Groundbreaking statement of the Right to Videotape Police performing duty. Highlights from the opinion:
"[I]s there a constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public? Basic First Amendment principles, along with case law from this and other circuits, answer that question unambiguously in the affirmative."
"Glik filmed the defendant police officers in the Boston Common, the oldest city park in the United States and the apotheosis of a public forum. In such traditional public spaces, the rights of the state to limit the exercise of First Amendment activity are 'sharply circumscribed.'"
"[A] citizen's right to film government officials, including law enforcement officers, in the discharge of their duties in a public space is a basic, vital, and well-established liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment."
"Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting 'the free discussion of governmental affairs.'"
Media Commentary:
1st Circuit: A Clearly Established First Amendment Right to Film Officers In A Public Space (This Is A Big Deal) Part I RighttoRecord.org, extensive discussion with reference to other strategic cases.
A Victory for Recording in Public! by J. Hermes Copblock.org
Courts split over First Amendment protection for recording police performance of public duties Reporters Committee on Freedom of the Press
Court says state law used to ban recording of police officers in public is unconstitutional followed by a long set of comments
A Victory for Recording in Public! Citizen Media Law Project, Amicus Brief
Opinion of First Circuit
United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 10-1764
SIMON GLIK,
Plaintiff, …