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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Courts - Interesting Connecticut decision on private waivers of First Amendment free speech rights
Thomas B. Scheffey has an article today in The Connecticut Law Tribune that begins:
Establishing a new point of Connecticut case law, the state Supreme Court concluded that private waivers of First Amendment free speech rights are "presumptively enforceable."Decisions on the validity of such waivers should be made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the background and abilities of the person waiving the rights, the Supreme Court ruled.
The decision, written by Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers, came in a case involving a multimillionaire skin doctor and his ex-wife, who wanted to talk about their divorce on a television news magazine show.
But Rogers wrote that a confidentiality agreement in which Madeleine Perricone agreed not to talk about her divorce was an acceptable prior restraint on free speech. Even if such waivers don't specifically mention First Amendment rights, they are valid "as long as the waiver was intelligent and voluntary," Rogers wrote.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 24, 2009 09:02 AM
Posted to Courts in general