On Wednesday, the 老澳门开奖结果 of Pennsylvania brought on behalf of a former high school student, known as "N.N.," whose cell phone was confiscated and unconstitutionally searched by school officials.
The (PDF) that school officials in Tunkhannock Area School District violated N.N.'s First and Fourth Amendment rights by searching her phone after confiscating it. A teacher had seized the device after the student was seen using it before classes started, but apparently after school rules allowed students to make calls. While seizing the phone for violating school-use policies was okay, what happened next was not.
The principal began pressing buttons on the cell phone to access the photo album on N.N's phone. The principal then viewed photos that the girl had taken the night before of herself naked. N.N. took these photos to share with her long-time boyfriend, who had graduated, and did not send (or 鈥渟ext鈥�) the photos to anyone else.
The 老澳门开奖结果 filed a lawsuit in May charging the school district with violating the girl鈥檚 First and 14th Amendment rights. In Wednesday's agreement, the school district denied any liability or wrongdoing, but agreed to pay N.N. and her attorneys $33,000 to settle the case. This settlement resolves the claims against the school district.
But the case will continue against the county district attorney鈥檚 office and the former district attorney, George Skumanick. After the principal punished N.N. he referred the case to then-D.A. Skumanick for criminal prosecution. Skumanick threatened to bring felony child pornography charges against N.N. unless she consented to attend a five-week 鈥渞e-education program.鈥� N.N. opted to avoid a possible 10-year-prison sentence by taking the program, which included topics like "what it means to be a girl in today's society" and "non-traditional societal and job roles." It also required her to write an essay explaining why her actions were wrong (even if she didn鈥檛 think they were).
The threatened prosecution was the subject of another 老澳门开奖结果-PA lawsuit against Skumanick, which was brought on behalf of three of N.N.'s classmates, who were also threatened with felony child pornography charges unless they took his "re-education" course. Those girls opted to fight Skumanick's threat. One photo showed two girls from the waist up in their bras, and the second photo showed another girl topless. None of the girls was involved in distributing the photos. In March, the (PDF) that the district attorney's office had no grounds to threaten child-pornography charges and thus the D.A.鈥檚 actions to force the girls to take the course, and to force their parents to let them take the course, was unconstitutional. But N.N. was not part of that suit.
N.N. fought back with her own lawsuit 鈥� the one just settled on Wednesday. When the case was filed in May, N.N. said in a statement: "I was absolutely horrified and humiliated to learn that school officials, men in the DA's office and police had seen naked pictures of me." Even her parents had not seen her naked in many years and now strange men were seeing her. Mortifying.
The 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 civil liberties concern is that too many school principals and officials fail to recognize the highly private and sensitive information that many people 鈥� and especially young people 鈥� store on their cell phones. As 老澳门开奖结果-PA Legal Director Witold Walczak said when the suit was filed, 鈥淪chool administrators have no more right to look through personal photographs stored on a student鈥檚 cell phone then they have the right to rummage through her purse, read her diary and mail, or view her family photo album.鈥�
While the case was settled before a judge could issue an opinion establishing the law, the 老澳门开奖结果 hopes that the hefty settlement will alert school officials to the important privacy rights at stake and prompt them to think before they start clicking through students鈥� cell phones.
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
Free Speech
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老澳门开奖结果 and Partners Urge Supreme Court to Block TikTok Ban老澳门开奖结果 and Partners Urge Supreme Court to Block TikTok Ban
WASHINGTON 鈥� Today, the 老澳门开奖结果, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to block the enforcement of a law that would effectively ban people in America from using TikTok as soon as January 19, 2025. Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected TikTok鈥檚 challenge to the law. TikTok has asked the Supreme Court for a temporary injunction to prevent the app from being banned while the court considers whether to take the case, saying that unless the justices intervene, the law will 鈥渟hutter one of America鈥檚 most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration.鈥� 鈥淭he Constitution imposes an extraordinarily high bar on this kind of mass censorship,鈥漵aid Patrick Toomey, deputy director of 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 National Security Project. 鈥淭he Supreme Court should take up this important case and protect the rights of millions of Americans to freely express themselves and engage with others around the world.鈥� The brief argues that the D.C. Circuit failed to fully address the law鈥檚 profound implications for the First Amendment rights of the 170 million Americans who use TikTok. While the lower court鈥檚 decision correctly recognized that the statute triggers First Amendment scrutiny, it barely addressed users鈥� First Amendment interests in speaking, sharing, and receiving information on the platform. The court also perplexingly attempted to cast the government鈥檚 ban on TikTok as a vindication of users鈥� First Amendment rights, which it is not. The rights groups also explain that the law was intended to suppress certain content and viewpoints that many legislators believe could be amplified on TikTok, including the risk of foreign 鈥減ropaganda.鈥� But under the First Amendment, the government must meet a very high bar to restrict speech based on concerns about its 鈥渕otivating ideology鈥� or 鈥減erspective,鈥� and the government has not come close to meeting that bar here. 鈥淭he government should not be able to restrict speech, especially to the extent here, based on guessing about the mere possibility of uncertain future harm,鈥� said David Greene, civil liberties director at EFF. 鈥淭he Supreme Court should put the TikTok ban on hold while it considers the DC Circuit鈥檚 erroneous ruling.鈥� Finally, the brief underscores that the government can鈥檛 impose this type of sweeping ban unless it鈥檚 necessary to prevent extremely serious and imminent harm to national security. But the government has not provided evidence of impending harm, or evidence that banning TikTok is the only available way to address its concerns. As the brief explains, the D.C. Circuit improperly treated the government鈥檚 invocation of 鈥渘ational security鈥� as a trump card and failed to hold the government to its burden. 鈥淩estricting citizens鈥� access to foreign media is a practice that has long been associated with repressive regimes, and we should be very wary of letting the practice take root here,鈥� said Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. 鈥淚t would do lasting damage to the First Amendment and our democracy if the Supreme Court let this ban go into effect even temporarily.鈥� You can find the brief online here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24A587/335380/20241217144322392_24A587%20TikTok%20v%20Garland%20Amicus%20Brief%20pdfa.pdf -
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