The Clinic filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York in December 2023 against Delaware County on behalf of Catskills-based newspaper The Reporter. The suit claims that county officials violated the paper’s constitutional rights in de-designating it as an official paper and in issuing what has amounted to an illegal gag order for county employees. Read The Times Union coverage of the suit here and Cornell Law School’s coverage of the suit here.
NEWFANE, NY – On June 21, 2023, Cornell Law School’s First Amendment Clinic filed a lawsuit in Niagara County Supreme Court on behalf of Tracy Murphy, animal rights activist and founder of Asha’s Farm Sanctuary in Newfane New York. The suit, an Article 78 petition, challenges a gag order Newfane Town Court Justice Bruce Barnes imposed on Murphy restricting her First Amendment rights while she awaits trial on a misdemeanor larceny charge stemming from a dispute over the ownership of two cows.
The gag order imposes a blanket ban on Murphy’s use of any form of social media – which the order defines to “specifically include Facebook and public billboards, etc.” – while the criminal case against her is pending. Murphy’s suit challenges the gag order on several grounds, including that the gag order is an unconstitutional prior restraint of speech in violation of the First Amendment, that the order is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, and that the order violates New York bail laws.
“The ability to interact with others on social media – whether that be through ‘liking’ posts, commenting, or perusing timelines – is critical to the exercise of First Amendment rights in the modern day,” said First Amendment Clinic Summer Fellow Eman Naga. “By blocking Murphy’s ability to use social media and express her views publicly, the gag order effectively strips Murphy of her voice. It also sets a dangerous precedent for other criminal defendants to be unlawfully silenced, too – regardless of whether they share Ms. Murphy’s views about animal rights.”
“Asha’s Farm Sanctuary is founded on spreading hope and love,” stated Murphy. “The gag order is inhibiting my ability to do just that, as well as my ability to fundraise for the Sanctuary and advocate for myself and the animals I care so deeply about helping.”
“The Supreme Court has made very clear that blanket gag orders like the one Ms. Murphy challenges are unacceptable under the First Amendment,” said Christina Neitzey, Stanton Fellow at the First Amendment Clinic and counsel for Murphy. “Courts cannot pick and choose who gets to enjoy free speech rights based on factors like politics and personal lifestyle differences. For the First Amendment to mean anything, we must all have these rights—vegans and ranchers alike.”
Murphy is represented in this suit by Neitzey, assisted by Clinic Summer Fellows Naga and Karem Lizbeth Herrera. The matter is pending in Niagara County Supreme Court as Murphy v. Barnes, Index No. E180218/2023.
Murphy is represented in the parallel criminal matter by Chris Carraway with the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Wayne Hsiung of Direct Action Everywhere, and Bonnie Klapper, former federal prosecutor and current member of the Direct Action Everywhere Legal Team. Murphy’s criminal defense team previously challenged the same gag order before Justice Barnes, as well as an earlier version of the gag order Town of Somerset Justice Pamela Rider imposed at Murphy’s arraignment.
* * *
Contact: Christina Neitzey, cn266@cornell.edu, 607-255-4196
Last month, Cornell Law School’s First Amendment Clinic and co-counsel Greenberg Traurig LLP finalized a settlement agreement which allows citizen journalist James Meaney of Geneva, New York, to stand by his investigative reporting on local construction company Massa Construction, Inc. This agreement resolves a lawsuit Massa brought against Meaney and his watchdog blog The Geneva Believer nearly three years ago.
The suit centered around a series of articles in which Meaney examined — and at times criticized — the City of Geneva’s public works bidding and record keeping procedures generally, and the relationship between Massa and the City specifically.
Massa appealed two 2021 Ontario County Supreme Court decisions which dismissed Massa’s suit and awarded attorneys’ fees to Meaney’s legal team to the New York State Appellate Division, Fourth Department. The matter settled after briefing was complete on the appeals, but prior to oral argument before the Fourth Department.
Neither Meaney nor The Geneva Believer made any payment to Massa as part of the settlement. Meaney and his legal team maintain that —as Supreme Court, Ontario County, found — Meaney’s coverage of Massa contained no false statements of fact, alleged or implied. Remaining details of the agreement are confidential.
