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Blogs
October 17, 2014
Arlington Is Hellbent on Keeping Armed Libertarians -- and Little Leaguers -- Off Its Streets
Over the summer, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor sided with Open Carry Tarrant County's Kory Watkins and struck down as unconstitutional an Arlington city ordinance banning people from distributing literature -- in his case copies of the Constitution -- to passing motorists. According to a brief p ... More >>
Blogs
October 17, 2014
Dallas Police Are Better than Most in Dealing With Photographers and Cop Watchers
Max Geron, the Dallas Police Department's media relations officer, smiled and shook his head in disbelief. In the video, a veteran East Coast police officer approached a photojournalist, who was standing across the street from a traffic stop with multiple squad cars present, and told him to leave. T ... More >>
Blogs
September 18, 2014
Dallas Police Department Will Host a Class for Officers on the Rights of Citizens to Film Cops
Less than two weeks after three people were arrested for filming Arlington police officers conducting a traffic stop, the Dallas Police Department announced Wednesday it will offer a class for law enforcement officers on people's rights to film them in public spaces. Also, the department, along with ... More >>
Blogs
September 2, 2014
Texas High Court Rules Courts Can Scrub Defamatory Comments From the Internet
After the Texas Supreme Court issued its opinion on Friday in Kinney v. Barnes, Robert Kinney's attorney declared victory. Kinney, an Austin businessman, had sued his former boss to force the removal of online postings accusing Kinney of taking bribes. "This is a win for Robert and other people who ... More >>
Blogs
July 30, 2014
It's Definitely OK to Film Cops, Texas Judge Rules
It's perfectly legal to film people who don't want to be filmed as long as it's all happening in public. If you're trying to provoke an asshole into kicking your ass without breaking the law yourself, getting a camera and the courage to overzealously use it may just be your ticket. But filming cops ... More >>
Blogs
July 30, 2014
Citizen Journalist Riles DFW Government Agencies and Contractor With "First Amendment Fridays"
Armed with at least his Infowars.com press pass and his smartphone camera, Frisco resident Brett Sanders is staging a one-man crusade for the Bill of Rights. For each of the last three Fridays, Sanders, who says he is also involved in the Open Carry movement, has filmed a different entity from publ ... More >>
Blogs
July 15, 2014
Open Carry Advocates Win in Court, Will Celebrate by Freaking Out Kids at Six Flags
According to Arlington law, demonstrators can't hand out literature to drivers who are not parked. It would seem, then, that distributing anything -- even pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution -- at busy intersections is out of the question. But earlier this year, that's exactly what members of Ope ... More >>
Blogs
June 6, 2014
Avi Adelman Is on a Crusade to Squash DART's No-Pictures Policy, and It's (Sort of) Working
Moving away from Lower Greenville last summer, longtime neighborhood activist Avi Adelman could have turned over a new leaf. The camera he used to shove in the faces of drunk teenagers and public urinators could have been stowed in his closet. He could have quietly pulled the plug on Barkingdogs.org ... More >>
Blogs
May 13, 2014
With Dallas City Council's Opening Prayers, It's Jesus 96, Allah 0
At the beginning of every Dallas City Council meeting, long before most spectators (and many council members) are fully awake, a religious leader of some stripe stands at the podium and offers a brief prayer. A few months ago, we wondered whether the U.S. Supreme Court might declare such displays un ... More >>
Blogs
May 12, 2014
Strip Clubs Lose Another Round In Fight Against Texas' "Pole Tax"
Your friendly neighborhood strip club, it's safe to say, is no fan of the $5-per-patron "pole tax" the Texas legislature saw fit to levy in 2007. Its displeasure has been expressed in two ways: by refusing to pay (the tax has so far raised less than a third of the projected $44 million, prompting Co ... More >>
Blogs
May 8, 2014
Dallas Doctor Busted Under Texas' Improper Photography Law, Which Sure Seems Unconstitutional
In late March, the parent of a high school cheerleader emailed a tip to the Observer. Last fall, she wrote, Dallas radiologist Dr. James Summa was arrested at a Mesquite High School football game and charged with improper photography for snapping pictures of underage girls. We confirmed the arrest ... More >>
Blogs
February 20, 2014
Dallas Is Trying to Silence City Hall Gadflies in the Least Effective Way Possible
Every Wednesday, before and after every Dallas City Council meeting, there is an open mic session. Most of the stuff that comes up is rambling, off-topic, and beyond the scope of a municipal government's authority (e.g. 9/11 conspiracy theories), and council members may or may not pretend to listen. ... More >>
