Article Abstract:
The US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in Weaver v. United States Information Agency that a regulation requiring employees to submit to the agency any materials to be published or expressed publicly to be reviewed was constitutional. A part-time writer for the Voice of America refused to submit an article for review and was reprimanded orally. She argued that the regulation was a prior restraint. The Court accepted the Voice of America's argument both that public employees have more limited free speech rights and that the regulations were not designed to result in punishment.
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Article Abstract:
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Magazine Publishers of America v. Pennsylvania that the First Amendment rights of magazine publishers were not violated by a sales tax reform that imposed a tax on magazines and electronic news services but retained an exemption for newspapers. The magazines argued that the law applied the tax based on content and was unconstitutional. The Court found that the classification was based on format and frequency and not content and that the newspaper exemption promoted low-income access to information.
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Article Abstract:
A Texas court of appeals ruled that the state tax on information services at issue in Reuters America, Inc. v. Sharp was not being applied unconstitutionally because newspapers were exempt from the tax. The court found that strict scrutiny was not warranted because the tax was content-neutral, was only based on format and was applied broadly. The tax exemption for newspapers was upheld as rationally related to the legitimate government interest in promoting literacy and access to information in the state.
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