“Citizen journalists like Jim Meaney are exactly who anti-SLAPP laws are intended to protect,” said Christina Neitzey, Stanton Fellow in the Cornell First Amendment Clinic. “We are relieved that, through this settlement agreement, Jim can stand by his reporting and put this matter behind him.”
“I am deeply thankful that this case has reached a resolution,” said Meaney. “If it weren’t for the countless hours of tireless, pro bono work by the Clinic’s exceptional team of students and attorneys, and by Greenberg Traurig, my case would have had a very different outcome. Citizen journalists like me who lack the resources to mount a free speech legal defense against deep-pocketed entities are extremely fortunate to have the Cornell First Amendment Clinic ready to help.”
Meaney was represented by Michael Grygiel of Greenberg Traurig LLP, along with the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic’s Stanton Fellow Christina Neitzey, Clinic Director Mark H. Jackson, former Clinic Associate Director Jared Carter, former Clinic Associate Director Cortelyou Kenney, and former teaching fellow Tyler Valeska. Former First Amendment Clinic students Corby Burger, Michael Mapp, Rob Ward, Kasper Dworzanczyk, and James Pezzullo also contributed.
Clinic’s Local Journalism Project collaborates with Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Pittsburgh’s Public Source to provide pro bono legal help to local news outlets
PITTSBURGH – Adam Tragone has joined the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic as a Local Journalism Project Attorney in Western Pennsylvania, part of an innovative collaboration with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the nonprofit news site Pittsburgh’s Public Source. By offering pro bono legal representation, training and general legal support to news outlets and journalists, the initiative will help sustain local journalism in the Western Pennsylvania region.
“This collaboration gives reporters in Western Pennsylvania the legal backing they need to do their jobs,” said Marisa Kwiatkowski, director of journalism at Knight Foundation. “That support is foundational to a free press.”
Heather Murray, Associate Director of the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic and Managing Attorney of its Local Journalism Project, said, “We launched the Local Journalism Project six years ago and have been partnering with Reporters Committee in Pennsylvania since then. We are very excited to expand our critical work on behalf of local journalists into Western PA with Adam joining us as our second Clinic satellite attorney in addition to our attorney based in NYC.”
Partnering with local law firms and non-profits, including the Reporters Committee, Tragone will provide a wide range of legal services to news outlets and independent journalists, including seeking access to public records and court proceedings and records, defending against subpoenas, conducting pre-publication review and providing libel defense. He will also provide a variety of operations and commercial-related legal support from contract drafting and review to advice on corporate organization, fiscal sponsorship, IP, employee issues, privacy and physical and data security. This position is generously funded by The Heinz Endowments and The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Journalists and media outlets may reach out to Tragone for legal assistance at ajt273@cornell.edu.
The Reporters Committee’s Pennsylvania-based attorney, Paula Knudsen Burke, said, “We’re looking forward to working alongside Adam to ensure that journalists bringing news and information to communities across the Commonwealth have the legal support that’s too often needed to do their jobs, all at no cost. The collaboration between the Reporters Committee and the Cornell First Amendment Clinic has made a tangible difference for local journalism in Pennsylvania, and we’re excited to grow the capacity of this effort.”
The Reporters Committee is a leading pro bono legal services organization for journalists and newsrooms in the United States. They provide legal representation, amicus curiae support and other legal resources at no cost to protect First Amendment freedoms and the newsgathering rights of journalists across the country.
Halle Stockton, Executive Director and Editor-In-Chief of Public Source, said, “Adam will bring much needed legal services to journalists in Western Pennsylvania, helping to champion transparency and preserve community-driven storytelling.”
Pittsburgh’s Public Source is an independent nonprofit newsroom covering local government, community development, education, health and the environment, among other issues. Rooted in the communities it serves, its team produces fact-checked journalism that holds powerful institutions accountable to the people most affected by their decisions.
Tragone received his J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh and his B.A. from Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. As an attorney with the Institute for Free Speech in Washington, D.C., at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression in Philadelphia, and at Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky in Pittsburgh, Tragone has represented clients in a variety of First Amendment and media law matters. Prior to attending law school, Tragone served as the managing editor of a weekly newspaper in Washington, D.C.
“I’m thrilled to join the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic and collaborate with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Pittsburgh’s Public Source in defending and championing the First Amendment,” Tragone said. “As a newspaper editor and later in legal practice, I have always believed that a robust free press is crucial for democracy. In these challenging times, safeguarding the First Amendment is paramount.”