Blogs
January 27, 2014
A&M Law Professor: Dallas' New Protest Ordinance is Unconstitutional
The lawsuit filed last year by Bush Library protesters, alleging that Dallas' ordinance banning hand-held signs from within 75 feet of highways violated the First Amendment, has been in a holding pattern for several months while the city worked to revise its rule. That process wrapped up last week ... More >>
Blogs
January 8, 2014
Texas Supreme Court Will Decide If Defamatory Comments Can Be Forcibly Removed From the Internet
On Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court will thrust itself into a debate as old as the Internet: Is the web a place where ideas and opinions, often vile, sometimes damaging, should be allowed to flow unencumbered? Or should there be some means of identifying defamatory speech and purging it from the In ... More >>
Blogs
November 7, 2013
First Baptist's Robert Jeffress Wants Supreme Court to Let Him Praise Jesus at City Hall
At the outset of the most recent meeting of the Dallas City Council, Councilman Sheffie Kadane stepped to the dais and delivered the following prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the gorgeous day You've given us today. Guide us year-round to serve the Lord, let us glorify You in all that we ... More >>
Blogs
October 30, 2013
Texas' Highest Criminal Court Overturns Ban on "Titillating Talk" With Minors
Since the Texas Legislature made online solicitation of a minor a crime in 2005, it's been used to lock up any number of gymnastics coaches, teachers, as well as plenty of non-educators caught digitally cruising for sex with underage kids. Today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled unanimously ... More >>
Blogs
October 3, 2013
Peace Activists at Center of Bush Library Protests Are Suing Dallas for Stifling Speech
The most memorable scene from April's protest against the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center came when two men wearing comically large Bush/Cheney masks were handcuffed and marched to the back of a squad car. An overreaction, perhaps, but not a huge miscarriage of justice. They had wa ... More >>
Blogs
June 19, 2013
Walmart is Suing the DFW Union Workers Who Have Been Protesting Their Stores
For almost two years now, like an angry minnow nibbling at a whale, a coalition of labor groups operating as OURWalmart has been organizing nationwide protests against the retail giant, complaining of low wages, terrible benefits and the company's general hostility toward organized labor. It start ... More >>
Blogs
April 22, 2013
Peace Activists Can Protest the New Bush Center, Judge Rules, So Off They Go
Last week we told you about a group of activists who were suing the City of Dallas, claiming they're being illegally barred from participating in a protest during SMU's dedication this week of the new George W. Bush Presidential Center. On Friday, noting a "strong public interest in the freedom of e ... More >>
News
November 29, 2012
Assassination? What Assassination?
When it comes to JFK, Dallas is stuck in the denial stage of grief.
Blogs
September 19, 2012
Liberty Institute: Assault on Religious Liberty is at All-Time High (and That's Just Counting Christians)
You know the Liberty Institute as the group that has steered Plano's infamous Candy Cane Case through the courts. More recently, it's championed the cause of Angela Hildenbrand, the Texas high school student who wanted to pray during her valedictory speech. As part of its work, in 2004 the nonprofi ... More >>
Blogs
June 28, 2012
Robert Groden: The Plaza Man
In this week's Dallas Observer, we profile 30 of the metro area's most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Mark Graham. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here On November 22, 1963, the day President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot in Dealey Plaza, R ... More >>
Blogs
February 10, 2012
Appeals Court Won't Rehear Attempt Trying to Overturn Texas's New Sonogram Law
In news that should make Rick Perry tingly all over, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order today denying the Center For Reproductive Rights' request for a new hearing in their suit against Texas's new sonogram law. The CRR had previously requested that the court hear the case en banc ... More >>
Blogs
January 25, 2012
Center For Reproductive Rights Wants All Fifth Circuit Judges To Hear Sonogram Law Case
Rick Perry, signing the sonogram legislationThe saga of Texas's brand-new, Rick-Perry approved sonogram law continues. First, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a preliminary injunction issued by Judge Sam Sparks and allowed the law to go into effect. (That law, just to refresh, ... More >>
Blogs
January 23, 2012
Look Out, Belo: Amidst Solicitation Ordinance Chat, Talk of Fines Over Unwanted Papers
