Where (1) Puerto Rico enacted a statute authorizing municipalities to grant permits to neighborhood homeowners' associations called urbanizations to control vehicular and pedestrian access and (2) the plaintiffs have brought suit claiming that they have been prevented from entering urbanizations to engage in constitutionally protected activity, including door-to-door religious proselytizing, a judgment rejecting the plaintiffs’ claims must be vacated to the extent that the plaintiffs are alleging that the statute is unconstitutional as applied to them.
Constitutional – First Amendment – Religious proselytizing
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Constitutional – First Amendment – Reappointment
Where a defendant town council refused to reappoint a plaintiff to an unpaid advisory committee position after he publicly criticized some of the council’s policies, we hold that the failure to reappoint, though premised on a lawful exercise of the plaintiff’s right to free speech, did not violate the First Amendment.
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Securities – First Amendment
Where plaintiffs have challenged on First Amendment grounds a charge that they violated state law by offering unregistered securities for sale by means of a website and email, the challenge must be rejected based on this court’s conclusion that the challenged provisions of Massachusetts law are part of a constitutionally permissible disclosure scheme and, to the extent that they restrict speech, are tailored in a reasonable manner to serve a substantial state interest in promoting the integrity of capital markets by ensuring a fully informed investing public.
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Civil practice – First Amendment – School committee meeting
Where a multi-count complaint has been filed over the closure of the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) program at the Westfield Vocational Technical High School in which one plaintiff and the children of the other plaintiffs were enrolled, a motion by municipal defendants to dismiss the complaint should be denied to the extent that the municipal defendants were in charge of a school committee meeting at which the plaintiffs allegedly were coerced and intimidated from exercising their First Amendment rights.
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Constitutional – First Amendment – Condominium
Where a plaintiff condominium association brought suit to recover the expenses it incurred as a result of the defendant's posting of two signs critical of management in the trash room of the condominium, the suit is barred by the First Amendment.
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Constitutional – First Amendment – Maine – Mural
Where the governor of Maine removed a state-owned mural, commissioned by the former administration, from its location on the walls of a small waiting room for visitors to the Maine Department of Labor, no violation of the First Amendment has been shown.
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Constitutional – First Amendment – Traffic stop
Where defendant police officers (1) arrested a plaintiff who was attempting to film a late-night traffic stop and (2) charged her with violating a state wiretapping statute, the officers are not entitled to qualified immunity in a subsequent civil rights suit initiated by the plaintiff. “… Carla Gericke attempted to film Sergeant Joseph Kelley as ...
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Constitutional – Standing – First Amendment – Billboards
Where a judge dismissed a complaint challenging the constitutionality of the Massachusetts permitting scheme for billboards, the plaintiffs do not lack standing, so the dismissal order must be reversed. “… After careful consideration, we conclude that the complaint plausibly alleges that the plaintiffs are subject to a regulatory permitting scheme that grants an official unbridled ...
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Judge invalidates two for-profit school regulations
A U.S. District Court judge has declared two state regulations applicable to for-profit schools unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. The Massachusetts Association of Private Career Schools (MAPCS) challenged nine recently adopted regulations that are generally intended to prevent unfair practices in the recruiting and enrollment of students at for-profit schools. One of them — the ...
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Constitutional – First Amendment – Religious proselytizing
Where (1) Puerto Rico enacted a statute authorizing municipalities to grant permits to neighborhood homeowners' associations called urbanizations to control vehicular and pedestrian access and (2) the plaintiffs have brought suit claiming that they have been prevented from entering urbanizations to engage in constitutionally protected activity, including door-to-door religious proselytizing, a judgment rejecting the plaintiffs’ claims must be vacated to the extent that the plaintiffs are alleging that the statute is unconstitutional as applied to them.
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Constitutional – First Amendment – Reappointment
Where a defendant town council refused to reappoint a plaintiff to an unpaid advisory committee position after he publicly criticized some of the council’s policies, we hold that the failure to reappoint, though premised on a lawful exercise of the plaintiff’s right to free speech, did not violate the First Amendment.
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Securities – First Amendment
Where plaintiffs have challenged on First Amendment grounds a charge that they violated state law by offering unregistered securities for sale by means of a website and email, the challenge must be rejected based on this court’s conclusion that the challenged provisions of Massachusetts law are part of a constitutionally permissible disclosure scheme and, to the extent that they restrict speech, are tailored in a reasonable manner to serve a substantial state interest in promoting the integrity of capital markets by ensuring a fully informed investing public.
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Civil practice – First Amendment – School committee meeting
Where a multi-count complaint has been filed over the closure of the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) program at the Westfield Vocational Technical High School in which one plaintiff and the children of the other plaintiffs were enrolled, a motion by municipal defendants to dismiss the complaint should be denied to the extent that the municipal defendants were in charge of a school committee meeting at which the plaintiffs allegedly were coerced and intimidated from exercising their First Amendment rights.
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Constitutional – First Amendment – Condominium
Where a plaintiff condominium association brought suit to recover the expenses it incurred as a result of the defendant's posting of two signs critical of management in the trash room of the condominium, the suit is barred by the First Amendment.
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Constitutional – First Amendment – Maine – Mural
Where the governor of Maine removed a state-owned mural, commissioned by the former administration, from its location on the walls of a small waiting room for visitors to the Maine Department of Labor, no violation of the First Amendment has been shown.
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Constitutional – First Amendment – Traffic stop
Where defendant police officers (1) arrested a plaintiff who was attempting to film a late-night traffic stop and (2) charged her with violating a state wiretapping statute, the officers are not entitled to qualified immunity in a subsequent civil rights suit initiated by the plaintiff. “… Carla Gericke attempted to film Sergeant Joseph Kelley as ...
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Constitutional – Standing – First Amendment – Billboards
Where a judge dismissed a complaint challenging the constitutionality of the Massachusetts permitting scheme for billboards, the plaintiffs do not lack standing, so the dismissal order must be reversed. “… After careful consideration, we conclude that the complaint plausibly alleges that the plaintiffs are subject to a regulatory permitting scheme that grants an official unbridled ...
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Judge invalidates two for-profit school regulations
A U.S. District Court judge has declared two state regulations applicable to for-profit schools unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. The Massachusetts Association of Private Career Schools (MAPCS) challenged nine recently adopted regulations that are generally intended to prevent unfair practices in the recruiting and enrollment of students at for-profit schools. One of them — the ...
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