Fair Trial/Free Press Conference: Artificial Intelligence, Social Media, and the Rule of Law

From the Government Law Center, Albany Law School:

Hear a distinguished panel of experts from the media, courts, and the legal profession discuss the legal, political, and ethical issues that arise after an AI-generated video of an altercation between public officials goes viral on social media. An interactive discussion between the panelists and audience will follow the panel discussion.

Panelists include:

• Hon. Elizabeth A. Garry, Presiding Justice, NYS Supreme Court Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department
• Hon. Emmanuel C. Nneji, Ulster County District Attorney
• William T. Easton, Esq., Partner, Easton Thompson Kasperek Shiffrin
• Prof. J. Stephen Clark, Professor of Law, Albany Law School
• Ojasvinee Singh, Esq., Media Attorney, Penguin Random House

The event will be held November 20, 2024, 2 P.M. – 4 P.M. Dean Alexander Moot Court Room (Room 421) Albany Law School 80 New Scotland Avenue Albany, NY 12208

This free event is open to the public, will be livestreamed, and includes a reception. Registration is required.

For more information, and to register, click here.

Fair Trial/Free Press Conference: Local media, the law, and alleged police misconduct

Albany Law School, the New York University School of Law, and the New York Fair Trial/Free Press Conference are sponsoring 2023 Fair Trial/Free Press Conference, to be held on April 24, 2023, from 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Hear from a distinguished panel of judges, prosecutors, print and broadcast journalists, media counsel, and other practicing attorneys during the Fair Trial/Free Press Conference.

The conference combines a discussion of a hypothetical scenario with an overview of media law. Panelists will discuss the legal, political, and ethical issues that arise after a reporter is arrested while covering a police-involved shooting.

This free event is open to the public. Lunch will be provided and CLE credits are available to attorneys who register and attend.

Interested persons can attend in person at the following location:

Lester Pollack Colloquium Room, 9th Floor
Furman Hall
NYU School of Law
245 Sullivan Street
New York, NY 10012

The event will be live-streamed as well. For more information, including how to register, click here.

Second Amendment Legal Update, April 2023

A monthly update, prepared for the Schuyler County Chapter of S.C.O.P.E. NY, a statewide 501(c)4 organization dedicated to preserving the 2nd Amendment rights for the residents of New York State. For a complete copy of this month’s report, click here.

Second Amendment Legal Update: March, 2022

A monthly update, prepared for the Schuyler County Chapter of S.C.O.P.E. NY, a statewide 501(c)4 organization dedicated to preserving the 2nd Amendment rights for the residents of New York State.

For a complete PDF copy of this month's update, click here.

Schuyler County Commemorates May 1 as “Law Day”: Law Day 2019 Will Focus on Free Speech, Free Press.

Watkins Glen, New York—The Schuyler County Legislature has recognized as the Law Day 2019 theme “Free Speech, Free Press, Free Society.”

The legislature passed a resolution at its April 8, 2019 meeting, recognizing “Law Day” as an occasion of public acknowledgement of our Nation’s heritage of justice, liberty, and equality under the law. The resolution was submitted to the legislature by Schuyler County Attorney Steven Getman.

“The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right to free speech and a free press, along with other rights that recognize the ability of persons to think and communicate how they wish without fear of punishment or oppression,” Getman wrote.

In passing the resolution, the legislature found that “promoting public understanding of the roots of our freedom are an important component in the civic education of the citizens of the United States, the State of New York and the County of Schuyler.”

The American Bar Association selects an annual theme for each Law Day. Law Day is an annual commemoration first held in 1957 when the American Bar Association envisioned a special national day to mark our nation’s commitment to the rule of law. The following year, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first Law Day Proclamation. Law Day was made official in 1961 when Congress issued a joint resolution designating May 1 as the official date for celebrating Law Day.

A copy of Schuyler County’s resolution “Recognizing and Commemorating May 1, 2019 as ‘Law Day’ in Schuyler County is available here.

