Judge dismisses First Amendment suit against MD governor News
Judge dismisses First Amendment suit against MD governor

[JURIST] US District Court Judge William D. Quarles Jr. has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Baltimore Sun challenging on First Amendment grounds an order from Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. [official website] which barred thousands of state employees from contact with two Sun journalists. Judge Quarles dismissed the case because the newspaper was seeking more access to government officials than that afforded to a private citizen according to legal precedent from the Fourth Circuit and the US Supreme Court. Sun Editor Tim Franklin announced the newspaper would file an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] and would seek an expedited hearing before the court. Ehrlich issued the order last year after he felt Sun State House bureau chief David Nitkin and columnist Michael Olesker were not objectively covering his administration. The Sun filed suit [PDF complaint] in December contending the order violated the First Amendment [text] rights of the two journalists by denying them the same opportunities to solicit information as other citizens and news organizations. Read Judge Quarles order [PDF]. The Baltimore Sun has more on this story and continuing coverage of the Ehrlich order.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.