The Courts
Courthouse News: Judge Likely to Block Trump Ban on WeChat App
By Nicholas Iovino
A federal judge signaled Thursday that she will likely block an executive order banning China’s most popular social media app, WeChat, in the United States because it is unconstitutionally vague and could violate Americans’ free speech rights.
“I’m sympathetic to the anxiety that it creates for the people who are affected, and therein lies the vagueness concern which is really wrapped in a little bit that this is the only mode of communication for people,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler said during a virtual court hearing…
Nonprofit group U.S. WeChat Users Alliance and others sued the Trump administration on Aug. 21, claiming the ban violates their constitutional rights and erodes a critical communication bridge between China and the U.S.
Appearing in Judge Beeler’s virtual courtroom Thursday, lawyers for the group asked for a preliminary injunction to block Trump’s executive order from taking effect.
Courthouse News: Feds Explored Charging Portland Officials Over Unrest
By Karina Brown
Reports revealed on Thursday that the DOJ considered federal charges for city of Portland officials over their response to the protests and their refusal to let local police collaborate with federal agents. Also on Thursday, government attorneys told the Ninth Circuit it should lift an order barring federal agents from targeting journalists for assault and arrest…
[DOJ] attorneys on Thursday called “unworkable” U.S. District Judge Michael Simon’s ruling barring federal agents from assaulting or arresting journalists covering Portland’s protests. The Ninth Circuit already issued an emergency stay of the order.
Attorney Matthew Borden, arguing on behalf of a proposed class of journalists and legal observers, came out swinging.
“Allowing the government to control the news is the hallmark of a dictatorship,” Borden told a three-judge panel. “And that is exactly what the district court’s order prevents.”
But Sopan Joshi, assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General and former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, told a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit that Judge Simon’s injunction is “the sort of unprecedented, broad judicial management of how law enforcement is supposed to respond to violent and unpredictable situations on the ground.”
Congress
The Hill: FBI chief says Russia is trying to interfere in election to undermine Biden
By Maggie Miller
FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday that Russian agents were trying to undermine Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the lead-up to the November election.
“The intelligence community’s assessment is that Russia continues to try to influence our election, primarily through what we would call malign foreign influence,” Wray said during testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee.
“We certainly have seen very active efforts by the Russians to influence our elections in 2020 through what I would call more the malign influence side of things – social media, use of proxies, state media, online journals, etc. – in an effort to both sow divisiveness and discord … and primarily to denigrate Vice President Biden and what the Russians see as an anti-Russian establishment,” Wray added.
Wall Street Journal: From Russia (to Biden) With Love
By Kimberley A. Strassel
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Oregon’s Ron Wyden on Wednesday accused a GOP colleague of essentially working as a Kremlin operative. They called Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson’s work a “disgrace,” claimed his committee was funneling “Russian disinformation,” and introduced a resolution demanding he cease…
The catalyst for these surreal claims: Mr. Johnson will soon release the findings of his investigation into the Biden family’s dealings with Ukraine. It’s a probe for which Democrats can thank Rep. Adam Schiff. Since 2016, the left and their press cheerleaders have insisted there is no greater risk to this nation than foreign interference in our elections. Duly, Mr. Johnson and Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley looked into reports that Democrats worked in the last election with Ukrainians on opposition research against the Trump campaign…
The unearned mileage Democrats continue to get out of the false “Russia collusion” claim is mind-boggling. They used it to gin up an investigation into their political opponents. They used it to try to discredit the results of an election. They used it to keep a three-year cloud over a presidency. They used it to give cover to the weakest impeachment proceeding in history.
Now, they are using it to muddy up straightforward questions about their own nominee for president.
FEC
Lifesite News: US election authority insists churches can endorse political candidates
By Martin Bürger
Trey Trainor, chairman of the Federal Election Commission, has reaffirmed that non-profits, including churches and religious leaders, “can absolutely engage” in political speech, like endorsing candidates and hosting them on church property.
Trainor referred to a little-known executive order signed by President Donald Trump on May 4, 2017, less than four months into his presidency…
According to Trainor’s understanding…Trump’s executive order essentially made the Johnson Amendment unenforceable.
However, Trainor suggested that even if the executive order didn’t exist, “the American public would not tolerate the prosecution of either political candidates or a church for having a candidate show up. I think the First Amendment clearly protects that. It protects the church as an organization, regardless of its religious affiliation. It protects it as an organization of people getting together to hear from a candidate.” … [In his interview with Church Militant, he also said:]
“The bishops are using their non-profit status as a shield to hide behind from having to make a decision about who to support, and to come out publicly and put meat on the bones,” Trainor explained. “They say we should have an informed conscience when we go vote. But they never really take that next step and say, ‘Here’s who meets the criteria. Once you’ve formed your conscience and you know what the position of the Church is on the issues, here are the candidates that really meet those guidelines.'”
