News & Media

Clare Norins, director of the University of Georgia’s First Amendment Clinic, spoke with Georgia Public Broadcasting’s Orlando Montoya about recent petition-and-referendum initiatives in Georgia, including voters’ rejection of the Camden County spaceport project, which outcome was upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court, and the petition effort to stop the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (APSTC), which has been the subject of federal litigation.

Georgia Journalism and Access Project Attorney Samantha C. Hamilton was interviewed  by The Augusta Chronicle about Columbia County, Georgia’s unconstitutional “panhandling” ordinance. The article titled “When can local governments restrict asking for money in public? Rarely, says lawyer” was written by Abraham Kenmore and published 9/28/23.

First Amendment Clinic Legal Fellow Allyson Veile spoke to the Georgia Recorder about the Georgia Attorney General’s open government mediation program which handles complaints of non-compliance with Georgia’s Open Records Act and Open Meetings Act. The article titled “Georgia AG shrugs off open records violations but demands local DAs enforce all laws equally” was written by Chaya Tong and published 9/22/23.

In June 2023, Clinical Assistant Professor & First Amendment Clinic Director Clare R. Norins and Clinic alum Mark L. Bailey (J.D. ’22) published “Campbell v. Reisch: The Dangers of the Campaign Loophole in Social-Media-Blocking Litigation” in 25 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 146 (2023).

The 2023 legislative session was a busy time for the Georgia General Assembly, with many bills introduced — a good number of which passed — impacting free expression and open government interests.

University of Georgia School of Law’s First Amendment Clinic director Clare Norins was featured on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “Political Rewind,” which aired March 2, 2023.

The following guest column by Clinic director Clare R. Norins was published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on October 4, 2022:

The University of Georgia School of Law’s First Amendment Clinic is honored to have been awarded a 3-year grant from The Legal Clinic Fund for Local News to fund a Georgia Journalism & Access Project attorney.

DISINFORMATION AND POLARIZATION: IS LIBEL LAW A CAUSE AND/OR A CURE?

The following guest column by Clinic director Clare R. Norins was published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on June 28, 2021.

A June 2021 Report by the University of Florida’s Brechner Center for Freedom of Information highlighted the Clinic’s analysis finding that more than 20 Georgia state agencies have formal policies that restrain their employees’ speech in constitutionally questionable ways.

UGA Law School’s First Amendment Clinic, along with UGA’s Community HeLP Clinic and four other clinics from Harvard, Columbia, Texas A&M, and Boston University, were chosen as the 2021 recipients of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) award for “Excellence in a Public Interest Project.”