On August 17, 2018, Media Coalition joined a statement condemning President Trump’s effort to intimidate a book publisher by threatening legal action.
Groups Urge the Court to Protect the First Amendment Rights of Booksellers, Publishers, Authors, Librarians, Playwrights and Artists. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 3, 2017 CONTACT: David Horowitz, Media Coalition,...
Booksellers and publishers secured a preliminary injunction against a new Louisiana law that requires websites to age-verify every Internet user before providing access to non-obscene material that could be deemed harmful to any minor.
On Friday, October 7, 2016 Chief Judge Brian A. Jackson of federal district court signed an order permanently preventing Louisiana from enforcing a 2015 Louisiana law that required websites to age-verify every Internet user before providing access to non-obscene material that could be deemed harmful to any minor.
Booksellers and publishers filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new Louisiana law that requires websites to age-verify every Internet user before providing access to non-obscene material that could be deemed harmful to any minor.
Media Coalition, the trade association which has been fighting to preserve freedom of speech since its founding in 1973, has created the Media Coalition Foundation. The Foundation is a tax-exempt organization that will offer individuals and others the opportunity to make tax-deductible contributions to help further Media Coalition’s work protecting the public’s right to access the broadest possible range of information, opinion and entertainment.
A federal court today permanently ordered Arizona state prosecutors to halt enforcement of a 2014 law restricting the display of nude images.
CONTACT: David Horowitz, Media Coalition | 212-587-4025 x3 | horowitz@mediacoalition.org Josh Bell, ACLU national | 212-549-2666 | media@aclu.org Steve Kilar, ACLU of Arizona | 602-773-6007 | skilar@acluaz.org FOR...
Stating that “the integrity of the military award system relies more on a free press than on the threat of prosecution,” media organizations, writers, and performers urged the Supreme Court to hold that a federal law that makes it a crime to lie about having received a military medal violates the free speech protections of the First Amendment.
Some of Media Coalition’s members signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to review a decision of the New York Court of Appeals which upheld a content-based tax on communication protected by the First Amendment.
Some of our members, media organizations and local booksellers have filed a lawsuit challenging Arizona House Bill 2515, a law that criminalizes the distribution or disclosure of nude images without the consent of the person in the image. The lawsuit argues that H.B. 2515 violates the First Amendment because it criminalizes the distribution of constitutionally protected material.
A broad coalition of bookstores, newspapers, photographers, publishers and librarians filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging a new Arizona law that criminalizes speech protected by the First Amendment.
In a lawsuit brought by a broad array of media and civil liberties plaintiffs, a United States District Court in Tucson, Arizona held unconstitutional and permanently enjoined the enforcement of an Arizona statute criminalizing the intentional or knowing transmission over the Internet to a minor of material considered “harmful to minors” as defined by Arizona law.
Media Coalition Executive Director David Horowitz discusses the importance of the amicus brief in the Supreme Court case Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus.
Today, U.S. District Judge Rya W. Zobel granted a preliminary injunction against the online censorship law that went into effect in Massachusetts earlier this year. Massachusetts booksellers, trade associations, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts filed suit in July to block the law because it imposes severe restrictions on constitutionally protected speech on the Internet, on the grounds that such material might be “harmful to minors.” The Court enjoined the law because it did not require that such material was purposefully sent to a person the sender knew to be a minor.
A coalition of organizations and local booksellers today filed suit to block a broad Massachusetts censorship law that bans constitutionally protected speech on the Internet for topics including contraception and pregnancy, sexual health, literature, and art.
In a resounding 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court today struck down a California law banning video games with violent themes and images, saying that the state’s attempt to create a new category of First Amendment regulation for minors was “unprecedented and mistaken.” Media Coalition, a trade association that defends the First Amendment rights of mainstream media, said the ruling sends a clear message to legislators that such efforts to restrict free expression would find no welcome at the Court.
In a friend-of-the-court brief filed today, Media Coalition, a trade association that defends the First Amendment rights of mainstream media, urged the Supreme Court to strike down California’s restrictions on video games with violent themes, saying that the Court should not create a new exception to the First Amendment for speech with violent content for video games or any other media.
The Supreme Court today agreed to review a ruling that the First Amendment bars restrictions on video games with violent themes. Media Coalition, a trade association that defends the First Amendment rights of mainstream media, said it hoped that in doing so the Court would put an end to a decade-long effort to restrict such content.
Media Coalition, a trade association that defends the First Amendment rights of mainstream media, has brought together a wide range of groups in urging the Supreme Court to strike down California’s restrictions on video games with violent themes, saying that free speech principles previously upheld by the Justices should apply to video games as well.
This morning, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that two Oregon statutes that criminalize distributing sex education and other non-obscene materials to minors are unconstitutional in violation of the First Amendment. The State of Oregon argued that the statutes applied only to “hardcore pornography,” but the Ninth Circuit found that they applied to much more, including “The Joy of Sex,” “Mommy Laid an Egg, or Where Do Babies Come From,” Robie Harris’ “It’s Perfectly Normal,” Kentaro Miura’s manga “Berserk,” Judy Blume’s “Forever,” and Margaret Atwood’s “A Handmaid’s Tale.” The plaintiffs did not challenge Oregon’s existing law making it a crime to contact a minor with the intent of having sexual contact.
Media Coalition announces the filing of an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit of a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Mosman upholding an Oregon law that bars the sale or rental of certain books, magazines, and other content to minors or children. Judge Mosman in his ruling acknowledged that the law does not include the specific test for First Amendment protection as established by the Supreme Court but found the law constitutional, as interpreted, because he found it to be functionally equivalent to the protections afforded by the First Amendment.
People cannot be prosecuted for posting content constitutionally protected for adults on generally-accessible websites, and are not required by law to label such content that they do post, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson held yesterday. Judge Benson’s order was issued in a lawsuit challenging a Utah law that threatened the free speech rights of online content providers and Internet users. Plaintiffs included a Utah artist; trade associations representing booksellers, publishers, graphic and comic books, and librarians; and the ACLU of Utah.
A coalition including booksellers, media companies, artists, and the ACLU of Utah today asked the federal district court in Salt Lake City to permanently bar enforcement of a Utah statute that restricts constitutionally-protected speech on the Internet. Although passed in 2005, the statute has not been in effect because Utah consented to a temporary injunction barring its enforcement.
In an opinion and order issued today, Judge Dee Benson of the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City denied an attempt by Attorney General Shurtleff to dismiss a challenge to the Utah Harmful to Minors Act, as recently amended. The challenge was brought by local and national booksellers, including locally owned The King’s English Bookstore and Sam Weller’s Zion Bookstore, mainstream national media groups, and internet providers, among others.