For more information, contact:
Adam J. Tragone, Local Journalism Project Attorney, Western Pennsylvania, Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic, ajt273@cornell.edu
Heather E. Murray, Associate Director, Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic, Managing Attorney, Local Journalism Project, hem58@cornell.edu
Sag Harbor Village released redacted bodycam video of Justine Timberlake’s 2024 arrest in response to a Freedom of Information Law request by The Express News Group, publisher of Sag Harbor Express, a client of The Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic’s Local Journalism Project.
“Police bodycam footage exists largely for public accountability — it shouldn’t be kept hidden, especially in a case like this, where there’s no legitimate reason for it to be secret.”
– Cornell Clinic Attorney Michael Linhorst
A temporary restraining order imposed by New York State County Court Judge and Acting Supreme Court Justice Joseph Farneti on March 5 had barred the release. The order prevented Sag Harbor Village, the Sag Harbor Village Police Department, and Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Robert Drake from disseminating the video footage, which had been slated for release in response to Freedom of Information Law requests.
“We’re glad to see that the Freedom of Information Law finally worked as it’s supposed to and these public records were made public,” Cornell First Amendment Clinic Local Journalism Attorney Michael Linhorst, who assisted with the FOIL appeal, said. “Police bodycam footage exists largely for public accountability — it shouldn’t be kept hidden, especially in a case like this, where there’s no legitimate reason for it to be secret.”
A redacted video was released on March 21 after attorneys for Timberlake and Sag Harbor Village reached an agreement.
Timberlake was arrested on June 18, 2024, and charged with driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor, but pleaded guilty on September 13, 2024, in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court to a lesser charge of driving while ability impaired by alcohol, a traffic infraction.
The day after the arrest, The Express News Group filed its first Freedom of Information request for the bodycam and dashcam video footage and audio recordings related to the pursuit, investigation, and arrest of Timberlake, which was denied. Police withheld the video on the grounds that its release would interfere with a pending judicial proceeding.
A second FOIL request after the guilty plea was entered was denied on the grounds that a protective order from Sag Harbor Village Justice Court prohibited its release. The Cornell Clinic appealed the denials each time. After the village’s counsel agreed to begin releasing the footage, an attorney for Timberlake successfully argued in village court that the protective order applied to bar the footage’s release. In doing so, the village court rejected the Clinic’s argument that the protective order did not extend to the police department, which was not a party to the order, and that the order did not nullify the public’s rights under FOIL.
For more background information on the FOIL requests and the released footage, see:
21 Months Later, Timberlake Arrest Video Is Released, The Sag Harbor Express
Watch: Justin Timberlake’s June 2024 Arrest in Sag Harbor Village, The Sag Harbor Express
Students and faculty from the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic visited The Wall Street Journal newsroom on March 13, where they heard from journalists and lawyers at the media organization. Investigative journalists Christopher Stewart, Joseph Palazzolo, Khadeeja Safdar and Marcelo Prince described the hard work that goes into creating impactful journalism. Members of the Dow Jones legal team — including Jason Conti, Jacob Goldstein, Craig Linder, Ava Lubell, Michael Adelman and Hannah Beattie — explained how lawyers help protect and enable the Journal’s high-impact journalism.
We are deeply grateful for their time and generosity in sharing insights—equipping students with the knowledge and perspective they will carry forward as they tackle their own matters at the Clinic.
Heather Murray, Associate Director of the Cornell First Amendment Clinic and Managing Attorney of its Local Journalism Project, took part in two Sunshine Week events in Pennsylvania last week. Sunshine Week, held annually in March, is a nationwide observance that emphasizes the importance of open government, public records, and freedom of information. Organized by the Brechner Freedom of Information Project, it gathers journalists, civic groups and citizens to promote government transparency and accountability.
On March 18, the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment brought together journalists and lawyers at Penn State for an event called “Sunlight in Happy Valley: Confronting Penn State’s Transparency Gap.” A panel of journalists discussed the difficulties covering the university. During the event, the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association awarded Terry Mutchler the Advocate of the Year award. Mutchler, chair of Philadelphia-based Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP’s Transparency and Public Data Practice, is a former journalist and the first executive director of Pennsylvania’s Office of Open Records.