He added, “To look at the amount of money that the Church received from the government for social services, I would say that they have a big fear of maybe provoking the government into pulling money away from activities that the Church is involved in. I think it all ultimately comes down to that.”
Washington Post: Watchdog group calls on FEC to investigate donations to Trump and others by relatives and associates of Louis DeJoy
By Aaron C. Davis
A pattern of campaign contributions by employees and relatives of Louis DeJoy before he became postmaster general indicates a possible effort to reimburse his associates for donations as recently as 2018, according to a Federal Election Commission complaint filed Thursday by a government watchdog group.
The filing by the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center is the third complaint seeking a state or federal investigation since The Washington Post this month reported allegations that DeJoy and his aides urged employees at New Breed Logistics, his former North Carolina-based company, to write checks and attend fundraisers on behalf of Republican candidates.
Washington Free Beacon: Ethics Complaint Filed Against Gideon Campaign
By Yuichiro Kakutani
Maine Senate Democratic candidate Sara Gideon’s campaign violated campaign finance law by illegally coordinating with a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), according to a new complaint.
Maeve Coyle, the communications director for the Gideon campaign,
tweeted highly specific suggestions about what Maine voters should “see and hear” about rival incumbent Senator Susan Collins (R.). Within 24 hours of the tweet, the Sen. Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC (SMP) published two anti-Collins ads that discussed the same topics and aired in the same markets that Coyle suggested in her tweet. The ads constitute an illegal coordination between the Gideon campaign and the super PAC, according to the complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission.
“There is reason to believe Gideon coordinated with SMP resulting in an illegal in-kind contribution,” the complaint, filed by the Foundation for Accountability and Trust, read. “We request that the Commission investigate and immediately take enforcement action to address these apparent violations.”
Media
Politico: Watchdogs demand election night clarity from the media
By Zach Montellaro
The National Task Force on Election Crises, a consortium of election experts and academics, is urging major media outlets to detail how they plan [to deal with election night.] …
The task force sent letters Wednesday evening to The Associated Press, Fox News and the National Election Pool, which includes the three broadcast networks and CNN, calling for the outlets to detail four things publicly: how they’re adapting their underlying exit polling data and voter surveys to account for an increase in mail ballots; how they’ll contextualize discrepancies from results released on Election Day and final results; how they’ll protect their decision desks from internal and external pressure on making election calls; and how they’ll cover a politician who declares victory before the outlets project a winner.
Willamette Week: Portland Protesters Say Their Lives Were Upended by the Posting of Their Mug Shots on a Conservative Twitter Account
By Sophie Peel
On Aug. 7, Black activist Ragina Gray was tackled by Portland police at a protest and charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and interfering with an officer.
That same day, conservative Portland activist Andy Ngo shared Gray’s name and mug shot on Twitter…
Twelve nights later, on Aug. 19, a man [with a gun] showed up on the doorstep of Gray’s mother’s eastside home…
Gray has no direct evidence that Ngo’s robust social media presence is the reason an armed man arrived at her mom’s house…
But Gray believes Ngo and his followers are watching her. And she is not the only one. WW has spoken with two others who have been arrested at Portland protests and had their names and mug shots tweeted by Ngo, and claim their lives have since been disrupted…
In his response to questions from WW, Ngo contends he is taking on violent criminals that other journalists are afraid to confront.
“If you feel that transparency and public right to know should be outweighed by arrestee rights to privacy, this is a complaint for the Legislature, not for journalists reporting in compliance with state and federal law,” he said. “A better question would be, ‘Why do some journalists feel compelled to hide the identities of suspected criminals from the public?'”
Online Speech Platforms
Wired: What Even Is ‘Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior’ on Platforms?
By Shannon McGregor
Earlier this week, Twitter and Facebook suspended and removed accounts associated with Turning Point Action, an affiliate of the prominent conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, [for coordinated behavior.] …
[T]he line between “coordinated behavior” and campaign activity, as defined by the platforms, is blurred. This ambiguity and inconsistent enforcement, as well as the haphazard manner in which political speech is moderated, exacerbates threats to the electoral process-not to mention platforms’ own ability to defend themselves to critics on both sides of the aisle.
According to The Washington Post, TPA enlisted-and paid-young supporters to create thousands of posts. Some criticized the highly coordinated effort, likening it to a troll farm. But offline, campaign volunteers use scripts for everything from phone banking and text messaging to canvassing. My recently published research on the 2016 presidential campaign reveals that enlisting supporters in coordinated social media efforts is actually a routine campaign practice. Multiple presidential campaigns described to me practices aiming to, as Twitter described TPA’s effort to the Post, “amplify or disrupt conversations.”
