The First Amendment: Political Bias, Government Regulation, and the Media

Michael Berry is a partner in the Philadelphia office of Ballard Spahr LLP, where his practice focuses on representing news, entertainment, and other media clients in defamation and privacy suits, seeking access to government and court records, defending reporters who are subpoenaed, and advising clients on newsgathering and other First Amendment matters. He has litigated cases for media clients in jurisdictions around the country, from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York to Florida, California, and the Virgin Islands. He was instrumental in drafting Pennsylvania’s newly enacted anti-SLAPP law.

Mr. Berry is the co-chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Bar-Press Committee, serves on the board of the Media Law Resource Center Institute, is vice-chair of the Media Law Resource Center’s Anti-SLAPP Committee, and serves as an ex officio member of the board of Spotlight PA. He has been inducted in the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association’s Hall of Fame and was honored with PNA’s Advocate of the Year Award for 2024.

Mr. Berry is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Emory University and holds a master’s degree in public policy from Duke University. He attended the University of North Carolina School of Law, where he served as Editor in Chief of the North Carolina Law Review. Previously, Mr. Berry worked on Capitol Hill for the late Senator Paul D. Coverdell, R-Ga., and as a law clerk to the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Michael R. Dimino is Professor of Law at Widener University Commonwealth Law School, where he teaches courses related to constitutional law, election law, federal courts, statutory interpretation, and criminal law. Professor Dimino graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1998 with degrees in political science and history. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he was Articles Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and from which he graduated cum laude in 2001. Professor Dimino served as Chief Clerk to Associate Judge Albert M. Rosenblatt of the New York State Court of Appeals, and then clerked for Senior Circuit Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Judge Paul L. Friedman of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. A two-time recipient of Widener’s Douglas E. Ray Award for Faculty Scholarship and a Fulbright scholar, Professor Dimino has written extensively on constitutional law, election law, and judicial behavior, and has co-authored Voting Rights and Election Law (3d ed. forthcoming 2020), The Best Candidate: Presidential Nomination in Polarized Times (forthcoming 2020); Understanding Election Law and Voting Rights (2016), Sports Law: Cases and Materials (2d ed. 2007), and The Mueller Investigation and Beyond (2020).

Ms. Melewsky is Media Law Counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, the statewide trade association representing print and digital news organizations in the Commonwealth. She provides legal advice and training on a wide range of issues, including government transparency laws, newsgathering and First Amendment rights, court access issues, defamation and privacy, advertising law, the Shield Law and reporters’ privilege, local government codes, and intellectual property.

She advises journalists on public records requests and appeals, conducts pre-publication review of news, editorial, and advertising content, and reviews proposed legislation and drafts amendatory language. She also offers subject-matter testimony during legislative proceedings and represents the media perspective to legislators throughout the legislative process. In addition, she represents the print and digital media industries in administrative and regulatory matters, responds to proposed court rules, and advocates on behalf of the industry as amicus curiae in Pennsylvania’s appellate courts.

Ms. Melewsky holds a bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications from The Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctor from Widener University School of Law. She is admitted to practice before the Pennsylvania state courts and the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Paula Knudsen Burke is the Reporters Committee's senior supervising attorney in Pennsylvania, leading the organization's legal work in the state as part of the Local Legal Initiative. She joined the Reporters Committee in 2020 from LNP Media Group, Inc. in Lancaster.

A licensed Pennsylvania attorney for two decades, Paula has worked in both the legal and media fields. In 2017, she helped launch The Caucus, a watchdog publication covering state government and politics. She also led the investigations and enterprise team as an editor at LNP Media Group, Inc., the publisher of The Caucus.

Before joining The Caucus, Paula was the director of government affairs at the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, where she worked on legislative issues impacting print and digital news outlets in the state, including advocating for improvements to the state’s Right to Know Law and Sunshine Act. Paula has also worked in private practice and nonprofit law, starting her career as an Equal Justice Works Fellow.

Paula is a graduate of the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University. She also received her undergraduate degrees from the Pennsylvania State University, in both journalism and Spanish. Paula is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Bar/Press Committee and the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition. Admitted to practice in Pennsylvania.