Right to film cops weighed by US court overseeing 6 states

By COLLEEN SLEVIN
Associated Press

DENVER (AP) — The U.S. government is asking the appeals court overseeing four western and two midwestern states to recognize that the First Amendment guarantee of free speech gives people the right to film police as they do their work in public. If the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals agrees, officers could be sued for interfering with people trying to record them. Six of the 12 U.S. appeals courts have recognized that right, but the 10th Circuit hasn’t. The court heard arguments Wednesday in the case of a YouTube journalist and blogger who says he was blocked by a suburban Denver officer from recording a 2019 traffic stop.