publicly disclosed, but it surfaced in emails recently obtained by national progressive watchdog group True North Research.
- The emails, shared with Axios, show that representatives of Liberty Counsel and the Christian Family Coalition sent board member Roberto Alonso another district's "legislative prayer policy" in early May 2023.
Catch up quick: Alonso proposed the new invocation policy that month, and the board approved it in August.
- At the time, Alonso said an invocation would set a positive tone for the meeting and "bring to light" the diversity in the school district, but supporters who spoke largely espoused the Christian faith.
- The policy largely echoed the language provided to him by the two Christian groups, which had previously been adopted by Okaloosa County.
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Florida transparency advocates push measure to toughen public records violation penalties
By Doug Soule
Tallahassee Democrat
June 17, 2024
Worried that Florida's long-lauded government transparency laws are in "a state of crisis," open access advocates are pursuing legislation they hope will turn the tides.
Bobby Block, the First Amendment Foundation's executive director, announced Saturday that his group and others will bring forward a measure that would toughen penalties against the government for wrongfully delaying or denying a public records request and create an independent office to oversee appeals and complaints.
"Right now the problem is too many people are delayed, denied or ignored," Block said in an interview after the announcement, which came during a Tallahassee awards ceremony organized by his group. "If that happens, you have no recourse, whether you're a company, which are the biggest users of public records law, whether you're an individual, whether you're a news organization or whether you're a lawyer."
No recourse, that is, short of suing, which requires a large amount of time and resources.
"We want to put more heat on the government so they think twice before delaying, denying or ignoring," said Block, a former journalist.
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First Amendment advocacy organization calls city’s meeting ban ‘excessive’
Cape Coral Breeze
By Valarie Harring
4/16/2024
First Amendment Foundation urges Cape Coral City Council to revisit ban time periods as they 'could unlawfully infringe' on citizen rights
The First Amendment Foundation has sent a letter to the city strongly urging a rework of recent rule changes that allow Cape Coral City Council to impose attendance bans for violating meeting decorum.
The consequences portion of the policy Council enacted in February allowing for bans of 30-90 days “is excessive and does not leave a private citizen ample alternatives that would allow such persons to participate in the free expression of ideas,” the April 11 letter to Mayor John Gunter and City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn states, concluding the ban time periods “could unlawfully infringe on private citizens First Amendment rights.”
The four-page communication cites various legal precedent and is signed by FAF Executive Director Bobby Block.
“Courts, such as in Brown v. City of Jacksonville, have recognized that a restriction needs to be narrowly tailored and leaves citizens with ample alternatives which a ban that can span over several months does not. It is overly restrictive and can therefore act as a prior restraint due to the excessive time limits,” the letter states.
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