In the News
Wall Street Journal (LTE): Who Knew I Was Friends With Bull Connor?
Your editorial left out an important point about President Biden’s demagoguery. Much of the Freedom to Vote Act has nothing to do with voting. Nearly 200 pages of it propose an unprecedented assault on free speech.
Mr. Biden claims opponents are on the side of Bull Connor. Yet Connor trampled free speech to defend segregation. He famously sued the New York Times for reporting on his campaign’s “platform of race hate.”
This bill’s antispeech provisions would have been a powerful tool for Connor. It would publicly expose supporters of advocacy groups, as well as people who spend as little as $500 on Facebook ads promoting social change. This would put backers of controversial causes at risk of harassment and retaliation. Groups across the political spectrum, including the ACLU, have warned that these provisions and others would damage our democracy.
It’s a good thing Mr. Biden’s antispeech proposals were not the law in Alabama in the 1960s. I have no doubt Connor would have used them to undermine and intimidate his opponents.
David Keating
President, Institute for Free Speech
Washington
FEC
Axios: Scoop: Biden taps new election money regulator
By Lachlan Markay
President Biden plans to nominate election law attorney Dara Lindenbaum to the Federal Election Commission, Axios has learned…
Lindenbaum’s pick comes on the 12th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which struck down a ban on corporate political spending.
If confirmed, Lindenbaum, a Democrat, will replace FEC vice-chair Steven Walther, who has served on the commission since 2006.
Walther is an independent, but is generally seen as part of the FEC’s Democratic bloc.
As a result, Lindenbaum likely will not alter the commission’s 3-3 partisan split.
In a statement, Walther said he will continue serving until his replacement is confirmed.
Lindenbaum is a seasoned compliance attorney who works with political groups as well as nonprofits, according to her bio at the firm Sandler Reiff…
Walther is one of three FEC commissioners serving on expired terms, meaning Biden could continue to reshape the FEC before a potential Republican Senate takeover next year.
Democrat Ellen Weintraub has served on the FEC for nearly 20 years, including a stint as the panel’s chair.
By Bryan Metzger
The Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint accusing Fox News of making illegal campaign contributions to Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s campaign, according to documents made public on Friday.
The original complaint, filed in March 2019 by Florida lawyer Michael Edelman, argued that when Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro appeared alongside former President Donald Trump at a November 2018 rally in support of Hawley, they were acting as “agents” for Fox News Corporation and thus making an illegal corporate in-kind contribution to the Missouri’s Republican’s campaign.
Ahead of the rally, Hannity had declared that he would “not be on stage campaigning with the President” but would instead be interviewing Trump before the rally and covering the event for his show.
But then Trump called him up to the podium anyway, prompting Hannity to tell Trump that he “had no idea you were going to invite me up here.”
The Courts
FIRE: Judge: University of Florida can’t enforce conflict-of-interest policy to ban faculty testimony
By Adam Steinbaugh and Jordan Howell
In a scathing opinion this morning, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against the University of Florida’s controversial conflict-of-interest policy, which UF administrators had invoked to prevent three political science professors…from testifying in a voting rights lawsuit against the state of Florida. As that controversy unfolded last fall, other faculty members came forward and shared that they too had been denied the right to testify, and a total of six have joined together in a lawsuit challenging the legality of UF’s conflict-of-interest policy.
Today’s injunction, issued by Mark E. Walker, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, requires the university “take no steps to enforce its conflict-of-interests policy with respect to faculty and staff requests to engage as expert witnesses or provide legal consulting in litigation involving the State of Florida until otherwise ordered.”
At its core, the court’s decision holds that the First Amendment, in protecting the right of public employees to speak as private citizens on matters of public concern, extends to the right of faculty members to give expert testimony on the subjects of their expertise…
The court’s 74-page opinion begins by noting the shocking similarities between the events at issue in the case and what it calls “the demise of academic freedom” unfolding at the University of Hong Kong, where campus administrators fearful of the Chinese government take it upon themselves to routinely silence students and faculty.
