First Amendment Coalition
This article is outside of Ballotpedia's coverage scope and does not receive scheduled updates. If you would like to help our coverage scope grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia.
This article does not contain the most recently published data on this subject. If you would like to help our coverage grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia.
The First Amendment Coalition is an award-winning, nonprofit public interest organization dedicated to advancing free speech, more open and accountable government, and public participation in civic affairs. The Coalition acts locally, statewide and nationally. Founded in 1988 as the “California First Amendment Coalition,” the organization in 2009 shrunk its name to “First Amendment Coalition.” The change confirms the organization's expanding role, and it acknowledges the declining relevance, in the internet era, of state borders to many First Amendment issues.
Mission statement
"The mission of the First Amendment Coalition is to protect and promote freedom of expression and the people’s right to know. The Coalition is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational and advocacy organization serving the public, public servants, and the media in all its forms. Its constituency reflects an increasingly diverse society. The Coalition is committed to the principle that government is accountable to the people, and strives through education, public advocacy, litigation, and other efforts to prevent unnecessary government secrecy and to resist censorship of all kinds."(Board of Directors, August 18, 2008)[1]
Litigation
The Coalition acts locally, statewide and nationally. The Coalition co-authored Proposition 59, the Sunshine Amendment to the California constitution enacted by voters in 2004, and since then has taken the lead in enforcing this new right, pressuring state agencies to be more transparent in their decision-making. The organization has pursued an innovative, and highly successful, program of “strategic” litigation: carefully planned test-case lawsuits calculated to strengthen existing protections, and to create new ones, for free speech and access to government.
The organization's objective is not to vindicate one person’s rights, but to advance the law in a way that enhances government openness and accountability for the largest number of citizens. Some pending and recent cases:
Coalition v. CALPERS FAC successfully sued CALPERS, California’s public employee retirement system, to force it to disclose the management fees it pays to venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds in which CALPERS invests. Because of its huge size, CALPERS is the de facto standard-setter for the pension industry nationally. When CALPERS settled the suit, agreeing to most of the fee disclosures FAC had sought, pension plans across the country followed suit.
Coalition v. Santa Clara County In a landmark case, the Coalition successfully sued Santa Clare County for access to its GIS database of real estate parcels, which the county claims is protected by copyright and federal Homeland Security information controls. A major decision by the Court of Appeal affirmed the public’s right to this valuable digital mapping data created with taxpayer funds. The Court’s path-breaking decision was the first in the country to rule on the crucial Homeland Security issues.
Coalition v. Government of China The Coalition is petitioning the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington to challenge China’s internet censorship before the World Trade Organization. FCA's argument: that China’s censorship regime violates the free trade treaties to which China became subject upon joining the WTO in 2001.
Coalition v. California Legislature The Coalition, together with Maplight.org, successfully sued the California Legislative Counsel for public access to the complete database of state legislative actions. Legislative materials were traditionally offered, but only on a one-bill-at-a-time basis, which effectively precludes analysis of special interest influence. As part of the resolution of this litigation, journalists, bloggers and concerned citizens will soon be able to track the impact of campaign contributions on legislative outcomes.
Coalition v. Schwarzenegger FAC sued Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to obtain his calendars of meetings and those of his top aides. We argued that a state Supreme Court decision sustaining a denial of access to these records was implicitly overturned by a newly enacted Constitutional amendment sponsored by FAC and which the governor had championed during the election. Schwarzenegger settled, agreeing to turn over nearly all the calendars. The huge publicity attending this decision created a new political reality in California. Although the law on access to gubernatorial calendars remains unclear, all statewide office holders and many officials at the local and regional level were forced, by political pressure, to disclose their calendars, too.
Contact information
Peter Scheer,
Executive Director
email: pscheer@firstamendmentcoalition.org
Deborah Fruin,
Program Coordinator
email: dfruin@firstamendmentcoalition.org
Donal Brown,
Website Editor, Volunteer
email: dbrown@firstamendmentcoalition.org
Judy Alexander
Special Counsel for Access Litigation
Address
534 4th Street, Suite B
San Rafael, CA 94901
Phone: (415) 460-5060
Fax: (415) 460-5155
See also
- California Transparency Advocates
External links
Footnotes
