Green v. Pierce County

The internet’s democratization of news-gathering and publication hinges on two established First Amendment doctrines.

First, the Press Clause belongs to everyone. Our country does not know of an official or semi-official state-endorsed press, possessing special privileges to control the flow of information and opinion. Anyone is free to gather information and use it to publish news and commentary. Second, speaker discrimination is often acknowledged as content-based discrimination. Courts understand that state favoritism of some speakers invariably reflects state favoritism of those speakers’ messages, viewpoints, and priorities.

As Americans have taken to the online public square, the First Amendment has assured that they enjoy equal unimpeded rights to gather the news and report it to their fellow citizens.

Read the full brief here. A blog post explaining this case and its importance to upholding freedom of the press for all who gather and report on the news is available here.