Children

Rhode Island Family Court v. Grant

Date: 

08/17/2007

Threat Type: 

Other

Party Receiving Legal Threat: 

Anne Grant

Type of Party: 

Government

Type of Party: 

Individual

Court Type: 

State

Court Name: 

Rhode Island Family Court; Supreme Court of Rhode Island

Case Number: 

07-334-MP

Legal Counsel: 

Thomas R. Bender (for Grant)

Publication Medium: 

Blog

Relevant Documents: 

Status: 

Concluded

Description: 

Anne Grant maintains a blog, The Custody Scam, where she "writes about official actions that endanger children and parents trying to protect them." Grant used the blog to write about a child custody case involving minors "Sara Doe" and "Mary Doe" (pseudonyms). The blog criticized the manner in which the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) handled the Doe case. In particular, Grant objected to the DCYF hearing officer's reliance on a theory known as "parental alienation syndrome" to remove the two children from their mother's custody and to place one of them with the father, who had previously been accused of sexually abusing them -- charges that the DCYF held to be unfounded. While the blog entries did not reveal the minors' identities, they did include personal information and photographs of the children.

The family court judge handling the Doe case ordered DCYF to "advise" Grant to remove "any and all written and pictoral information" relating to the children involved, and to "cease publication of the blog as it pertains to these children."

Grant objected to the order and sought to have the Rhode Island Supreme Court vacate it. In her petition, Grant argued that the family court's order violated her due process rights and was an overbroad restraint on her speech. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case without providing an explanation for its refusal, but some speculate that the court refused to review the order because it was directed at DCYF, not Grant.

 

Jurisdiction: 

Content Type: 

Subject Area: 

Doe v. Bates

Date: 

05/09/2005

Threat Type: 

Lawsuit

Party Issuing Legal Threat: 

John Doe

Party Receiving Legal Threat: 

Mark Bates; Yahoo! Inc.

Type of Party: 

Individual

Type of Party: 

Individual
Large Organization

Court Type: 

Federal

Court Name: 

Eastern District of Texas

Case Number: 

5:05CV00091

Legal Counsel: 

John Crisp, Patrick Carome, Samir Jain

Publication Medium: 

Forum

Relevant Documents: 

Status: 

Concluded

Disposition: 

Dismissed (total)

Description: 

The parents of a child who was victimized by an online pornography group filed a lawsuit against Yahoo! alleging that it knowingly hosted illegal child pornography on the "Candyman" Yahoo! Group. The plaintiffs sued both the moderator of that "e-group" (who was criminally convicted and imprisoned for his involvement) and Yahoo!

On December 27, 2006, the district court dismissed the case aginst both defendants. The court applied the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. sec. 230) and stated that immunity for service providers is not lost when the conduct in question is a criminal act.

Jurisdiction: 

Content Type: 

Subject Area: 

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Children