In the News
Straight Talk With Kim & Carolyn (Video): Donor doxxing: SLTRib’s re-victimizing of crime victims
Donors to the Truckers Freedom Convoy were doxxed in a serious crime against their protected speech, exposing them to risk of physical, professional and social harm. The SLTrib went after Utah donors, not to investigate a crime story, but to harass them for their donations. . . Institute for Free Speech’s Luke Wachob shares the dangers of donor doxxing and how to make sure donor privacy is not eroded in state laws.
Republican American: Court rules against Sen. Sampson in political speech case
By Paul Hughes
A state court has handed state Sen. Robert C. Sampson and former state Sen. Joseph C. Markley a defeat in a long-running test case on the political speech rights of publicly financed candidates.
Judge Trial Referee Joseph M. Shortall issued a ruling Thursday sustaining the findings of the State Elections Enforcement Commission that the two Republicans violated public financing rules for referencing then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in campaign materials in 2014.
In a 30-page ruling, Shortall rejected the duo’s constitutional challenges to a determination that candidates who accept public funding can only mention themselves and their direct opponents in campaign advertising.
The State Elections Enforcement Commission fined Markley $2,000 and Sampson $5,000 after concluding the references to Malloy in campaign mailings from both Republican candidates and a Sampson newspaper ad violated the rules of the Citizens’ Election Program.
Markley and Sampson have been arguing that any prohibitions restricting candidates for the General Assembly from referencing a sitting governor or a chief executive’s policies violates the First Amendment and the constitutional separation of powers…
Owen Yeates, an attorney from the Institute for Free Speech representing Sampson and Markey, said the ruling is deeply disappointing, and the legal team will review next steps with Markley and Sampson.
“Candidates must be able to speak freely to voters about their records and views. We are committed to vindicating their First Amendment right to do so,” he said.
ICYMI
By Gary Lawkowski
What does calling “bullshit” on instructions from the U.S. Park Police have in common with the IRS targeting of certain nonprofit groups for heightened scrutiny, and with Washington Nationals legend Ryan Zimmerman? All three figure into the free speech jurisprudence of reported Supreme Court finalist Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Judge Jackson was a District Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 2013-2021 and has served as a United States Circuit Judge for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia since June 2021.
Overall, Judge Jackson’s public record on free speech issues is relatively sparse. There are few relevant cases from her tenure as a District Court judge and none to date as a Circuit Court judge. In general, these decisions reflect a willingness to allow plaintiffs’ First Amendment claims to survive a motion to dismiss. However, these cases reflect a limited range of issues.
Readers are cautioned not to extrapolate too broadly from a District Court ruling, where a judge may be compelled to follow circuit precedence in a way that they might not on the high Court.
Judge Jackson has also answered several free speech related questions during her confirmation process. These are noted below.
FEC
Washington Post: Trump defends praise of Putin, makes strongest hint yet of a run for president in 2024
By Colby Itkowitz, David Weigel and Isaac Stanley-Becker
Former president Donald Trump gave his strongest indication yet that he intends to run in 2024 during a nearly 90-minute speech to supporters on Saturday night that also included continued praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We did it twice, and we’ll do it again,” Trump told a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, falsely claiming again that he won the 2020 election. “We’re going to be doing it again a third time.”
This is the latest in a string of thinly veiled hints about his political plans, but Trump has stopped short of officially declaring his candidacy, which would trigger more stringent requirements for how he raises, spends and reports funds…
The Federal Election Commission earlier this month faced a complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, that seeks to compel the commission to declare Trump a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. The complainant, John Anthony Castro, is a declared candidate for the Republican nomination and argues that he is suffering “competitive injury in the form of a diminution of votes and fundraising.”
Brett Kappel of law firm Harmon Curran, an expert on campaign finance laws, said he doesn’t think the comments Saturday night are “enough for Trump to legally become a candidate.”
“He has to make an unambiguous definitive statement,” Kappel said.
Online Speech Platforms
The Intercept: Facebook Allows Praise of Neo-Nazi Ukrainian Battalion If It Fights Russian Invasion
By Sam Biddle
Facebook will temporarily allow its billions of users to praise the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi military unit previously banned from being freely discussed under the company’s Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, The Intercept has learned.
The States
Cleveland.com: Senate should nix attempt to silence Ohio protesters: editorial
By Editorial Board
The Ohio House has sent to the state Senate House Bill 109, which would make rioting a felony and which seeks to discourage protests through enhanced penalties for protest damage and for protest organizers.
The bill is constitutionally suspect and also unneeded…
The purpose of creating a whole new set of felony crimes for protesters and those who organize protests, as HB 109 seeks to do, is clear: to discourage protests, including the peaceful exercise of protesters’ First Amendment rights…
HB 109 is a solution in search of a problem. The Senate needs to protect the civil liberties of Ohioans — all Ohioans — and sink this bill.