Schuyler County Legislature: RECOGNIZING AND COMMEMORATING MAY 1, 2019 AS “LAW DAY” IN SCHUYLER COUNTY by Steven Getman on Scribd

New York “Fair Trial/Free Press” Conference

Sponsored by the New York Fair Trial/Free Press Conference, the Committee on Media Law, and the New York State Bar Association, this conference will be held Friday, March 10, 2017 from 12:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Featuring a distinguished panel of federal and state judges, prosecutors, print and broadcast journalists, and defense and media counsel, the program will explore the interplay of First Amendment rights to attend and report on criminal trials and the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial.

Attendees can learn about the use of video recordings on smartphones, the use of social media as evidence and media and the law.

The event is free for NYSBA Members and Members of the Press.

For more information, click here.

New York passes new laws to crack down on domestic violence, lewdness against children

New York state lawmakers enacted a series of bills Wednesday (July 23) that strengthen existing laws and add new measures to protect people from electronic harassment, stalking, and public lewdness.

Under the new laws, Second-degree Aggravated Harassment will make it a crime to use harassing communications that "threaten to cause physical harm to a victim or the victim's property where a defendant knows or should know that the communication will cause the victim to fear such harm."

The harassment legislation is in response to a recent court decision, striking down a previous version of the law on First Amendment grounds.

The anti-stalking measure prohibits the tracking of a person with an electronic device where "likely to cause reasonable fear of material harm to the physical health, safety or property" of another person or their families.

Finally, the state enacted a new statute, creating the crime of Public Lewdness in the First Degree, a class A misdemeanor. It applies to persons aged 19 or older who intentionally expose themselves to children under the age of 16. It is punishable by up to one year in county jail.

Previously, Public Lewdness was only a class B misdemeanor, and provided no additional penalties when the act was committed against a child.

It is hoped that these new laws, focusing on threats and endangerment of others, will strengthen protections for vulnerable members of the population, while ensuring important rights to free and open expression.

New York's Top Court strikes down cyberbullying law on free speech grounds

Legal Insurrection reports that "[t]he New York Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that a local law intended to protect children from cyberbullying violated the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment because it was too broad."

Portions of New York's "aggravated harassment" struck down as unconstitutional

New York Daily News:

The state's top court .... struck down a law that's often used against stalkers and domestic abusers.

A significant portion of the second-degree aggravated harassment law, relating to phone calls, emails and other kinds of communication "in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm," is invalid under the New York State Court of Appeals ruling that stems from a case against Dead Sea Scrolls enthusiast Raphael Golb.

The judges said they "conclude that (the law) is unconstitutional under both the state and federal Constitutions, and we vacate defendants' convictions on these counts."

They sided with a case brought by Golb's attorney, Ron Kuby, saying: "We agree with defendant that this statute is constitutionally vague and over broad."

The complete decision is here. In it, the New York State Court of Appeals held:

In People v Dietze (75 NY2d 47 [1989]), this Court struck down a similar harassment statute, former Penal Law § 240.25, which prohibited the use of abusive or obscene language with the intent to harass, annoy or alarm another person. We determined that the statute was unconstitutional under both the State and Federal Constitutions, noting that “any proscription of pure speech must be sharply limited to words which, by their utterance alone, inflict injury or tend naturally to evoke immediate violence.”

The reasoning applied in Dietze applies equally to our analysis of Penal Law § 240.30(1)(a). The statute criminalizes, in broad strokes, any communication that has the intent to annoy. Like the harassment statute at issue in Dietze, “no fair reading” of this statute’s “unqualified terms supports or even suggests the constitutionally necessary limitations on its scope.” See also People v Dupont, 107 AD2d 247, 253 [1st Dept 1985] [observing that the statute's vagueness is apparent because "[i]t is not clear what is meant by communication ‘in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm’ to another person”]). And, as in Dietze, “we decline to incorporate such limitations into the statute by judicial construction” because that would be “tantamount to wholesale revision of the Legislature’s enactment, rather than prudent judicial construction.”

One columnist has suggested a way to fix the statute to pass constitutional muster, proposing that the law be amended to cover only legitimate threats:

It is time for states like New York to step in and fix their harassment and stalking laws. As the Golb case rightly found, harassment statutes cannot criminalize harassing speech intended to annoy another person. In 2013 Congress amended the federal telecommunications harassment statute to take out overbroad “annoy” language. New York and other states should do the same.

