By LASIS Staff

Eighty year old retired chemistry professor Julien Heicklin is happy that the charges against him for jury tampering in Manhattan were dismissed, though you might not know it from his master of understatement-esque reaction: “This is better than having them throw me in jail.”

According to federal judge Judge Kimba Wood, Mr. Heicklin is off the hook because he was trying to influence all jurors, for any and all cases, and not specific jurors for a specific case.  For that reason, Judge Wood didn’t even have to wrestle with thorny first amendment issues.

Back in March, 2011, LASIS did.

And though she threw out the charges on other grounds, Judge Wood’s decision is the win for free speech we predicted.

By LASIS Staff

In January, LASIS reporter Russell Smith wrote that Occupy activist Timothy Osmar would not prevail on a first amendment claim that he had a right to scrawl chalk messages outside of a City Hall in Orlando, Florida. While Mr. Osmar’s 18-days behind bars was absurd, Mr. Smith wrote, the City had acted in accordance with the law.

Well, Mr. Osmar sued the City anyway, alleging that his arrest was unlawful and in violation of his freedom of speech. And guess what — he won.

On Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge David A. Baker ruled that Mr. Osmar’s actions were clearly protected by the first amendment. The decision means that the City will be required to compensate Mr. Osmar for both his wrongful imprisonment and attorneys’ fees.

Mr. Smith’s article expressed doubt that Mr. Osmar would be able to prove that the City selectively enforced the ordinance prohibiting “writing advertising matter of sidewalks” based on political nature of his message. To do so, we explained, Mr. Osmar would need evidence that the City had not come down when chalking other, non political, messages on the plaza outside City Hall. Fat chance of that evidence existing, we thought.

But as it turned out, such evidence exists, and it shows that for several years the City had blessed a Rotary Club’s chalk-art festival on the same plaza outside City Hall. Judge Baker seized on this point in his decision, concluding that “the city may not selectively interpret and enforce the ordinance based on its own desire to further the causes of particular favored speakers.”

At the start of the case, the City hired the Orlando law firm Akerman Senterfitt & Eidson – at least in part because of the firm’s appellate expertise and this case’s likelihood for appeals. But since the firm charges upwards of $625 an hour for its services, perhaps the City would be wise to read the writing on the –er – sidewalk, and just let things be.

In any case, this is the first time LASIS made an incorrect prediction. And we like Judge Baker’s ruling. We hope the decision stands.

By Halina Schiffman-Shilo and Ashley Davidson

The days of child-run lemonade and cookie stands may soon be over.

In the spring of 2005, two enterprising sisters, ten-year old Caitlin and eight-year-old Abigail Mills of Hazelwood, Missouri sold Girl Scout Cookies for a few hours each evening after school from the stand they set up in their drive-way. And this little stand was mighty successful. In 2011, the girls sold around 1,700 boxes, a feat that would make any parent or troop leader proud.

This tradition continued until one year ago when their mother, Carolyn Mills, found an unpleasant surprise waiting for her with the mail: a notice from the City of Hazelwood Code Enforcement, a zoning board, stating that the Girl Scout Cookie stand violated a home occupations Code, and that her family was prohibited from involvement in this kind of quasi-criminal activity.

Not wanting to break the law—they are Scouts, after all—Ms. Mills and her daughters filed for a license to sell their cookies. The city, citing health and safety concerns, denied their application.

And so Ms. Mills is suing. According to the complaint filed in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County Missouri, the Mills family claims that the city has no evidence of the cookie stand causing any considerable public health, safety, or welfare hazards. The Mills family also claims that the Code is unconstitutional, and deprives them of their liberty and their right to use personal private property as they see fit.

The Mills family is not seeking money from the city; they just want the right to sell their cookies. Several media outlets (see here and here) have reported on this cookie-selling case, but they haven’t weighed in on the lawsuit’s merits. LASIS investigates.   Read more »

By Meghan Lalonde

Adolescence can be tough. Realizing you’re gay makes those years even tougher. It stands to reason that growing up as a gay or lesbian teenager in a conservative area that shuns homosexuals would be even harder.

It is. I know from firsthand experience.

Jamey Rodemayer. Justin Aaberg. Samantha Johnson. These are just a few names on the growing list of high school teenagers who have committed suicide due to anti-gay bullying.

For many students, teachers are a source of comfort and refuge from the daily insults in locker rooms, hallways, and cafeterias. They were for me.

But in Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District – the state’s largest – four teenage students committed suicide directly due to anti-gay bullying that their teachers ignored. The teachers weren’t necessarily callous or even unkind. They were just following school policy.

The  “Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy” in effect in that school district –prohibited teachers from discussing sexual orientation with their students. Referred to unofficially as the “No Homo Promo” policy, it stated that teachers and staff must “remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation.”  Teachers who violated this policy would face disciplinary action, or could even be fired.

And so gay (or suspected of being gay) students in this school district were often demeaned, ostracized, called “fags”, “dykes”, or worse. Complaints about the behavior were ignored, as teachers and school officials looked the other way or told students to deal with it on their own.

Last July, the Southern Poverty Law Center and National Center for Lesbian Rights sued on behalf of six Anoka-Hennepin students, claiming that the so-called “neutrality” policy created a hostile environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and failed to provide teachers and staff with clear guidelines regarding appropriate responses to sex and gender-based harassment.

School officials settled the lawsuit in Minneapolis on March 5 by a 5-1 vote of the board of education.

There has been some terrific coverage of the bullying (see especially this Rolling Stone article) but LASIS looks inside the situation through the prism of the law.   Read more »

By Jaclyn Tyndorf

These days it costs a family of four with two adults and two children $45 just for tickets here in New York City to see a movie. (IMAX is extra). And if our quartet wants something to snack on during the film, say 2 small popcorns, two medium sodas, and one red licorice, well, that will run an extra 30.00. That’s $75 just for the chance to see The Lorax, now playing at a theater near you.

I’m not the only one who feels she’s being overcharged for a Technicolor experience. And I’m far from the angriest. In Michigan, Joshua Thompson realized that the box of Goobers and a Coke that he buys at stores nearby for $2.73 costs a whopping $8 inside the theater. So when his local AMC barred consumers from bringing outside food and drink into the theater, he sued in state court for violation of Michigan’s Consumer Protection Act. He seeks to have a class certified so that he can pass the popcorn – and the refunds – to all the other overcharged audience members.

Successful lawsuit? Bogus claims? Though some articles predicted the case would be dismissed, the media didn’t provide much of an explanation. LASIS investigated.   Read more »