New from the Institute for Free Speech
Statement on Senate Vote Defeating S. 2093
Sweeping legislation that would rewrite federal laws governing political speech and association, elections, and ethics suffered a major setback this evening as a vote to advance the bill, a near-identical variant of S. 1, failed in the Senate. The Institute for Free Speech released the following statement in response to the vote:
“A defeat for S. 1 is a victory for free speech. We can’t improve democracy by restricting First Amendment rights. We certainly can’t pretend doing so is ‘For the People,’” said Institute for Free Speech President David Keating.
“S. 1 poses the most significant threat in a generation to Americans’ freedoms to speak, publish, and organize for political change. It imposes campaign finance regulation on all manner of speech about public issues, including speech about legislation and judicial nominees. It will force Americans to hire an attorney to exercise basic First Amendment rights. Even that precaution may not be enough. The 300 pages of the bill that affect free speech are impossibly vague and would be enforced and interpreted by a new, partisan Federal Election Commission under the president’s control. Such an agency would become a powerful weapon to silence critics and harass opposing candidates. If that weren’t enough, the bill would also subsidize candidates for Congress and the presidency at the cost of billions of taxpayer dollars each election cycle,” explained Keating.
Supreme Court
Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Rules for High School Cheerleader in Free Speech Case Involving Snapchat Post
By Jess Bravin
The Supreme Court extended its protection of student speech to social media on Wednesday, by an 8-1 ruling that a Pennsylvania school district overstepped its authority by punishing a high-school cheerleader who used a vulgar word on Snapchat when she didn’t make the varsity cheerleading team.
The Courts
Washington Post: Federal judge tosses most claims against Trump, Barr and U.S. officials in clearing of Lafayette Square
By Spencer S. Hsu
A U.S. judge on Monday dismissed most claims filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C., Black Lives Matter and others in lawsuits that accused the Trump administration of authorizing an unprovoked attack on demonstrators in Lafayette Square last year.
The plaintiffs asserted the government used unnecessary force to enable a photo op of President Donald Trump holding a Bible outside of the historical St. John’s Church.But U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich of Washington called allegations that federal officials conspired to make way for the photo too speculative.
The judge’s decision came in a 51-page opinion after the Justice Department requested she toss four overlapping lawsuits naming dozens of federal individual and agency defendants, as well as D.C. and Arlington police, in the June 2020 incident…
The judge did allow litigation to go forward challenging federal restrictions on protests and other First Amendment activity at Lafayette Square across from the White House, and against local D.C. and Arlington County police agencies that supported the operation.
Congress
Roll Call: Senate voting and ethics overhaul stalls, but Democrats united in vote
By Kate Ackley and Katherine Tully-McManus
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III voted with his party Tuesday in favor of debating Democrats’ signature overhaul of elections, campaign finance and ethics laws, but the measure’s path to enactment still remains improbable.
Republicans, as expected, opposed a procedural vote that would have let the Senate begin debate and given Manchin a chance to change a sweeping bill he had said earlier this month he would vote against. Senators voted 50-50 along party lines, leaving the motion short of the needed 60 votes for adoption…
[Sen. Amy] Klobuchar…said the next step is to discuss a proposal from Manchin, which includes many components of the original overhaul — but not all. One provision Manchin dropped, which the GOP has assailed as a way to force taxpayers to fund politicians, would create an optional public financing system for congressional campaigns…
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said certain provisions would stifle free speech, especially those that would require disclosure by political groups and causes that currently can keep their donors hidden. The Kentucky Republican said voters and activists should fear “naming and shaming,” for their support of policy campaigns and political efforts, should the bill become law.
“Today, Democrats are asking for a green light to supercharge the intimidation machine,” McConnell said Tuesday.
Politico: Senate Republicans block Dems’ sweeping elections reform bill
By Marianne Levine and Zach Montellaro
Following the vote, Schumer vowed that Democrats would explore “every last one of our options” and pledged that the issue would come up for debate again in the Senate.
“Democrats are going to keep going all summer, all fall, as long as it takes,” Schumer said. “This concerns the very core of our democracy. So we will not let it go. We will not let it die. This voter suppression cannot stand. And we are going to work tirelessly to see that it does not stand.” …
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell described the bill Tuesday as “Democrats’ transparent plan to tilt every election in America permanently in their favor.” McConnell also flicked at the push from progressives to can the 60-vote threshold.
“This most sensitive subject would not be the best place to trash the Senate’s rules to ram something through,” he said. “The Senate is only an obstacle when the policy is flawed and the process is rotten. And that’s exactly why this body exists. Today the Senate’s going to fulfill our founding purpose, stop the partisan power grab and reject S. 1.”
Americans for Prosperity: How S.1. undermines free speech
The legislation’s backers pitch it as protecting voting rights, but it undermines free speech. Were it already law, S.2093 would have stifled the robust debate that’s happening right now about the bill itself.
Nearly a third of it isn’t about voting at all. Instead, it’s about restricting and controlling Americans’ ability to speak out and shape daily discourse — a cornerstone of American democracy. We agree with the ACLU that — where free speech rights are concerned — the bill has “significant flaws that are detrimental to the health of our democracy.”
If enacted, the federal government will become the de facto gatekeeper of public conversation on the most consequential issues. Politicians and bureaucrats would have the power to decide which people and which positions get aired – and which don’t.
Diversity in the public square is an essential ingredient in producing good policy and advancing America’s principles. Justice movements throughout American history often started as minority opinions. The freedom of speech empowered people to raise new ideas and overcome many of our country’s worst wrongs. Robust debates lead to better solutions to big problems, and America faces plenty of big problems right now.
Free Speech
The Hill: Trump denies report that he asked Justice Dept. to look into ‘SNL’
By Jordan Williams
Former President Trump pushed back on a report that he asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to look into “Saturday Night Live” while in office, calling it “total fake news.”
The Daily Beast, citing two sources, reported on Tuesday that Trump inquired while in office about how the DOJ, Federal Communications Commission and courts could look into the late-night comedy show and others.
He was reportedly told that no legal action could be taken but that someone would “look into it,” even though they never did, The Daily Beast reported. The outlet noted that Trump had tweeted in early 2019 questioning whether federal agencies should “look into” comedy shows…
“It was fabricated, there were no sources, and yet the Lamestream Media goes with it,” [Trump said]…
“With all of that being said, however, I do believe that the 100% one-sided shows should be considered an illegal campaign contribution from the Democrat Party, hard to believe I got 75 million votes (the most of any sitting President) despite all of that, together with a very Fraudulent Election. 2024 or before!” Trump added.
