The Courts
Associated Press: Perdue challenges campaign fundraising law benefitting Kemp
By Kate Brumback
Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue and his campaign are challenging a new state law that they say gives incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp a huge and unfair fundraising and spending advantage in the Republican primary.
The law passed by state legislators last year and signed by Kemp allows certain top elected officials, including the governor, and party nominees, to create “leadership committees” that can raise campaign funds without limits, including during a legislative session. In a federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Atlanta, Perdue and his campaign allege that the law creates “an uneven election playing field” and ask a judge to declare it unconstitutional.
NLRB
Bloomberg: Whole Foods Claims Constitutional Right to Disallow ‘Black Lives Matter’ Masks
By Josh Eidelson
U.S. labor board prosecutors are trying to violate Whole Foods Market’s copyright and constitutional rights by forcing it to let employees wear “Black Lives Matter” masks at work, the Amazon.com Inc. subsidiary claims.
In a Dec. 17 filing with the National Labor Relations Board, Whole Foods denied the agency general counsel’s allegations that the company violated federal labor law by banning employees from wearing “Black Lives Matter” insignia and punishing staff around the country who did. The filing is a response to the labor board’s accusation that by prohibiting Black Lives Matter messages at work, the company interfered with employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act to engage “in concerted activities for their mutual aid and protection.”
Whole Foods counters that it’s the one whose rights are being violated. The company’s filing, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, accuses the labor board’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, of trying to unconstitutionally “compel” speech by Whole Foods in violation of its First Amendment rights.
Free Speech
Politico: Morning Tech
By Leah Nylen
[A]ccording to a Knight Foundation/Ipsos survey released on Thursday…
— More Republicans said they’d had their social media posts removed than Democrats…
—Americans have little trust in the social media platforms themselves. Only 17 percent of respondents said they trust the companies a great deal or a fair amount. Even the U.S. government got more than twice that, with 38 percent of respondents’ trust.
— 70 percent of Americans correctly stated that the First Amendment doesn’t prevent social media companies from penalizing users who make offensive statements. About 60 percent knew that banning a user from a platform doesn’t violate the First Amendment.
Online Speech Platforms
Wall Street Journal: How the Trump Social-Media Ban Paid Off for Trump, Platforms
By Michael C. Bender and Georgia Wells
Since his social-media ban—just days before he left the White House—mentions of Mr. Trump on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have decreased 88%, according to Zignal Labs, a company that analyzes content on social media.
Candidates and Campaigns
Politico: Forget T-shirts and tote bags. NFTs are the hot new campaign swag.
By Sam Sutton
Congressional candidates and PACs are beginning to embrace the crypto boom ahead of this year’s midterm elections, auctioning off digital collectibles known as NFTs that have already drawn hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations…
The sale of NFTs will force the campaigns to address a number of legal and regulatory issues, some of which policymakers are still sorting out themselves as they try to police the crypto marketplace.
