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Center for Individual Freedom Lunchtime Liberty Update

Legal Issues:

CFIF Urges California Court to Recognize Privilege for Online Newsgatherers
Brief Argues that First Amendment Protects Bloggers

In an amicus curiae brief filed Monday with the California Court of Appeal, the Center for Individual Freedom joined a group of webloggers, online publishers, law professors and free speech advocacy organizations arguing that online journalists have the same right to protect their confidential sources as the mainstream media.

"Protections for free speech and free press apply to everyone, not just the major media companies," said Reid Cox, the Center's General Counsel. "Over the past year, several of the most important news stories have been broken online by so-called pajama-wearing journalists. Surely these newsgatherers deserve the same constitutional protection as the suit-and-tie journalists who write their stories in traditional newsrooms."

Read more now.


U.N. Monitor:

LOST at Sea: The Treaty that Won't Die

In Congress, bad ideas are like zombies -- always rising from the dead and finding new ways to cause trouble. The latest example is the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), formally known as the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

LOST was first drafted at a U.N. conference way back in the 1970s. After determining that it was hopelessly flawed and contrary to America's interests, President Reagan refused to sign it. So it sat for more than a decade until, in 1994, President Clinton decided that a new agreement fixed the treaty's problems. Given Clinton's penchant for bending the truth, it's unsurprising that he made this "agreement" appear to be more than it was. In reality, the agreement doesn't even purport to amend the treaty, let alone fix the numerous flaws that would undermine the United States.

Read more now.

Send a personalized faxed letter to all 100 members of the Senate urging them to oppose the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST).


Federal Issues:

'I Put a Hold on You'

President Bush has nominated Stephen L. Johnson to become Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Mr. Johnson has been Acting Administrator, and he is a 24-year veteran of the agency. Most significantly, he is the first career scientist ever to be nominated to head the agency.

Last week, Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida) said he would block Johnson's confirmation unless the EPA cancelled a research study to be conducted in Duval County (Jacksonville), Florida. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of household pesticide use on children from three months to three years old.

Read more now.


Your Turn –- Meeting Nonsense With Commonsense:

USA Freedom Corps Director Discusses Volunteerism in America

Desiree Thompson Sayle, Deputy Assistant to President Bush and Director of USA Freedom Corps, was a recent guest on "Your Turn -- Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense," a radio program hosted by the Center for Individual Freedom's Senior Vice President and Corporate Counsel Renee Giachino. In the interview that aired on 1330 AM WEBY, Northwest Florida's Talk Radio, Ms. Sayle talked about America's increasing desire to volunteer and President Bush's creation of USA Freedom Corps.

What follows are excerpts from her interview...

Read more now.


CFIF History & Civics Quiz:

Question of the Week

Who was the first President of the United States to be assassinated?

(a) John F. Kennedy
(b) William McKinley
(c) James Garfield
(d) Abraham Lincoln

Get the correct answer now.


Jester's Courtroom: Tales Stranger Than Fiction
Featuring bizarre and sometimes humorous real life stories from the courtroom.

That's the Way the Ball Bounces

A dentist who sued the Philadelphia Phillies after being hit by a foul ball cannot recover damages from the baseball team, according to both a Pennsylvania trial court and appeals court.

Neil Pakett was sitting about 80 feet from home plate in Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium on June 25, 2001, when Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins hit a foul ball in Pakett's direction. Pakett tried to catch the souvenir with his bare hand, but instead the ball hit him in the head. The dentist then decided it was time to try America's newer pastime -- litigation.

Pakett filed a lawsuit against the Phillies alleging he wouldn't have been hit by the foul ball if the backstop at Veterans Stadium had been wider and angled differently. Specifically, Pakett claimed that the Phillies should pay him more than $50,000 for his eye injuries because the stadium could have provided more protection for spectators.

Last October a Philadelphia Common Pleas judge dismissed Pakett's lawsuit, finding that the team adequately warned fans about the dangers of foul balls. The judge noted that fans were warned about the dangers of attending a baseball game on the back of every ticket, on posted signs, through public announcements and even through a video cartoon played in the middle of the first inning. Pakett appealed the decision, but in late March he lost again.

If Pakett wishes to go for strike three, he would next appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Source: Associated Press

Read more now.

Since many of these gems do not attain national attention, the Jester welcomes you to share with us your favorite wacky stories from a courtroom near you! Please be sure to provide the source. You may e-mail us at info@cfif.org.


Notable Quotes:

Quote of the Week

Rich Lowry, Editor of National Review, on Criticism of John Bolton, Who is the Nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations:

"The toughest Bolton quote is that the U.N. headquarters could lose ten stories and no one would notice. The notable thing about this statement is that it is indisputably true. A ten-story subtraction would still leave 29 stories to house the planet's most hellishly impenetrable and inefficient bureaucracy. The outraged-at-Bolton caucus has a problem, which is that anything Bolton has said about the U.N. appears mild given recent U.N. malfeasance. He never said that U.N. peacekeepers would rape children in the Congo. He never said the U.N. would engage in insider dealing to rip off its own Oil-for-Food program in Iraq. He never said the U.N. would institute what appears to be a cover-up of its Oil-for-Food wrongdoing. But this all happened, which is why even Kofi Annan says the U.N. needs a thorough overhaul."

Get more Notable Quotes.

Do you have a notable quote you'd like to share with the Center, e-mail it to info@cfif.org. Be sure to provide us the source of the quote.


 

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