First Amendment and the Internet

A student in one of the Law classes recently emailed me about issues with finding First amendment cases in LexisNexis that concern the online environment. I've pasted an edited version of my reply below.

Mucho disclaimer: This represents just one way to approach the problem. By this posting, I don't intend to scoop up new decisions or follow this issue unless it becomes a personal interest.

Thanks for your question. Sounds like you're doing a pretty thorough search; here are some suggestions, based on what what you wrote.

First, from what you describe, you're using the Federal and State Cases feature in LexisNexis. Great!! There are lots of terms that might describe the online environment, you might try a few other terms. Remember you can link them all together in the keyword search box by using "OR" connectors. Copy and paste the following into your search box; mine the results for other synonyms and follow the pattern:

(internet or cyberspace or web or "world wide web" or myspace or facebook or online or AOL or computer or network)

I got more than 3000 results from this search, but then I used the "Search within results" feature to add "first amendment". Worked well for me, anyway.

You seem to be looking for any case having to do with the internet and people who have gone to court, for whatever reason, to defend their speech using the first amendment. I'm not sure, but it may be more fruitful to concentrate on particular laws that have been challenged by first amendment claim, including, but not limited to, copyright and trademark infringement, peer-to-peer file sharing, piracy. Consider also Fraud, which will yield a lot on its own.

And while it may not seem relevant at first glance, there's also Privacy, which is the other side of the coin. Oftentimes, one claims one's (first amendment) right to privacy has been violated in order to find out just what they've been saying. There's a range of wiretap laws and other terms that you can use here. Consider that recent case in which Google was sued for having pictures of some Pennsylvania couple's house on Google Earth.

As you can tell from all this, looking by particular laws might work really well, rather than wading through all the first amendment cases that involve the internet.

You might be thinking of defaming/defamation, cyberstalking (which has some laws attached to it, but still very few). And harassment, which will surely offer you some cases. here are a few cases on harassment involving the internet, students and the first amendment (all in lexis!)

2008 u.s. dist. Lexis Nexis 72685 j.s. v. blue mountain school district

412 f.supp. 2d 502 layshock v. hermitage school district (2006)

a.b. v. state of indiana 863 n.e. 2d 1212

You might also do a case law search on applicable laws, which might be the Communications Decency Act, or the Interstate Stalking Act (47 usc 223) or the children's online privacy protection act. Other applicable laws are 18 usc 2425, and 18 usc 875(c).

[I say "might be..." because one might go to court to defend ones self against such a claim of violation of such laws via the first amendment. What's actually taken place in court is up to you to discover.]

Couple of sites that might help you scope things down and find relevant cases and laws are
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu

http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/computer_and_internet_fraud


And try out the Law Reviews and Journals feature in LexisNexis to get some background.


It's important to note that laws pertaining to cyberspace are relatively new, and so sometimes other laws (not those listed above) are the conditions under which a trial takes place. It's also important to note that pending cases might yield more than the decisions themselves. head over to the Unified Court System website and search the eCourts feature for pending cases that might relate (although the first amendment is a federal matter, NYS courts might have similar cases pending). Finally, remember that Lexis only represents judicial matters; it might be worthwhile to see if the Commissioner's decisions yield anything, too.