For example, in 2016, the Sanders campaign had a strong if informal working relationship with social media allies, including a large subreddit of Sanders supporters. The campaign would reach out directly to the influential and active supporters in the community and ask them to do things like get a particular hashtag trending.
New York Times: Trump Administration to Ban TikTok and WeChat From U.S. App Stores
By Ana Swanson, David McCabe, and Jack Nicas
The Trump administration said Friday it would bar the Chinese-owned mobile apps WeChat and TikTok from U.S. app stores as of Sunday, striking a harsh blow against two popular services used by more than 100 million people in the United States.
The restrictions will ban the transferring of funds or processing of payments through WeChat within the United States as of Sunday. In the case of WeChat, the restrictions will also prevent any company from offering internet hosting, content delivery networks, internet transit or peering services to WeChat, or using the app’s code in other software or services in the United States.
Those same prohibitions on providing services go into effect on Nov. 12 for TikTok.
CNBC: Facebook is cracking down on groups that give health advice and promote violence
By Salvador Rodriguez
Facebook on Thursday announced new policies that will limit the spread of groups on its social network that focus on giving users health advice, as well as groups with ties to violence.
The company will no longer show health groups in its recommendations, saying in a blog post that “it’s crucial that people get their health information from authoritative sources.” In the past, closed groups have been used by Facebook users to spread misinformation about vaccines and Covid-19.
Similarly, the company said it will limit the spread of groups tied to violence by removing them from recommendations, restricting them from search and reducing how often their content shows up on people’s News Feeds…
Additionally, Facebook will now archive groups that do not have admins, which are key to moderating groups. If an admin steps down from their role, they can invite other groups members to replace them. Facebook will also suggest this role to active members, but if no one steps up, the company will archive those groups.
Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): There’s Some “Hate Speech” for You
By Eugene Volokh
A reader passes along this item, which led to his account being locked (for 30 days, apparently) on “hate speech” grounds by Facebook…
Why exactly is that “hate speech”? …
Now Facebook is a private company, and is legally entitled to block what it wants. And it’s hard to say that there’s real damage in its blocking memes like this, or any real chilling effect on speech, at least speech by private individuals: How much do you really lose from having your post deleted and your Facebook account blocked? (Some say you gain from it.)
Yet instances such as this help show, I think, the danger of attempts to restrict “hate speech,” whether through broadly applicable laws or through campus speech codes and the like-situations where people might be much more worried about punishment. “Hate speech” is always either defined very vaguely, or defined more precisely (as Facebook is trying to do) but in a way that ends up being ridiculously broad.
Such attempts to suppress “hate speech” always start with people talking about how of course we need to stop Nazis and racial epithets and calls for genocide. But they don’t seem likely to end with that.
The States
Framingham Source: Massachusetts Citizens Commission Recommends Constitutional Amendment To Combat Undue Influence of Spending in Elections
The Massachusetts Citizens Commission’s [second] report includes specific recommendations for advancing a proposed amendment to the US Constitution to protect the voice and representation of all Americans by regulating and limiting concentrated money in elections.
In the November 2018 election, 1.8M Massachusetts voters (71%) approved a law to establish the Commission. After extensive research and testimony at 20 public hearings the Commission issued its first report in January, making findings about the damage to democracy and representation of the people since the Supreme Court invalidated many campaign finance laws on a theory that unlimited election spending was “free speech” under the First Amendment.
In accordance with the law passed by the voters, the second report addresses specific recommendations for one or more constitutional amendments to protect the free speech rights of all Americans and address the undue influence of concentrated money in elections.
The Commission was also asked to recommend sound constitutional amendment language to affirm that artificial entities-such as corporations and unions- do not possess the inalienable Constitutional rights of the people.
Casper Star Tribune: Natrona County GOP member censured by state party for supporting women’s PAC
By Nick Reynolds
Members of the Wyoming Republican Party voted to censure a member of its Natrona County delegation over the weekend for her role in helping to found a nonpartisan political action committee that gave money to a number of Democratic candidates around the state.
JoAnn True – the Natrona County GOP’s state committeewoman – became the first person censured by members of her party in years. The decision came at the party’s meeting in Worland over the weekend and was centered on her founding role in the Cowgirl Run Fund: a political action committee looking to increase female representation in office, regardless of political affiliation.
Though the fund includes a bipartisan group of founders and donated to a dozen Republicans this cycle, True was ultimately censured by her peers for the committee’s support of roughly 13 Democratic candidates around the state; several of whom are in competitive races against Republicans this cycle. The group is also backing numerous women for nonpartisan positions in municipal and county government.