Murray, joining a panel of attorneys after the journalists, addressed issues of transparency that have plagued Penn State over the years, as well as the Spotlight PA lawsuit against the university.
On March 19, Murray joined a Right to Know Law panel at Point Park University Center for Media Innovation in Pittsburgh. The event, hosted by the Pennsylvania Bar Association and sponsored by Del Sole Cavanaugh Stroyd LLC, was titled “From Requests to Appeals: A Sunshine Week Right to Know Law Program.” Moderated by Paula Knudsen Burke at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the panel also included Judge Daniel D. Regan, Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, and Zachary Gordon, Del Sole Cavanaugh Stroyd LLC. Panelists discussed the basics of the RTKL and the RTKL appeals process in Allegheny County.
The Clinic’s new First Amendment lawsuit, seeking to establish important legal rights for protestors in New York City’s many “privately owned public spaces,” or POPS, attracted widespread attention. Here is a selection of some of the news coverage:
Suit Argues for Free Speech in Privately Owned Public Spaces, THE CITY
NYC’s Private-Public Spaces Are at Center of Free Speech Fight, Bloomberg Law
Ex-prosecutor Sues Over Arrest While Protesting Law Firm Skadden’s Deal With Trump, Reuters
Ex-Prosecutor Sues After Arrest During Protest of Skadden, Law360
Former Prosecutor ARRESTED After Standing Up to Trump, Legal AF (interview with Clinic’s client)
Retired prosecutor David O’Keefe filed a lawsuit today to vindicate his — and the public’s — First Amendment rights after he was arrested while protesting outside the Midtown headquarters of a law firm that made a deal with the Trump administration
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, names the City of New York, Brookfield Properties, and others as defendants. It seeks to establish important legal rights for New Yorkers in the city’s many “privately owned public spaces,” or POPS.
O’Keefe was standing in a Brookfield-owned POPS when he was arrested on April 2, 2025. He was protesting outside the headquarters of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Days earlier, Skadden had reached a deal with the Trump administration in which the firm promised free legal services in support of initiatives backed by the President. O’Keefe, as a career prosecutor who views the independence of lawyers and the maintenance of the rule of law as critically important, opposed Skadden’s deal.
Skadden is headquartered in One Manhattan West, an office building owned by Brookfield that sits across Ninth Avenue from Moynihan Station. It is bordered by a POPS.
During his protest, O’Keefe stood in the POPS and held a sign that said, “Hey Skadden, I found your spine in the trash lying next to your values!” It described Skadden as “Trump’s $100 million lap dog.” And to put a finer point on his message, he also held a replica human spine.
This POPS is one of dozens of others in the city. Collectively, they constitute more than 3.8 million square feet of public space, the equivalent of nine Bryant Parks.
POPS are created pursuant to an agreement between the property owner and the city. If the owner agrees to include a POPS on its property, the City will allow the owner to construct a larger building than the New York City Zoning Resolution would otherwise permit.
These POPS are open to the public and indistinguishable from public sidewalks, plazas, or parks. They are spaces where commuters walk to work, tourists gather, shoppers stroll — and where people sometimes hold protests.
But New Yorkers may be surprised to learn that, according to the property owners and NYPD, they do not have First Amendment rights when they are in these vast public spaces.
Even though O’Keefe’s protest did not impede the flow of pedestrian travel, did not include sound amplification, and did not violate any rules of the POPS, a security guard working for the property owner told O’Keefe to leave the POPS. O’Keefe refused, prompting security to call NYPD. Officers arrived and told O’Keefe he could not continue his protest in the POPS. When O’Keefe declined to leave or stop his protest, the NYPD officers arrested him.
O’Keefe’s lawsuit seeks to make clear that the public enjoys the same First Amendment rights in POPS as in any other public space. O’Keefe is represented by Michael Linhorst and Daniela del Rosario Wertheimer of the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic and civil rights lawyer Gideon Oliver, who has represented people arrested at POPS since Occupy Wall Street.
O’Keefe has continued to protest in the same POPS since his April arrest. He has repeatedly been instructed by security guards to leave and has each time refused. The threat of wrongful government censorship and re-arrest looms every time he ventures out to protest.
