Category Archives: Politics & media law

FAQ about Trump & the press

Posted on February 25, 2017 by | Comments Off on FAQ about Trump & the press

EnemyQ: Donald Trump says the press is the “enemy of the people.”  How unusual is that?
A:  It is the first time anything like that idea has come from an American president. Historically,  the phrase “enemy of the people” is employed by dictators presiding over totalitarian states, such as Joseph Stalin in Russia or Mao Zedong in China.   It is also the title of an Henrik Ibsen play, but the central figure is a doctor who is concerned about water pollution at a local resort that is an economic mainstay of a small town.  Continue reading →

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Posted in Politics & media law

What happens when a waste company sues critics

Posted on June 4, 2016 by | Comments Off on What happens when a waste company sues critics
Ben Eaton, Mary Schaeffer, Esther Calhoun, and Ellis Long (from left to right) with the ACLU are asking a federal court to dismiss the defamation lawsuit brought against them for standing up to the exploitation of their town.

Ben Eaton, Mary Schaeffer, Esther Calhoun, and Ellis Long (from left to right) successfully asked courts to dismiss the defamation lawsuit brought against them for speaking out about pollution in their town. (ACLU)

In June 2016, four Alabama citizens asked their state courts to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought against them for criticizing the operations of a waste disposal company.

The courts agreed with the motion to dismiss in February, 2017.

The initial lawsuit was filed April 2016 by the owners of a Uniontown, Alabama waste dump, who alleged that the four citizens had hurt their reputation when they criticized the dump in statements to the media and on their Black Belt Citizens Facebook page.

Among the things that Eaton, Schaeffer, Calhoun and Long  said about the landfill that allegedly harmed Green Group Holdings (according to their court filings):

1. I feel like I’m in prison, we’re suffocated by toxic pollution and extreme poverty. Where are my freedoms? This is an environmental injustice & it’s happening in Uniontown and  everywhere. Its a landfill, its a tall mountain of coal ash and it has affected us. It affected our everyday life. It really has done a lot to our freedom. Its another impact of slavery.
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Posted in Libel, Politics & media law