The Right to Record
Public Officials

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.

Police found to lack authority to prohibit a citizen from recording commissioners in town hall, the court holding that the citizen's activities were peaceful, not performed in derogation of any law, and done in the exercise of his First Amendment rights.

The act of making an audio or audiovisual recording is necessarily included within the First Amendment's guarantee of speech and press rights as a corollary of the right to disseminate the resulting recording.

The court assumed a First Amendment right to record the police. Affirmed and extended in Adkins v. Limtiaco, No. 11-17543 (9th Cir. Aug. 12, 2013), recognizing the First Amendment right to photograph police with express citation to Fordyce.

The First Amendment protects the right to gather information about what public officials do on public property, and specifically, a right to record matters of public interest.