Volume 25, Number 3
Below is the Table of Contents for the Fall 2020 edition of the Silha Bulletin. Click on the title to read the full article.
Bulletin Summer 2020: Volume 25, No. 3
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Cover Story: Journalists Covering Fallout from George Floyd Death Take Legal Action; Misinformation Underscores Lessons from 2020 Silha Spring Ethics Forum
Journalists and news organizations covering the fallout of the May 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis filed numerous lawsuits and took other legal action seeking to vindicate their newsgathering rights and obtain information.
Privacy: COVID-19 Pandemic Raises Data Privacy and Security Questions and Concerns
In spring and summer 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic raised a number of challenges and issues related to data privacy and security, including regarding 1) Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (Zoom) and 2) the tracking of individuals’ mobile location to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
Ag-Gag Laws: Federal Judge Finds Most of North Carolina’s Ag-Gag Law Unconstitutional
On June 12, 2020, Judge Thomas D. Schroeder of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina ruled that several provisions of North Carolina’s ag-gag law were unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
First Amendment: D.C. Circuit Affirms Ruling Requiring White House to Return White House Reporter’s Press Credential
On June 5, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of Playboy magazine senior White House reporter and CNN political analyst Brian Karem in his lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration, which stemmed from the White House’s August 2019 suspension of Karem’s hard pass - a physical press credential granting him access to the White House.
Prior Restraint: President Trump’s Campaign Demands CNN Retract and Apologize for Poll, but Network Declines
On June 10, 2020, CNN reported that Donald J. Trump for President, President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, sent a cease-and-desist letter to CNN President Jess Zucker demanding that CNN retract and apologize for a poll revealing that Trump was “well behind” then-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Privacy: California Consumer Protection Act Takes Effect
The California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), which officially took effect on Jan. 1, 2020, continued to be a moving target for privacy regulation.
Privacy: CJEU Strikes Down EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, Confirms Validity of Standard Contractual Clauses
On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the European Union’s (EU) top court, released its ruling in Schrems II, in which it struck down the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield (Privacy Shield), the framework adopted in 2016 to govern trans-Atlantic data flow.
Privacy: Clearview AI Raises Privacy Concerns, Pursues First Amendment Defense
In January 2020, The New York Times published an article detailing the practices of Clearview AI (“Clearview”), a technology company that created a groundbreaking facial recognition app in which a user can upload a picture of an individual and obtain a trove of “public photos of that person, along with links to where those photos appeared.”
Privacy: Twitter Hack Included Data Breach of User Accounts
On July 15, 2020, hackers breached Twitter’s internal systems and compromised 130 user accounts, in some instances posting rogue tweets and downloading user data from the accounts.
Minnesota: Recent Minnesota Legal Disputes Involve Information Access and Defamation Liability
Two notable disputes involving information access and defamation liability were resolved in the summer of 2020 in Minnesota.
Silha Center Events: FRONTLINE Counsel Dale Cohen to Deliver 35th Annual Silha Lecture, “Inconvenient Truths and Tiger Kings: The Vital Role of Documentaries Today” on Oct. 19, 2020
Documentary films are everywhere. There is an unlimited supply of streaming shelf space, an endless array of stories to be told, and dwindling resources at traditional media outlets to tell them.