In the News
Republican National Lawyers Association: Former FEC Chair: “The First Amendment Is Lucky to Have Mitch McConnell”
By Michael Thielen
Former FEC Chair Brad Smith published an op-ed today in the National Review today entitled: “The First Amendment Is Lucky to Have Mitch McConnell.” That is both a great headline and an accurate salute to the Republican Senate Leader at a time when Democrats have declared war on the First Amendment through the Corrupt Politicians Act (H.R.1/S.1). That said, a key part of Senator McConnell’s leadership on the First Amendment is not partisan…
Brad Smith is Chair of the Institute for Free Speech and has literally spent his career fighting for freedom of speech—so the conclusion to his op-ed is high praise indeed:
“Freedom of political speech should be a unifying cause in America, but as anyone who has defended it for a living knows, it’s a lot harder where the rubber meets the road. Every speaker is unpopular with someone, and some speakers are unpopular with just about everyone. At a time when free speech is under a seemingly relentless assault, America is fortunate to have a Senate leader who can take the heat and stick to the principles of the First Amendment.”
New from the Institute for Free Speech
Getting the Band Back Together: 2020 Summer Interns Alec Greven and Nathan Maxwell Rejoin IFS
The Institute for Free Speech is pleased to welcome back Alec Greven and Nathan Maxwell as summer 2021 interns.
Alec was previously a Research Intern at IFS in the summer of 2020. He will spend the bulk of his internship conducting an independent research project on a topic relating to political expression. He will also contribute to the Institute’s blog with original commentary on topical free speech issues and help the Media Manager compile the organization’s signature Daily Media Update…
The Institute for Free Speech is also pleased to announce the extension of Nathan Maxwell’s internship. Nathan first joined IFS as a summer intern in 2020 to assist with the Institute’s communications and outreach efforts. The Institute welcomed Nathan back in the winter of 2020 to provide additional help in our research, communications, and external relations efforts. IFS is delighted that Nathan will continue on with us for another season.
ICYMI
National Review: The First Amendment Is Lucky to Have Mitch McConnell
By Bradley A. Smith
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell hammered the first nail into the coffin of the draconian S. 1 legislation on Wednesday, announcing that the Democrats’ 800-plus-page rewrite of voting, speech, and ethics laws would not pass the Senate. With every Republican plus Democrat Joe Manchin opposed to the legislation, the bill increasingly appears as good as dead. Its defeat would be a major victory for the First Amendment and another credit in McConnell’s legacy as the Senate’s premier defender of free political speech.
Surprisingly few elected officials are willing to come to the defense of campaigns and other organized efforts to effect change. Americans celebrate their freedoms to speak and organize into groups, but once an organization achieves success, support for its rights tends to give way to concerns about “influence.” It’s rare to find politicians who support equally the freedom to speak of the NRA and the Brady Campaign, the League of Conservation Voters and the Chamber of Commerce, or pro-life groups and Planned Parenthood.
For over a quarter century, Mitch McConnell has stood as the Senate’s most consistent, articulate, and dogged defender of the First Amendment rights these organizations rely on…
S. 1 and its House counterpart, H.R. 1, aim to roll back these advances in one fell swoop.
DOJ
Axios: Feds investigating alleged illegal donations to Collins’ re-election bid
By Lachlan Markay
…..The FBI is investigating what it describes as a massive scheme to illegally finance Sen. Susan Collins’ 2020 re-election bid, Axios has learned.
A recently unsealed search warrant application shows the FBI believes a Hawaii defense contractor illegally funneled $150,000 to a pro-Collins super PAC and reimbursed donations to Collins’ campaign. There’s no indication that Collins or her team were aware of any of it.
Collins helped the contractor at issue, then called Navatek and since renamed the Martin Defense Group, secure an $8 million Navy contract before most of the donations took place.
Former Navatek CEO Martin Kao was indicted last year for allegedly bilking the federal government of millions in coronavirus relief loans…
Investigators say bank records also show that Kao illegally reimbursed family members who donated to Collins’ campaign and that Navatek reimbursed some of Kao’s colleagues for their contributions…
Read the search warrant application.
Daily Beast: ‘Keep America Great Committee’ Founder Admits Swindling Trump Fans
By Justin Rohrlich
James Kyle Bell, whose “Keep America Great Committee” was outed by The Daily Beast earlier this year for masquerading as an official Trump campaign PAC and defrauding Trump supporters into donating at least $500,000, has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, according to federal court filings made public on Monday.
The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, but prosecutors stated in a letter to Bell’s lawyer that they will seek between 78 and 97 months for Bell, along with a fine of $25,000 to $250,000. As part of his plea, Bell also admitted to deceiving the government out of more than $1 million in phony Paycheck Protection Program loans intended to help employers avoid laying off staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to his Trumpian chicanery, Bell also created a phony pro-Biden group called the “Best Days Lie Ahead” committee, which prosecutors say fraudulently took in some $100,000 in donations but returned them all after the organization was bounced from its online fundraising portal.
Los Angeles Times: Justice Department drops subpoena for information on Devin Nunes parody Twitter account
By Del Quentin Wilber and Sarah D. Wire
The Justice Department has withdrawn a subpoena filed in the final weeks of the Trump administration that sought information about a Twitter user who parodied Rep. Devin Nunes, according to court documents released Tuesday. The California Republican has spent years seeking to unmask such anonymous users and sue them for defamation.
