This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected].  

Fox News: John Edwards' hush-money case could be good news for Trump, bad news for Manhattan DA Bragg, experts say

By Joe Schoffstall and Andrew Murray 

....."The Edwards scenario is relevant for two reasons. First, as much as I criticize the theory of District Attorney Bragg, it's worth noting that the federal district court judge in the Edwards case let the case go to trial on basically what was that theory – that friends of the candidate were paying a woman off to be quiet that counted as a campaign expenditure," [former FEC Chair Bradley A.] Smith told Fox News Digital in a phone interview.

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney: Romney Joins Braun, Colleagues in Bill to Prevent IRS from Being Used as Political Weapon

.....U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) today joined Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) and Senators Rick Scott (R-FL), Todd Young (R-IN), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Jim Risch (R-ID) in re-introducing a bill to prevent the IRS from being used as a political weapon against conservative non-profit groups.

People United for Privacy: Keeping the Courts Open to Americans Who Prize Their Privacy

.....For over two years, the Judicial Conference has deliberated potential rules requiring amicus brief filers to disclose their donors. Though the scope of a potential rule has evolved over the years, People United for Privacy Foundation (PUFPF) has jumped into the discussion to offer suggestions. PUFPF Vice President Matt Nese and Counsel Eric Wang submitted a comment on the latest draft proposal, encouraging a subcommittee tasked with proposing a rule to uphold its respect for privacy and speech in forthcoming iterations of a prospective proposed rule.

The Atlantic: Free Speech Is Not Just for Conservatives

By Conor Friedersdorf

.....Can an administrator at a public university cancel a performance because he believes that it is degrading to women? That’s the position that Walter Wendler, the president of West Texas A&M University, took in a recent letter explaining why he was prohibiting a student group from going forward with an on-campus event raising money for charity.

Election Law Blog: Citizens United + Trump payoff = clickbait

.....In my first academic article, I noted that the Citizens United case seemed to have taken on the perceived sins of a whole line of campaign finance jurisprudence — and more broadly, democratic discontent. That is, it sometimes seemed like “Citizens United” had just become a way to signal “bad stuff.”

In that vein, I give you TNR’s “How Citizens United Greased Trump’s Payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.”

Early Returns - Law and Politics with Jan Baran: Donald Palmer and the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission’s Role in the Integrity of the Voting Process

.....This episode examines an important government agency that helps keep our voting systems current, transparent, and reliable. The U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (“EAC”) has existed for a little over 20 years. It was created in the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election and the Florida vote recount. In today’s political climate of distrust and controversy regarding, among other things, the voting process and vote counting, the EAC plays an integral role in ensuring the integrity of the election process.

New York Times: Gov. Murphy Signs Law Decried as a ‘Frontal Assault’ on Good Government

By Tracey Tully

.....In January, a watchdog agency created 50 years ago to safeguard the integrity of campaign fund-raising in New Jersey filed four complaints. Three cited irregularities in powerful Democrat-led accounts, and one dinged a committee set up to elect Republicans.

New York Times: Right-Wing Media Splits From DeSantis on Press Protections

By Ken Bensinger

.....The legislation, drafted at Mr. DeSantis’s urging as he inches toward a presidential bid, takes aim at several protections in state and federal law, including the decades-old Supreme Court precedent that makes it difficult for public figures to win libel lawsuits. The proposals are packaged in two bills moving through the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Can Governmental Defendants Use Anti-SLAPP Statutes When They're Sued Based on Their Speech?

.....These statutes have often raised lots of interesting legal questions of their own, including whether governmental defendants can bring the same anti-SLAPP claims, if they are sued based on their speech. The California Supreme Court, for instance, held that governmental defendants are indeed entitled to bring anti-SLAPP motions (Vargas v. City of Salinas (Cal. 2009)), but today the Florida Court of Appeal interpreted the Florida statute differently (in Crosby v. Town of Indian River Shores, written by Jeffrey Kuntz and joined by Judge Dorian Damoorgian):

Sludge: With Chicago’s Mayoral Race Awash in Big Money, Reformers Aim to Amplify Small Donors

.....Only a tiny share of funding in Chicago’s mayoral campaigns through the end of 2022 has come in small donations of $150 or under directly from city residents: a minuscule 0.9% of all funds in the race, according to a report released last month by RFI. Large donors who gave $10,000 or more, meanwhile, accounted for a whopping 57% of money in the race to lead Chicago.

To shed light on the interests behind [nonprofit] spending, Democratic state Rep. Maurice West last month introduced legislation, House Bill 3804, that would require groups spending on elections to disclose their original funding sources. Kaplan says RFI worked with Rep. West on the bill to require transparency for pass-through groups like the disclosure enhancements enacted in other states, or a measure recently passed in Arizona with the support of 73% of state voters.

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