“POPS are public spaces. Peaceful protestors should not be silenced just because they choose to protest in one,” O’Keefe said. “This action attempts to hold a major New York City real estate company, Brookfield, to account for its failure to honor the deal and keep public spaces public,” Wertheimer said. “Though building tenants may not like what Mr. O’Keefe has to say, when he says it in a POPS, he is protected by the U.S. and New York State Constitutions. No property owner, security company, or police officer has the power to shut Mr. O’Keefe down for his lawful and peaceful protests.”
The case is O’Keefe v. City of New York et al., no. 1:25-cv-10532.
Contact:
Michael Linhorst
Cornell First Amendment Clinic
MML89@cornell.edu
The First Amendment Clinic won an important appeal on November 26 that strengthens New York journalists’ ability to protect their anonymous sources and the rest of their newsgathering. The appeals court unanimously held that a subpoena of Joseph Abraham, the former managing editor of the Sullivan County Democrat, had to be quashed because the party that issued the subpoena failed to meet the strict test imposed by the New York Shield Law.
The Shield Law protects journalists against being forced to disclose any unpublished information, including information about an unnamed source, even if the source was not expressly promised confidentiality. The law sets out a stringent test a party must meet before it can enforce a subpoena against the journalist. The test requires the party to show that the information is “highly relevant” to the party’s legal claim, “critical or necessary” to the claim, and not available from any other source. Here, the appeals court held that the party failed to meet that test.
In its ruling last week, the Third Department Appellate Division quoted New York’s highest court to emphasize that the Shield Law “codifies this state’s ‘consistent tradition of providing the broadest possible protection to the sensitive role of gathering and disseminating news of public events.’”
“We are heartened that the Appellate Division reversed the lower court and reaffirmed the strength of the Shield Law,” said Michael Linhorst, the clinic’s local journalism attorney.
Michael Linhorst
“The Shield Law provides critical protection for the free press,” Linhorst said. “Without it, journalists would risk being forced to testify whenever they covered a controversial issue —they would become unpaid investigators for the litigants, taken away from their work of reporting for the public.”
The case is Anthony v. Haas et al., a defamation lawsuit in which neither Abraham nor the Sullivan County Democrat are defendants. The suit relates to an investigation the Town of Highland conducted into Marc Anthony, who was then the town constabulary. The newspaper obtained a copy of the town’s investigation report that had not yet been made public, and it published an article about the investigation that referenced an unnamed source. Anthony later sued a town board member, alleging defamation related to the investigation, and he attempted to subpoena Abraham for documents and testimony about the identity of the newspaper’s source, apparently hoping to show that the defendant provided information to the newspaper.
On behalf of Abraham and the Sullivan County Democrat, the clinic asked the Sullivan County Supreme Court to quash the subpoena. The clinic initially succeeded in quashing it on procedural grounds. Later, the plaintiff re-issued the subpoena, and the Supreme Court denied the clinic’s second motion to quash, concluding that the plaintiff had overcome the Shield Law’s test for overcoming the qualified privilege. As the appeals court recognized, this conclusion was incorrect.
The Appellate Division held that because the plaintiff could obtain the information he wanted from the source who spoke to the newspaper rather than the newspaper itself, “Plaintiff cannot show that the information is unavailable from another source,” and so failed to meet the Shield Law’s three-part test. It also faulted the lower court for failing to make the findings of fact on the record in support of its decision that are required by the Shield Law.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has ordered the state Department of Education to release Penn State University Board of Trustees records to investigative news outlet Spotlight PA. Spotlight PA is represented by the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic and co-counsel the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
The dispute began in May 2023 when Spotlight PA filed open records requests with the Pennsylvania Departments of Education and Agriculture seeking documents the agencies’ secretaries used while serving on Penn State’s governing board.
In the fall of 2023, the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records determined that requested records must be made public under the state Right to Know Law. Penn State and the Department of Education appealed, arguing that they were not subject to the RTKL and did not possess or control the records because the materials were stored on Diligent, a cloud-based file-sharing platform. The agencies further contended that disclosure of unredacted information could harm the university’s finances and employee retention.
The Commonwealth Court rejected Penn State and the Department of Education’s arguments as “without merit,” warning that “[h]olding otherwise would perversely incentivize Commonwealth agencies, local agencies, and affected third parties like Penn State to utilize remote servers and/or cloud-based services, in order to ensure that they would no longer need to disclose what would otherwise constitute public records.” Allowing such a result, the Court said, “would run contrary to the RTKL’s remedial purpose and the General Assembly’s intent that the RTKL be used as a vehicle for increasing and ensuring government transparency.”
