Lee Baker's blog

Beverly Stayart Supports Seals, Not Cialis: Section 230, Search Engines, and Vanity Queries

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Search engines have become the new deep pockets in this age of cyber-litigation.  Despite the fact that they do not control the content of the sites they index in any way, people still routinely seek to hold them liable for unsavory or objectionable things that appear in search results.  One might have thought that passage of Section 230 of the Communications Decency A

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“Crass and Uncouth” MySpace Posting not Grounds for Expulsion

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Once again, the powers that be are all in a tizzy because of content on a social network.  Joining the ranks of city officials, private employers, and high school administrators in sanctioning speech online is the dean of a nursing school.  As in the Houston’s Restaurant case, however, her non-proportional response has been corrected by a court of law.

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Another One Bites the Dust: Roommates as a Hail Mary for Frivolous Lawsuits

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Yet another lawsuit that probably should never have been brought has been dismissed due to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ("

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Educators Reprimand Student for Private Facebook Messages

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The Supreme Court once famously said that public school students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”  Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S.

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Warning: UK Libel Law May be Hazardous to Your Health

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It seems that the American Congress is not the only group enraged by England’s plaintiff-friendly libel laws.  Sense About Science, a British charity that promotes public understanding of science, is lobbying the

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Feeding the Hand that Bites: Statutory Misinterpretation in the Name of Good

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One common criticism lodged by constructionist judges against some of their judicial brethren is that, in their quest for “fair” results, they often misinterpret or outright ignore the plain text of a statute.  The majority of a Tenth Circuit panel seems to have fallen into this trap in a recent case involving section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“Section 230”), despite the admonit

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Tenth Circuit Upholds Restrictions on Student Speech

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In a recent decision, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Colorado District Court’s rejection of a student’s First Amendment and Equal Protection claims over a forced apology resulting from her valedictory address.  The case, Corder v

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Search Warrant Quashed in Boston College "Hacker" Case

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On May 21, 2009, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court quashed a search warrant for the computers, electronic equipment, and digital storage devices of a Boston College computer science student and ordered the seized items returned.

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