At this morning's Quality of Life Committee meeting, we finally got to hear about that proposed new home solicitation ordinance with which we wrapped last week. We know what you're thinking, and let us reassure you right away: Your Girl Scout cookies should be unaffected. Exhale. As City Attorney ... More >>
Blogs
January 10, 2012
Judge OKs Texas's Sonogram Law, Making Governor Rick Perry Very, Very Happy
Texas's dandy new "sonogram law" -- which requires abortion-seeking women to look at a sonogram, hear a description of it from her doctor and listen to a fetal heartbeat -- is legal, a federal court ruled today. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a temporary injunction, issued by Judge ... More >>
Blogs
November 10, 2011
Suhm's "Very Disappointed" By Turn of Events as Occupy Dallas, City Head Back to Courthouse
Photo by Chris HowellBelow you'll find the original agreement the city of Dallas and Occupy Dallas entered into last month after that trip to the courthouse that was all fist-bumps and high-fives. Problem is, the agreement is affixed as an exhibit to even more legal docs Occupy Dallas's attorneys ... More >>
Blogs
November 9, 2011
An Offended Occupy Dallas Responds to City's Demands; Last Arrestee Due Out of Jail Today
Photo by Chris HowellAt the end of business yesterday City Hall sent that memo from City Manager Mary Suhm and that letter from First Assistant City Attorney Chris Bowers. Both said more or less the same thing: Occupy Dallas has till 5 p.m. Saturday to clean up its mess behind Dallas City Hall, o ... More >>
Blogs
November 8, 2011
Mayor Awaits Report on Occupy Dallas; Group Vows It Won't Protest Omni, Vets Parade
Photo by Chris HowellIn the wake of two reports concerning the city's response to Saturday's arrest of eight Occupy Dallasites, some Friends of Unfair Park have asked: Is the city going to boot the protesters camping out behind Dallas City Hall, allowed by agreement following last month's trip to ... More >>
Blogs
October 14, 2011
At Feel-Good Hearing, City and Occupy Dallas Hash Out Deal to Move Downtown Campsite
If you need one of Dallas's occupiers come Sunday evening, this is where they'll be.A hearing this morning at the Earle Cabell could have been a First Amendment showdown over Occupy Dallas's right to remain in Pioneer Park in downtown. Instead, it became a simple formality after protesters ca ... More >>
Blogs
October 11, 2011
City Hall Tells Dallas Occupiers to Get Insurance or Else. They're Leaning Toward "Or Else."
At 1:20 this morning Boston police stormed an Occupy encampment in Boston Greenway park, hauled off more than 100 protesters in cable-tie cuffs and tore down their tents. Everybody in the Occupy Dallas encampment I talked to at about noon today was aware of what just happened in Boston. The ... More >>
Blogs
September 28, 2011
Fifth Circuit Judges Spend 100 Pages Debating Plano "Candy Cane" Case, First Amendment
When last we checked in on the nearly 8-year-old (!) case involving those Plano ISD students (and their parents, more to the point) suing the district over those "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" pencils and candy canes they weren't allowed to distribute during winter-break parties, one of the ... More >>
Blogs
September 2, 2011
Kids, Trust No One. My Work Is Done Here.
Oh, wouldn't you know I'd wind up agreeing with my opponent? You know what's wrong with me? I am just too damn much of a sweetheart, that's my problem. Too nice, too smart, too good-lookin'. I've got to drop at least one just to make things fair. So this morning I met on the field of battle ... More >>
Blogs
August 12, 2011
After All That Legal Wrangling Over Dallas's Sign Ordinance, Now the City's Doing a Rewrite?
The Institute for Justice may get what it wanted after all. Sort of. Ish.For two years Matt Miller, executive director of the Institute for Justice Texas Chapter, fought with the city of Dallas in federal court over the 2008 ordinance that prohibits store owners from covering the top two-thirds o ... More >>
Blogs
July 27, 2011
Swingers Club, "Outreach Mission" -- Same Dif. Why, Just Look at the Photos From Inside.
From the Playground party picsAfter we broke the story about the Dallas City Attorney's Office going after The Playground, a Harry Hines swingers club operating with a house-o'-worship certificate of occupancy, Glenn Hudson or someone working for him had some of the club's websites taken down, am ... More >>
Blogs
July 26, 2011
"A Great Day for the First Amendment": Appeals Court Tosses HP Developer's Defamation Claims
Carla MainAt this late date I won't detail the case pitting Highland Park developer Hiram Walker Royall against author Carla Main, which we've been following for the past three years. Let's just put it like this: Royall, who was involved in an eminent domain case down in Freeport, became the subj ... More >>
Blogs
July 21, 2011
So, Wait, Rick Perry May Not Speak at The Response? Well, That Seems a Bit ... Odd.