“This decision is a major victory for government transparency and accountability,” said Devin Brader-Araje, a Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic student who argued the case at the Commonwealth Court. “The Court made clear that government officials cannot use technology to hide public information from the public. The ruling reaffirms that Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law will continue to serve its intended purpose of ensuring open access to government records.”
In addition to Brader-Araje, the team that worked on the case included the Clinic’s Associate Director Heather Murray, who manages the Clinic’s Local Journalism Project, RCFP attorney Paula Knudsen Burke, former extern Nyssa Kruse and former student Robert Plafker.
The Local Journalism Project provides pro bono legal assistance on behalf of news outlets, journalists, researchers and other newsgatherers in aid of their critical function of reporting and communicating important news and information to their communities. The Local Journalism
Project also provides counsel on a range of issues crucial to the operations of community newsrooms.
For coverage of the case, visit the following link: https://www.spotlightpa.org/statecollege/2025/10/penn-state-pennsylvania-commonwealth-court-public-records-penn-state/.
The Cornell First Amendment Clinic filed suit in federal court in Vermont in late August to protect the First Amendment speech and religious rights of former prison volunteer Devon Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz served as a volunteer Quaker minister at the Southern State Correctional Facility (“SSCF”) in Springfield, VT until July 2024, when Vermont Department of Corrections (“VTDOC”) officials fired him for helping publish a book called Sketches From Beyond Prison Walls (“Sketches”). The lawsuit is brought to ensure that individuals’ fundamental right to critique the government—whether stemming from political belief or religious conviction—is insulated from unlawful censorship or retaliation.
The complaint alleges that Sketches, a collection of writings, drawings, and commentary contributed by men incarcerated at SSCF and Mr. Kurtz himself, constituted political and religious expression protected by the First Amendment. Sketches grew out of years of collaboration between Mr. Kurtz and a Quaker inmate at SSCF. The book, which paints a nuanced portrait of life behind bars, makes no secret of the spiritual and critical motivations behind its creation, highlighting, for example, instances of medical neglect and cell overcrowding and detailing the moral and religious experiences of the book’s authors.
It came as a surprise to Mr. Kurtz when, on July 9, 2024—nearly three months after Sketches was published—he was fired from his role as a volunteer Quaker minister. As the allegations in the complaint show, VTDOC personnel never disciplined Mr. Kurtz nor raised issues about Sketches prior to the day of his firing. More confusing yet, VTDOC claimed that Mr. Kurtz was fired for violating a prison policy limiting the news media’s ability to access and report on SSCF; plainly, this policy did not apply to Mr. Kurtz, a volunteer prison minister. VTDOC’s stated reason for firing Mr. Kurtz, the complaint argues, is mere pretext—VTDOC actually took issue with the protected speech and religious expression contained in the pages of Sketches.
“Nothing is more fundamental to the First Amendment than the basic principle that the government may not retaliate against us when we speak out on matters of public concern or exercise our religious beliefs. This case sits at squarely at the juncture of these two basic First Amendment protections and the Clinic is proud to represent Mr. Kurtz in his effort to vindicate these rights,”
Jared Carter, an adjunct faculty member and attorney with the Clinic, said. Carter is working with students on the case alongside Clinic Associate Director, Heather Murray, and Stanton Fellow, Daniela del Rosario Werthheimer.
Clinic students Devin Brader-Araje ‘26, Zachary Jacobson ‘26, Gregory Jameson ‘25, Lexie Kapilian ‘26, and John Seo ‘25 worked on drafting the demand letter and complaint.
In January, the department denied a public records request from New York Focus requesting call logs for the phone number that the agency advertises to people who need help filing claims.
On July 7, after the agency denied an appeal, New York Focus brought an Article 78 lawsuit against the agency, arguing that the records must be disclosed under the law. The case is pending.
“This lawsuit is about making sure New Yorkers can keep tabs on what the Department of Labor is doing and whether it is serving the public as it should,” said Michael Linhorst, the attorney at Cornell Law School’s First Amendment Clinic who filed the suit. “The department appears to be trying to misapply an unrelated confidentiality law to keep the records hidden.”
The full article can be found here