In the News
Missouri Press Association: ’22 Legislative Reports: Week 15: Budget Work Continues in House, Senate
House Bill 2624 (Perkins, R-Bowling Green) creates the “Uniform Public Expression Protection Act.”The bill is anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) legislation. HB 2624 was heard by the House Judiciary Committee on April 13. The bill relates to causes of action filed against individuals who exercise certain constitutional rights. The bill specifies that when a person, defined in the bill as “an individual, estate, trust, partnership, business or nonprofit entity, governmental unit, or other legal entity,” has a cause of action filed against him or her based upon his or her communication in a governmental proceeding or on an issue under consideration in a governmental proceeding, or when he or she exercises his or her right of freedom of speech or of the press, the right to assemble, or the right of association, that person may file a special motion to dismiss the cause of action. . . .Witnesses providing testimony in support of the bill were KMIZ-TV, the Missouri Broadcasters Association, Americans For Prosperity, Missouri Right To Life, the Missouri Press Association, and the Institute for Free Speech. The committee took no action on the bill.
The Courts
NPR: A university pays $400K to professor who refused to use a student’s pronouns
By Jonathan Franklin
A public university professor in Ohio who was disciplined four years ago for refusing to use a transgender student’s pronouns is being awarded $400,000 following a lawsuit against the university.
Nick Meriwether, a philosophy professor at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, sued the college in 2018 after he was disciplined for not using she/her pronouns to refer to a transgender woman, according to a news release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a legal organization focusing on religious freedom and free speech cases.
Fundraising
Election Law Blog: “A Neo-Madisonian Perspective on Campaign Finance Reform, Institutions, Pluralism, and Small Donors”
By Rick Hasen
Michael Malbin has written this article for the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law. Here is the abstract:
Recent events remind us of the importance and fragility of the institutions that undergird a healthy democracy. This article steps away from the speech-and-corruption debates dominating campaign finance since Buckley v. Valeo to suggest an approach it calls “neo-Madisonian.” It begins with the Federalists’ views about fostering a multi-factional and deliberative Congress but tempers their vision with departures relating to parties and pluralism.
The article agrees with scholars who see parties as important but disagrees with shaping campaign finance to enhance national party leaders. The time members spend raising funds instead of legislating, the use of member “dues” to select committees, and repeated “message voting,” are symptoms of a larger party-related disease that feeds polarization and hinders Congress’s ability to perform its needed role.
With respect to pluralism, the article argues that Madison’s large-republic framework has clear advantages but leaves too many outside. Accepting the advantages of size should carry with it a duty to address this shortcoming. Small-donor public financing is often proposed as a remedy. The article refutes claims that link small donors to extremism. Nevertheless, the article does point out important risks. To address the risks, it puts forward empirical analysis to support a new approach adopted in New York State that will target generous public financing to empower within-district small donors.
Free Expression
Slow Boring: The misinformation cope
By Matt Yglesias
A couple of weeks ago, Barack Obama spoke at a University of Chicago seminar on Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy. And as you might expect from a speaker at a seminar on Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy, he offered the view that misinformation plays a major role in shaping our current problems.
I acknowledge that misinformation exists and that it’s bad and that ideally everyone would be well informed. But I also think that the structural biases of media and academia exaggerate this problem…
I wish Obama had instead said that there’s no evidence that conspiracy theories are becoming more prevalent, that deactivating Facebook makes people less knowledgable about politics, that poorly informed people have always been with us, and that one part of politics is delivering quality governing results while the other part is meeting people where they are, not pining for some alternate reality where they have totally different beliefs.
Politico: Democratic Party weighs banning its consultants from anti-union activity
By Eleanor Mueller
The Democratic Party is considering banning its army of consultants from engaging in anti-union activity following a report that one of its pollsters had helped Amazon combat organizing efforts, according to a document obtained by POLITICO.
A union-drafted addendum to any contract between a Democratic Party political committee and a consultant would forbid the consultant — or any of its parents, subsidiaries or affiliates — from participating in an array of activities involving unions. That includes union-busting, aiding an employer in a labor dispute or lobbying against union-backed legislation…
It would also bar consultants who “assist clients to advance legislation, ballot measures or other public policies that are opposed by the labor movement or to defeat legislation, ballot measure or other public policies that are supported by the labor movement.”
Online Speech Platforms
Washington Post: Conservatives cheering on Elon Musk have been sold a bill of goods
By Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent
Conservatives have a new hero: Billionaire Elon Musk.
Some on the right have been declaring that if Musk succeeds in his attempt to buy Twitter, he will turn it from the oppressive jackbooted nightmare of censorship it has supposedly become into a paradise for conservative voices…
This GOP hailing of Musk as a conquering hero has gotten so out of hand that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is threatening to target Twitter’s board for reducing its exposure to a possible hostile takeover attempt from Musk. DeSantis is openly vowing to use state power for this purpose.
This great blow for free speech comes after DeSantis threatened similar retaliation against Disney. What for? Well, for expressing its views of Florida’s new law restricting classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Indeed, once you unpack this whole situation, you see how bizarre the conservative joy over Musk’s bid truly is. There is no reason to believe Musk would transform Twitter into the utopia they imagine.
The States
95.3 WIKI: Beshear signs into law 14 pieces of legislation
Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday signed into law 14 pieces of legislation that were passed by the General Assembly, during the flurry of activity on the final two days of the session, April 13 and 14.
Among the major bills signed were: . . .
-HB 222 is known as “Anti-SLAPP” legislation, which stands for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. Its purpose is to dissuade individuals from filing frivolous lawsuits or threatening court action for the purpose of stifling public debate.
