Police Officer’s Racist Memes on a Personal Facebook Page Address “Matters of Public Concern”–Hernandez v. Phoenix
Hernandez was a Phoenix police officer. He posted anti-Muslim memes to his personal Facebook page, which apparently was open to the public. Unusually, the court opinion displays four of Hernandez’s meme posts so we can see exactly what he posted….
Announcing the Sixth Edition of Advertising & Marketing Law: Cases & Materials by Tushnet & Goldman
Rebecca Tushnet and I are pleased to announce the sixth edition of our casebook, Advertising & Marketing Law: Cases & Materials. It is available for purchase in the following formats: * DRM-free PDF file. Price: $12 * Kindle. Price: $9.99…
A Short Explainer of Why California’s Social Media Addiction Bill (AB 2408) Is Terrible
It’s “burn-down-the-Internet” week on the blog, during which I am recapping three bad California bills that the California legislature is poised to enact. Monday, I covered AB 2273, the Age-Appropriate Design Code. Yesterday, I covered AB587, an editorial transparency law….
A Short Explainer of Why California’s Mandatory Transparency Bill (AB 587) Is Terrible
It’s “burn-down-the-Internet” week on the blog, during which I will recap three bad California bills that the California legislature is poised to enact. Yesterday, I covered AB 2273, the Age-Appropriate Design Code. Today I’m covering AB587, an editorial transparency law…
A Short Explainer of How California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Bill (AB2273) Would Break the Internet
It’s “burn-down-the-Internet” week on the blog, during which I will recap three bad California bills that the California legislature is poised to enact. Today’s bill is AB 2273, the most pernicious of the three. It’s styled as a “protect kids…
School Can Discipline Student for Impersonating Teacher Online, Even if Other Students Added the Worst Content–Kutchinski v. Freeland School District
This case involves a 14 year old student HK (and his friends) who, while off-campus, thought it would be funny to create a fake Instagram profile of his biology teacher, Schmidt. I’ve blogged SO MANY similar cases since 2005 (see…
More Evidence of the CFAA Post-Van Buren/hiQ Jurisprudential Anarchy (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Kieran McCarthy The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) is a law that was written before the commercial Internet was a thing (1984). And many judges—particularly Boomers in the rarified air of the appellate courts—grew up in…
A Court Calls Out Congress & the DOJ for Not Clarifying the ADA’s Application to Online Retailers–Martinez v. Cot’n Wash
This lawsuit involves the online retailer dropps.com (apparently it sells cleaning products). Martinez claims that the website isn’t ADA compliant. Martinez sued for an Unruh Act violation, predicated on an ADA violation. The court rejects the claim because a “place…
Is the California Legislature Addicted to Performative Election-Year Stunts That Threaten the Internet? (Comments on AB2408)
It’s an election year, and like clockwork, legislators around the country want to show they care about protecting kids online. This pre-election frenzy leads performative bills that won’t actually help any kids. Today I’m blogging about one of those bills,…
Quick Links from the Past Year, Part 8 (Editorial Transparency)
* NY Assembly Bill A7865A. A dangerous new mandatory editorial transparency law to supplement Florida and Texas. Definition of “Hateful conduct” means “the use of a social media network to vilify, humiliate, or incite violence against a group or a…