First Amendment

We staunchly defend the First Amendment rights of our media clients. Examples include the following:

• Representing a group of writers, program suppliers and public broadcast stations in challenging the FCC's expansion of the regulation of "indecent" material
• Reversing a decision that fined noncommercial station KBOO, Portland, Oregon, for broadcasting a hip-hop song that criticized misogynist views in popular music
• Challenging a ban on the broadcast of casino advertisements, with the result that the ban is no longer enforced by the FCC
• Recovering tapes seized from radio reporters arrested for covering an antimilitary demonstration and persuading the Air Force to rescind an order banning the reporters from the base
• Representing libel defendants, journalists seeking access to death-row prisoners, and a broadcaster whose newscasts were alleged to have contributed to the violence of the Los Angeles riots
• Persuading the FCC, on behalf of a major television client, that the FCC's "fairness" doctrine was unconstitutional