This month’s Bill of Rights in the News focuses on electronic privacy. The Department of Justice is seeking to obtain from Yahoo “all emails” sent and received by multiple Yahoo email accounts. No search warrant has been issued and the account owners have not been notified. Federal law currently requires the government to obtain a search warrant in order to obtain emails that have been stored less than 180 days. Yahoo has refused to turn over the emails, and the Obama Administration has asked a federal court to order Yahoo to turn over the emails.

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court issued what is certain to become a landmark ruling in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In a 5-4 ruling, the Court struck down federal limits on what organizations (including non-profit organizations, unions, and for-profit corporations) may say during elections. A ban on direct contributions to candidates was left in place. The majority reasoned that the speech limits violated the First Amendment and chilled political expression. With this ruling, the Court seemed to reverse the trend of the last century, which brought greater limits to corporate political speech and activity.

The victim’s family, however, believe that they had a constitutional right to express themselves by wearing buttons in the courtroom depicting their family member. Musladin’s original trial judge had allowed the buttons for this reason. Further, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia echoed this belief during the oral arguments of the case, suggesting that the family’s First Amendment right to expression was involved.

Musladin’s case is unusual because it is the first time the Court has considered how courtroom spectator conduct may influence a jury. What is the appropriate balance between a defendant's right to a fair trial and an individual’s right to free speech?

The school district justifies the program by citing its in keeping their students off drugs. The searches are reasonable and there is no Fourth Amendment violation, supporters of the policy say, because students in public school have less of an expectation of privacy.

This eLesson will focus on the new policy, the Supreme Court case of Board of Education of Pottawatomie County v. Earls (2002), and the definition of unreasonable searches of public school students.

Mr. Dan Holden burned the American flag, he said, in order to prompt discussion. The First Amendment protected his action. Some of Mr. Holden’s supporters point to the Supreme Court’s holding in Texas v. Johnson (1989) which upheld flag burning as a form of protected expression. The school, however, justified his reassignment by saying that Mr. Holden violated fire-safety rules.

This Bill of Rights in the News eLesson asks your students to explore the First Amendment and its protections. Does the First Amendment protect the right to desecrate the American flag?

The First Amendment states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.