The case is likely to have significant ramifications, both in Family Court and Criminal Court. Anyone accused of violating a harassment statute should contact an attorney to review their legal rights in light of this important decision.

Legal links of interest for the week ending February 28, 2014

Attorney Steven Getman reports on some of the stories about lawyers and the law for the last week of February:

Arizona Religious Bill That Angered Gays Vetoed: The Republican governor said she gave the legislation careful deliberation in talking to her lawyers, citizens, businesses and lawmakers on both sides of the debate.

Calif. student wins $50G in Constitution lawsuit: A California college student who was blocked last year from handing out copies of the Constitution gave his school a lesson in civics and the law, winning a $50,000 settlement and an agreement to revise its speech codes.

Homeland Security wants national database using license-plate scanners: The Department of Homeland Security wants a nationwide database with information from license-plate readers that scan every vehicle crossing their paths, according to a solicitation last week from the agency.

In New Orleans courts, the legal gusher BP cannot contain: the source of much of BP’s ire lies with a legal donnybrook over a settlement designed to compensate individuals and businesses for economic harm caused by the spill. BP alleges that many of the 256,478 claims filed — by a parade of fishermen, hotels, surf shops, law firms, nursing homes, strip clubs and others — are unjustified or even fraudulent.

Justices appear divided over greenhouse gas regulation: this issue could be major test of executive authority, with some groups painting President Obama as misusing his power and ignoring the will of the legislature.

Law professor says US is at “constitutional tipping point”: Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, testified before the House Judiciary Committee that the presidential use of executive orders threatens has created “a massive gravitational shift of authority to the Executive Branch that threatens the stability and functionality of our tripartite system.”

Man Framed by Detective Will Get $6.4 Million From New York City After Serving 23 Years for Murder: The comptroller’s quick acceptance of liability in the high-profile conviction is also significant because the case is the first of what is expected to be a series of wrongful conviction claims by men who were sent to prison based on the flawed investigative work of the detective, Louis Scarcella.

For more on each of these stories, click the links above.

Legal links of interest for the week ending November 8

Steven Getman, attorney, reports on some news stories about lawyers and the law in the past week:

Bill to ban job bias against gays clears Senate hurdle: A measure that would outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity overcame a significant obstacle as seven Republicans voted to begin debate on the bill.

In Bond v. U.S., the Supreme Court will decide if a treaty trumps state police powers: Carol Bond concedes that she spread a toxic chemical on the car and mailbox of a friend who had an affair with her husband. Federal prosecutors intervened in what would normally be a state criminal case to charge Bond with violating the chemical-weapons convention that the Senate ratified in 1997.

Domestic violence alerts available in New York: Victims of domestic violence can now sign-up for SAVIN-NY alerts at www.nyalert.gov by clicking on “Orders of Protection.”

D.C. Circuit rules against Obamacare contraceptive mandate: the D.C. Circuit ruled November 1 that two brothers who own and operate a food-supply company are entitled under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act to a preliminary injunction against imposition of the HHS mandate on contraception and abortifacients.

Judge upholds Rochester's red light camera program: A state court justice found the red light camera laws do not infringe upon a fundamental right

Legislative prayer gets Supreme Court review: The case argued at the court Wednesday involves prayers said at the start of town council meetings in Greece, N.Y., a Rochester suburb.

New York State warns residents of STAR application scam: New homeowners have received letters offering to enroll them in the STAR Program for a substantial fee; however enrollment in the the program is actually free.

For more on each of these stories, click on the links above.

Legal links of interest: week ending July 28

A number of stories about the law and lawyers in the news this week:

The Daily Record: Addressing threats to an independent judiciary

Reason.com: How colleges suppress free speech

American Spectator: Federal court halts enforcement of the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate on religious freedom grounds

Democrat & Chronicle: Fewer DWI offenders foot bill for interlock device

New York Post: Connecticut prosecutor accused of sneaking naughty pics of female lawyers

Associated Press: Drug company McKesson to pay New York $36 million in settlement


Post Standard: Syracuse law against bath salts still a 'work in progress'