Court papers unsealed Monday in Washington revealed that Twitter was seeking to quash the Justice Department’s subpoena for information related to the user of an account, @NunesAlt, that pokes fun at Nunes (R-Tulare). The social media giant argued that it believed the Justice Department might have been trying to help Nunes in his long-running campaign to learn the identities of such users so he could sue.
FEC
Roll Call: Campaign spending on child care growing steadily since FEC allowed it
By Stephanie Akin
Rep. Ilhan Omar says she probably wouldn’t be in Congress if not for a change in federal rules three years ago that allowed candidates to use campaign money for child care.
Rep. Katie Porter, a single mom, wants the Federal Election Commission ruling expanded to allow payments for elder and dependent care, too.
Overall, 51 candidates, including some Republican men, have spent campaign dollars on child care since the FEC allowed it in 2018. That’s according to a study released Tuesday by a nonprofit founded by the losing candidate who got the rule changed.
Donor Privacy
People United for Privacy: Anonymous Speech Must Be Protected
Adopted nearly 230 years ago, the First Amendment protects our rights to free speech and freedom of association. While many individuals choose to speak on their own behalf and to voice their views publicly, others decide to donate to causes or organizations whose voice is stronger and better able to represent their views on any number of topics. Regardless of whether someone chooses to speak out individually or to rely on a larger chorus to share their views, their freedom of speech and association are protected under the First Amendment. Yet in today’s society, countless politicians and activists seek to eliminate these important rights, to silence those with different views…
Legislation that forces charities and nonprofit organizations to disclose the name and home addresses of their donors to the government is a serious threat against all Americans, regardless of their political views. Whether someone supports the American Civil Liberties Union, Sierra Club, National Rifle Association, or the Salvation Army, a donation of an individual’s time, talent, or money is a private matter and should not be exploited for political, professional, or individual gain.
Free Speech
Wall Street Journal: Face Masks and the First Amendment
By David B. Rivkin Jr. and James Taranto
Critics argue that masking has become a form of virtue signaling. Mr. Biden reinforced that claim with his appeals to patriotism, which began during last year’s campaign as a rebuttal to the mask-resistant President Trump. But if wearing a mask conveys a political message, mandating it is constitutionally suspect. “No official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein,” Justice Robert Jackson wrote in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), which held that forcing schoolchildren to salute the flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance violated their freedom of speech.
Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): The First Amendment and Mask Mandates
By Eugene Volokh
David B. Rivkin Jr. and James Taranto argue in today’s Wall Street Journal that mask mandates are “content-based limits on speech” that must be evaluated under “strict scrutiny,” which likely makes them unconstitutional: …
I think this analysis is mistaken. There are many plausible arguments against various kinds of mask mandates; but the First Amendment compelled-expression argument just isn’t one of them.
The States
Politico: National money floods New York mayor’s race
By Joe Anuta and Sally Goldenberg
Hedge fund billionaires, charter school boosters and prominent labor unions are pouring cash into the New York City mayor’s race — contributing to a record haul intended to shape the outcome of the election at the same time new reforms seek to limit the influence of money in politics…
“It is kind of an arms race between the city’s Campaign Finance Board and the political money trying to find a way around it,” said John Kaehny of good-government group Reinvent Albany…
One donor is on track to single-handedly outspend every campaign and PAC by at least a 2-to-1 margin, according to the latest projections from AdImpact.
Michael Donovan has shelled out $6.8 million to New Start NYC, in hopes of propelling his son Shaun, a first-time political candidate, to Gracie Mansion. The PAC has already booked $5.5 million in ads.
To put that in perspective, Michael Donovan has given $1 million more than all of the 14,966 donors to Yang’s campaign combined, including matching funds, as of the last disclosure in March. And his largesse is 133,233 percent more than what would be allowed if he only donated to his son’s campaign under rules designed to curtail monied interests…
“These PACs are giant slush funds that rich people can create to support the candidate of their choice,” Kaehny said. “They are a serious threat to the campaign finance system here.”
Intelligencer: Eric Adams, Andrew Yang Accuse Each Other of Campaign-Finance Violations
By Nia Prater
As the June primary grows closer and closer, tensions are heating up in the race to be New York City’s next mayor. In recent days, the rhetoric between Eric Adams and Andrew Yang has escalated to the point where both candidates are openly calling for the other to be investigated for campaign-finance violations.
A recent New York Times article analyzed Adams’s past fundraising, connections to donors, and use of a nonprofit. The paper reported that David Schwartz, a real-estate developer, held a fundraiser for the Brooklyn borough president in 2018. When Schwartz’s company, Slate Property Group, needed approval to build a tower in the borough’s downtown that exceeded the zoning limit, Adams supported the zoning change…
Andrew Yang then raised the topic during an event Tuesday, calling out Adams directly.
“New York, Eric Adams took your taxpayer dollars and used them to amplify special interests here in New York City that did not need it,” Yang said, as reported by the New York Post.
Yang later added, “And I’m asking on behalf of all New Yorkers for the CFB to investigate thoroughly just how much special-interest money Eric bundled in violation of campaign-finance laws.”…
Adams’s campaign responded by submitting its own complaint to the campaign finance board, naming several Yang-connected entities: Yang for New York, Inc., Friends of Andrew Yang, Humanity Forward Foundation, Inc., and Humanity Forward PAC.
