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First Amendment
By adamg - 8/2/23 - 9:48 pm
The Satanic Temple of Salem said today it plans to appeal a federal judge's decision on Monday to toss its suit against the City Council for not letting one of its practitioners start a council meeting with an invocation. Read more.
By adamg - 3/10/23 - 1:22 pm
A Methuen nurse active in spreading stories via social media that Covid-19 vaccines cause hearts, kidneys and eyes to fail, fertility to collapse and cancers to start is suing the state Board of Registration in Nursing and its chairwoman over what he says is a threat to revoke his license if he doesn't knock it off. Read more.
By adamg - 11/9/22 - 10:07 am
The city of Boston yesterday formally agreed to pay $2.125 million to the lawyers for Hal Shurtleff, the former West Roxbury man who won the right to fly his "Christian" flag over City Hall Plaza for a couple of hours in August. Read more.
By adamg - 9/16/22 - 9:21 pm
A federal judge who ruled in April that Mayor Wu doesn't have to travel to Salem to take questions from a Satanic lawyer ruled again today that Wu still doesn't have to go to Salem to take questions from the lawyer - let alone after first being forced to sit through a Satanic ceremony. Read more.
By adamg - 3/28/22 - 2:31 pm
With West Roxbury Municipal Court on alert, BPD will be monitoring sound levels outside Mayor Wu's Roslindale house when she leaves for work this week to ensure that if protesters keep showing up to call her names, they do it at low volume. Read more.
By adamg - 3/14/22 - 12:52 pm
Fernandes Anderson makes a point during hearing.
Three city councilors of color today expressed hesitancy over a proposed ordinance that would prohibit targeted protests outside the mayor's house early in the morning, saying that while they understand what it's like to be hit with racist bile, they're not sure they have enough faith in Boston Police to not then turn the rule against Black Lives Matter and other protesters. Read more.
By adamg - 4/9/21 - 9:25 am
A federal judge this week tossed a Lowell man's suit against Marty Walsh for urging right wingers not to rally on Boston Common the week after one of their compatriots murdered a woman in Charlottesville. Read more.
By adamg - 3/17/21 - 3:17 pm
A federal judge today dismissed another suit against Gov. Baker's 2020 Covid-19 restrictions, this one by a company that runs supposedly spooky walking tours in Salem. Read more.
By adamg - 3/5/21 - 12:32 pm
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that a professor denied a promotion at a religious college retains the right to sue because she is not a "minister," which would otherwise let the school discriminate against her on religious grounds. Read more.
By adamg - 2/10/21 - 10:26 am
A federal appeals court in Boston ruled yesterday that defending homeland security trumps privacy and free-speech rights at the border, so federal agents don't need a warrant or even "reasonable suspicion" to seize your phone or laptop on your return from a foreign trip, turn it on and see what pops up. Read more.
By adamg - 1/22/21 - 10:11 pm
The flag in question.
For the second time in 18 months, a federal appeals court in Boston has told Hal Shurtleff that he has no right to raise a flag with a large cross on it over City Hall Plaza. Read more.
By adamg - 12/16/20 - 10:23 am
A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that people have the right to surreptitiously record police officers at work in "public spaces" such as parks, agreeing with two local activists that the First Amendment takes precedence over a state law banning private recording in that circumstance. Read more.
By adamg - 12/15/20 - 11:57 am
People have a First Amendment right to panhandle on public streets, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled today, striking down a law that bars panhandling while allowing others to try to sell newspapers, solicit charitable contributions or hail a cab at the very same street corners. Read more.
By adamg - 12/10/20 - 10:49 am
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that Gov. Baker has the power to order businesses shut and to limit the size of gatherings during a public-health emergency, such as the current Covid-19 pandemic. Read more.
By adamg - 11/3/20 - 10:54 am
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today dismissed a Sudbury woman's libel suit against a real-estate broker for allegedly defamatory comments online because the woman failed to prove anybody else knew her true identity behind the pseudonym she used online and so she was unable to prove her reputation had been harmed. Read more.
By adamg - 9/16/20 - 12:19 pm
Update, 9/18: A federal judge ruled today this is not a federal matter and sent it back down to state court.
A Cambridge lawyer is suing Netflix, the producers of its "Dirty Money" series, the Boston Broadside and an Essex County attorney for allegedly ruining his life by portraying him as an evil money grubber out to defraud an elderly Needham man who owned five derelict properties in Needham that the town had been trying to get cleaned up for 20 years. Read more.
By adamg - 7/29/20 - 10:17 am
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today dismissed a woman's suit against the Archdiocese of Boston for the way she was fired as director of musical ministries at a Franklin church without even considering her claim that the new parish priest didn't like either her age or gender. Read more.
By adamg - 2/4/20 - 7:16 pm
A federal judge today tossed Hal Shurtleff's suit alleging religious discrimination because city officials wouldn't let him fly an explicitly Christian flag from one of the three flagpoles that rise over City Hall Plaza. Read more.
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