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To the extent that a Wisconsin public university faculty member's emails are connected to a "government function," they may be covered under the state's Open Records law. But whether Cronon's emails meet this criterion is not presently clear. And even then, the court held in Schill that if the emails are in fact records, "then the court must undertake a balancing test to decide whether the statutory presumption favoring disclosure of public records is outweighed by any other public interest."

Harvard Law Professor Yochai Benkler is about to release a comprehensive study on the U.S. government and media's role in censoring WikiLeaks. The forthcoming report , to appear in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, titled "A Free Irresponsible Press: WikiLeaks and the Batter over the Soul of the Networked Fourth Estate." In the report, Benkler dissects the mechanisms that have censored WikiLeaks.

For Marshall

In The Life Media looks at the controversy surrounding the removal of David Wojnarowicz's video installation, "A Fire in My Belly," from the National Portrait Gallery's Hide/Seek show at the Smithsonian. The video, which represents the artist's anger as he faced death from AIDS ignited outrage among conservative lawmakers and religious leaders.

According to Democracy Now!, Iowa lawmakers are considering a bill that would prohibit animal rights activists from recording undercover videos of farm animals being abused. The bill, which has garnered support from the state's agricultural industry, would impose fines and jail time on anyone who seeks employment in an agricultural position in order to capture the footage. Undercover videos in recent years have led to numerous plant closures and meat recalls after revelations of mistreatment of cows, pigs, and other farm animals.

The Supreme Court ruled more than 50 years ago today that the First Amendment protects a right to anonymous speech. In Talley v. California (1960), the Court ruled in favor of civil rights activist Manuel Talley in a decision that remains a valuable precedent, particularly in the age of Internet and its amplification of anonymous speech.

Thomas and Alito tend to view the American public and the media largely through the prism of their own confirmation hearings-which they found to be painful and humiliating. They both appear to believe that allowing a camera into a room transforms any event into a "raucous media event" (to use Alito's language from the Westboro Church opinion).