That's what CNN's reporting, anyhow -- that Rick Perry, who called for that ''day of prayer and fasting" down in Houston on August 6 and has been the face of the franchise, could wind up on the sidelines during The Response at Reliant Stadium. That's according to Eric Bearse, spokesman for the Am ... More >>
Blogs
July 13, 2011
Wisconsin Group Files Suit, Claiming Perry's Prayer Event Has "No Secular Rationale"
Now this is a response: Perhaps you've heard that a Wisconsin-based "state/church watchdog" group opposed to mixin' government and religion today filed for a temporary injunction down in Houston, asking a federal court to put the kibosh on Gov. Rick Perry's star-studded prayer rally scheduled ... More >>
Blogs
June 15, 2011
Center for Reproductive Rights Has New Site For Lone Star Ladies and Other In Utero News
Starting September 1, if you're a woman in Texas seeking an abortion, a few new things are going to happen at the doctor's office. You're going to be given a sonogram, have the image of the fetus described to you "in detail," and possibly be asked to listen to a fetal heart monitor (although you ... More >>
Blogs
May 24, 2011
Dealey Plaza Redo: Beware the Goon Squads
Yesterday's city council committee briefing on restoring Dealey Plaza was all very well. The well-intended and the well-heeled have joined together to raise money for a well-designed refurbishing of the place where President John F. Kennedy was ... well, you know ... shot. I'm sure it will b ... More >>
Blogs
April 20, 2011
Pot References By Beer Companies And How They Tried To Evade The Feds
OK, we'll be the first to admit that the whole idea of turning 4/20 into a pot-smoking holiday is pretty stupid. If you're an adult, you should be able decide if and when you want to smoke on your own, without a numerical coincidence putting any extra emphasis on the activity. But the date has ... More >>
Blogs
December 16, 2010
Six Months After Groden's Arrest in Dealey Plaza, Muni Judge Rules: Case Dismissed!
Robert GrodenBack in June we broke the news that Robert Groden, perhaps the most familiar (and certainly the most respected) of all the Dealey Plaza vendors peddling JFK assassination materials, had been arrested and detained by Dallas Police officers on the clean-up crackdown. Groden filed a fed ... More >>
Blogs
December 9, 2010
Hunt on "New" Panhandling Ordinance
ViaOn Monday we sneak-peeked the ordinance creating those so-called Solicitation-Free Zones in downtown, Deep Ellum, Uptown and Victory; yesterday, with little to say other than "yay," the council approved the revision to the City Code, adding to the existing law a $500 fine for panhandlers and e ... More >>
Blogs
November 10, 2009
Federal Lawsuit Claims Dallas's Sign Ordinance Violates First Amendment
April Gilliland, owner of a FastSigns franchise, is among those suing the cityThe Institute for Justice -- which bills itself as the "nation's only libertarian public interest law firm" -- sends word this morning that it's unhappy with the city of Dallas's year-old law that prohibits business own ... More >>
Blogs
May 8, 2009
Brian Cuban, Facebook at Odds Over Service's Decision to Allow Holocaust-Denial Group
Since November, a Dallas attorney with a familiar last name has been at odds with Facebook over its decision to allow Holocaust-denial groups to post to the service. The story's generated some heat in recent days, culminating today with this CNN story in which Brian "Brother of Mark" Cuban, who main ... More >>
Blogs
April 13, 2007
The Fishes Wear Manolos
In case you missed it, there's been a tempest roiling at Southern Methodist University over the last couple of weeks completely unrelated to nekkid women. Professors from the science departments at SMU tried to shut down a conference beginning tonight at McFarlin Auditorium dubbed Darwin vs. Design, ... More >>
Blogs
March 9, 2007
Cyberstalking? Or Free Speech?
Phil Haberman's lies to his former wife started a legal mess concerning postings on his missus' blog. Calling her a "cyberstalker" and "a menace," a judge in Florida has ordered Kristen Rhoad to remove all her postings about ex-husband Phil Haberman from the Internet -- including not only her own bl ... More >>
News
January 25, 2007
Cost of Doing Business
Biting the hand that feeds you
Blogs
November 30, 2006
Dirty Old Men
Comix great Peter Bagge captures the essense of Al Goldstein. Odd, thought you needed a jar for that. In keeping with Unfair Park's groundbreaking coverage of First Amendment Champ-cum-Fallen Porn King Al Goldstein, Josh Alan Friedman provides this dispatch from the front lines. A cocktail party ... More >>
Blogs
October 10, 2006
The Fair Can Be So Unfair
Darrel Rundus wants to preach at the State Fair of Texas. The city and State Fair say, "Unh-unh." Meanwhile, everyone in the midway prays to God they don't die. On the city council's agenda tomorrow is a closed-session briefing concerning a lawsuit filed against the city. No big deal. Happens all t ... More >>
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