Washington Post: Sarah Palin v. NYT: Exploring the line between bad journalism and libelous journalism
By Erik Wemple
First Amendment watchers, take note: Sarah Palin’s defamation claim against the New York Times will go to trial starting Jan. 24 in a New York federal courthouse. At issue is the elasticity of the protections that allow news organizations to present tough coverage of public figures.
Or, to put things a bit more sharply, the case will help demarcate the line between really bad journalism and libelous journalism.
Congress
Axios: First look: Senators propose bill to ban corporate PACs
By Alayna Treene and Sophia Cai
Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) will soon propose a bill prohibiting for-profit corporations from establishing and managing political action committees, according to a copy of the legislation obtained by Axios.
The introduction of “The Ban Corporate PACs Act” comes amid heightened scrutiny on Capitol Hill regarding money in politics, including efforts to bar companies from influencing political campaigns and federal elections. It would likely face a court challenge and First Amendment concerns…
[A]s Axios’ Lachlan Markay points out, while corporate PACs are getting huge attention amid bipartisan tacks towards political populism, they actually provide a relatively small share of the money fueling federal political contests.
Online Speech Platforms
Politico: Twitter’s First Year Without Trump Was a Lot Like Its Last With Him
By Derek Robertson
As it turns out, the experience of being on Twitter without Trump is largely the same as it was with him — the informational fog of war no less foggy, the merchants of anger no less angry, the media junkies no less addicted to its endlessly-refreshing timeline and steady drip of notification-induced dopamine. The simplest conclusion based on that evidence is unlikely to offer much solace to liberals on a purifying crusade, conservatives who chafe against Big Tech moderation or social media users simply hoping for a break from political angst and extremism: Trump’s disruptive, fallacious, unpredictable and, yes, occasionally hilarious Twitter presence was more a symptom of our hazardous digital landscape than its cause.
The States
Miami New Times: F*ck the First Amendment: Miami-Dade Bars Residents From Addressing Commissioners Directly
By Michael Majchrowicz
Should taxpaying residents be able to publicly question and criticize the officials they elect to office?
When said elected officials are Miami-Dade commissioners and the public venue is a commission meeting, the answer is an unequivocal, Home Rule Charter-codified no.
At Thursday’s special joint public meeting in which elected representatives from the county and the Village of Palmetto Bay sparred over a proposed bridge on SW 87th Avenue, county commission chair Jose “Pepe” Diaz interrupted at least three speakers to remind them of a procedural rule that bars them from directly addressing any individual commissioner on the dais…
According to Rule 6.04 of the Miami-Dade County Rules of Procedure, which establishes decorum for official county meetings, “All remarks shall be addressed to the Commission or committee as a body and not to any particular member thereof. No person, other than commissioners and the person having the floor, shall be permitted to enter into any discussion, either directly or through a member of the Commission, without the permission of the presiding officer. No questions shall be asked a [sic] Commissioner except through the presiding officer.”
NonProfit Times: Capitol Insurrection Inspires California NPO Revocation Bill
By Richard H. Levey
A bill within the California Senate would authorize suspension of the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit that “[p]romotes, engages in, commits to, supports, or aids insurrection against the United States or any state in the Union, at any time, past or present.”
The bill, SB 834, would similarly authorize suspension of tax-exempt status to any nonprofit that “[P]romotes, engages in, commits to, supports, or aids in any effort to overturn democratic election results or obstruct the peaceful transfer of power.” …
The bill has raised concerns within the Golden State’s nonprofit community. In an email, CalNonprofits Public Policy Director Lucy Salcido Carter wrote: “While CalNonprofits opposes insurrection, we do have concerns about SB 834 (Wiener) in its current form. We don’t want legitimate freedoms/activities by nonprofits to be curtailed. We recognize that Senator Wiener is aware of the challenges in defining which activities would be covered under this bill. We have connected with Senator Wiener’s office and raised our concerns and hope to engage with his office in further conversations about the bill.” …
The bill’s text is available here: https://bit.ly/3KahDIF
