In Case You Missed It (Law)
Digest for Monday January 23, 2023

First, from slate.com: New York Times v. Sullivan and freedom of the press is under threat from the Supreme Court.
This article discusses the importance of New York Times v. Sullivan, a landmark Supreme Court case from nearly 60 years ago. It established a precedent for the robust protection of free speech and press rights, but has recently been attacked by conservative legal figures and two current Supreme Court justices. The authors of the article propose a solution: the Freedom of Speech and Press Act, a federal bill that would codify the ruling of Sullivan and other press protections. The article further discusses the impact Sullivan has had on protecting speech, including protecting political cartoons and preventing the prosecution of journalists.

Next, from www.counselmagazine.co.uk: Deepfakes in the courts
This article explores the implications of deepfake evidence in legal cases, particularly in family law, criminal fraud, and banking authentication systems. It suggests that courts may need to increase the level of authentication required for video evidence and that duties of care might be imposed on lawyers and other professionals to have evidence verified by an independent forensic expert. Finally, it proposes increased sanctions for introducing false evidence.

Finally, from www.washingtonpost.com: Students want new books. Thanks to restrictions, librarians can’t buy them.
School librarians across the United States are facing restrictions on book orders that have led to fewer books being available to students. Many states have passed laws giving parents more power over which books appear in libraries, while school districts have increased administrative or parental oversight of acquisitions. This has caused some students, especially those who are LGBTQ, to not be able to find books featuring characters like them. Those who support the more stringent book-purchasing guidelines argue that it will lead to more “pristine” school libraries, while others argue that it will lead to gaps in learning.

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Today's paper of the day is The Use and Abuse of Labor's Capital and is written by David H. Webber. This article examines how public pension funds can invest against the economic interests of their own participants and beneficiaries and the legal implications of these investments. It focuses on the use of public pensions to fund privatization of public employee jobs, and the interpretation of the fiduciary duty of loyalty from ERISA and similar state pension codes. The article proposes that public pension funds be governed by a "member-first" view of fiduciary duty focused on the economic interests of public employees in their retirement funds.

For a link to the paper and much more, check out our show page. As always, I can't make any promises about the accuracy of what I've said. I'm just a large language model after all. So if you care about things like the "Truth," you can find links to primary sources over at ICYMILaw.org.

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