The Courts
Reuters: Fla. parents bring first challenge to bill opponents dub ‘Don’t Say Gay’
By Brendan Pierson
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other state officials were hit with a lawsuit on Thursday challenging a recently adopted law that bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for many young students.
In a complaint filed Thursday in Tallahassee federal court, students, parents, a teacher and advocacy group Equality Florida called the Republican-backed law, dubbed the “don’t say gay” bill by opponents, “offensive and unconstitutional” and asked the court to block its enforcement.
FARA
Early Returns – Law and Politics with Jan Baran (podcast): David Laufman, Lobbying by Foreign Nations, FARA, and Cannoli
Russia has launched a war in Ukraine. While the West now focuses on diplomacy and military assistance, many foreign nations, including the combatants, spent years seeking to influence American politicians and public opinion. There was lobbying about the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. There were investigations about Russian influence in the elections for President. There were allegations that foreigners were making campaign contributions. My guest for this episode of Early Returns is David Laufman, a former prosecutor and the former Department of Justice Section Chief who oversaw national security issues including export controls, sanctions and the Foreign Agent Registration Act. Join us as we discuss how the United States regulates the political and PR activities of foreign citizens and nations. Learn why RT/Sputnik had to register under FARA, but not the BBC. Does being called a “foreign agent” carry a stigma? Do Russia and Ukraine have agents operating in the U.S? There is so much to discuss.
Donor Privacy
Nevada Independent: In defense of ‘dark money’ issue advocacy
By Michael Schaus
[I]n matters of contentious public policy — where issue advocacy collides with controversial or populist partisan battles — anonymity is an important component of First Amendment rights.
After all, a world in which government compiles the names and addresses of individuals taking part in civic or social change sounds positively Orwellian — which is one of the reasons the American Civil Liberties Union has long fought against such mandatory donor disclosure requirements, arguing that such rules “could directly interfere with the ability of many to engage in political speech about causes that they care about and that impact their lives.”
For an example of how such disclosure requirements might chill free speech, one need only consider the 1958 Supreme Court Case, NAACP v. Alabama, in which a government in the Jim Crow south had demanded the civil rights group reveal its list of members. Needless to say, the implications of handing over such a list during that particularly violent moment of the civil rights movement would have had disastrous consequences for individuals who financially supported the advancement of minority rights.
Today, the Ku Klux Klan might not be as cozy with governments eager to quell the expansion of civil rights as it was in 1958, but that’s not to say our modern political era isn’t still threatening to the advocates of certain politically disfavored groups. Hate, as it turns out, is still alive and well in our political culture.
Free Expression
The Week: The silver lining of America’s free speech worries
By Samuel Goldman
Many liberal democracies offer some constitutional protections, but the U.S. is an outlier in courts’ application of those protections to include ostensible hate speech, unintentionally defamatory statements about public figures, and the expression of deeply offensive views such as Holocaust denial. Beyond the law, Americans also stand out for our overwhelming belief that controversial and provocative speech should be allowed. If Americans are worried about present conditions for free speech, it’s partly because we’re unusually certain free speech is important.
Online Speech Platforms
By Kelsey Vlamis
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey said on Saturday he partially blames himself for the state of the internet today.
“The days of usenet, irc, the web…even email (w PGP)…were amazing,” Dorsey said in a tweet, referring to certain online communication systems that date back to the early days of the internet. “Centralizing discovery and identity into corporations really damaged the internet.”
“I realize I’m partially to blame, and regret it,” Dorsey continued.
The States
Oregon Live: Strict contribution limits slow reach of campaigns for Multnomah County chair
By Nicole Hayden
The last time there was a competitive race for the position chairing the Multnomah County Commission, it was 2014 and campaign contribution limits were a thing of the future. Deborah Kafoury, who won that contest, pulled in major donations, spent nearly $200,000 on professional campaign management and dished out big bucks for TV ads.
This go around, as four viable candidates compete to fill the seat that Kafoury is vacating, the race to the top is more muted: fundraising is inching ahead and big spending and widespread voter engagement have yet to be seen.
