April 11, 2023

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The Courts

Federalist: Government Is Marketing Censorship Tools To Big Tech To Gag Conservatives

By Margot Cleveland

.....The federal government peddled technology to Big Tech companies to assist them in censoring Americans’ speech on social media in the run-up to the 2020 election, according to emails Missouri and Louisiana uncovered in their First Amendment lawsuit against the Biden administration.

Specifically, the State Department marketed this censorship technology through its Global Engagement Center. In other words, our tax dollars not only funded the development of tools to silence speech that dissented from the regime’s narrative. They also paid for government employees to act as sales reps pitching the censorship products to Big Tech.

EFF: EFF to Ninth Circuit: Twitter Has First Amendment Right to Ban Users, Including Presidents

By Mukund Rathi

.....Time and time again, we have said–and courts have ruled–that social media platforms have the First Amendment right to ban users. We have argued that banned users cannot successfully sue platforms for acting as government censors without showing that the platforms willfully and fully ceded their editorial discretion to the government. But nevertheless, the lawsuits keep getting filed.

This time, former President Trump is the lead plaintiff in yet another “must carry” lawsuit, this one against Twitter. And we have again filed an amicus brief that explains how editorial freedom online benefits users by encouraging diverse forums for speech. (Twitter has also argued that the case is moot since it restored Trump’s account.)

Congress

U.S. Representative Kathy Castor: Rep. Castor: It’s Time to Bury Zombie Campaigns for Good

.....U.S. Reps. Kathy Castor (FL14), Gus Bilirakis (FL12) and Jamie Raskin (MD08) reintroduced the bipartisan Honest Elections and Campaign, No Gain Act (HEC NO), legislation requiring former lawmakers and others no longer seeking office to close their campaign accounts within two years, instead of living on as zombie campaigns.

FEC

New York Times: Trump Ignores Deadline for Personal Financial Disclosure to F.E.C.

By Shane Goldmacher

.....Former President Donald J. Trump has a minor addition to his mounting pile of legal challenges after he failed to meet the deadline to disclose his personal financial holdings.

But the threatened initial penalty — a meager $200 — is the latest sign of how weak federal enforcement of campaign laws has become...

“President Trump has significant financial holdings, and we have advised the Federal Election Commission that additional time is needed to file his financial disclosure report,” Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, said in a statement.

Mr. Trump was warned that the fee could be imposed if he does not file within 30 days of the March 16 deadline, which is later this week, in a letter from the Federal Election Commission’s acting general counsel that denied his request for a third extension last month.

Meredith McGehee, a longtime campaign watchdog, said, “It’s very clear that former President Trump doesn’t feel the law applies to him and has spent much of his career hiring legal representation to delay and distract. This is in line with his general approach.”

She added that the lack of teeth on the disclosure law highlighted the weak position of federal enforcement. “They kind of wag their finger,” she said. “‘No we really, really mean it’ — and then generally nothing happens.”

Free Expression

Newsweek: Riley Gaines Slams San Francisco State University Over Reaction to Attack

By James Bickerton

.....Riley Gaines hit out at San Francisco State University (SFSU) after an email was sent to all students thanking those who "participated peacefully in Thursday evening's event" when demonstrators stormed a talk being held by Gaines and allegedly physically assaulted her.

Gaines, a former college swimmer, was speaking about the role of transgender athletes in women's sports at an event hosted by the conservative group Turning Point USA on Thursday. A video posted on social media showed Gaines being escorted to safety by police after dozens of protestors got inside the venue, with the ex-college athlete claiming she was "physically hit twice by a man," and trapped in an empty classroom for three hours.

Candidates and Campaigns

OpenSecrets: Wisconsin Supreme Court race was the most expensive state judicial election in U.S. history

By Inci Sayki

.....Liberals won control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court last Tuesday for the first time in 15 years. The most expensive state judicial election in U.S. history, the contest was dubbed the most high-stakes race of 2023...

Spending in the election surpassed $45 million, with contributions to candidate campaigns totaling $16.9 million, according to OpenSecrets’ analysis of the most recent campaign finance disclosures. Another $28.6 million went to independent expenditures and undisclosed issue ads, the campaign money tracking non-profit group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign estimated…

Protasiewicz’s campaign raised $14 million, with the Wisconsin Democratic Party being by far the biggest donor, contributing $8.9 million. Some of the top industries contributing to her campaign were lawyers and lobbyists, securities and investment, and education.

Kelly’s campaign raised $2.6 million, with roughly $779,000 of that coming from the Wisconsin Republican Party. Conservative megadonors and supply shipping magnate couple Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein were among Kelly’s top individual donors, together contributing $40,000. The Uihleins also gave $5.8 million to GOP-supporting super PACs in Wisconsin in 2022 and contributed in the past to the Wisconsin Club for Growth, a conservative nonprofit with a history of getting involved in Wisconsin Supreme Court races.

The States

Philadelphia Inquirer: The Philadelphia Board of Ethics is accusing mayoral candidate Jeff Brown of illegally coordinating with a super PAC

By Sean Collins Walsh, Chris Brennan, and Anna Orso

.....The Philadelphia Board of Ethics on Monday sued a political committee and a nonprofit supporting Jeff Brown’s bid for mayor and accused Brown of violating the city’s campaign finance law by illegally coordinating with those groups, which are supposed to operate independently from his campaign.

Citing an “extensive and elaborate scheme to circumvent the city’s campaign contribution limits,” the board asked Common Pleas Court Judge Joshua Roberts to issue an emergency order prohibiting the political group ― a super PAC called For A Better Philadelphia ― and the nonprofit, which has the same name, from spending money to influence the May 16 primary election for mayor and to cancel any planned television advertising or other efforts to support Brown’s campaign.

The board is also seeking $162,000 in fines to be paid jointly by the two groups for repeatedly violating the city’s campaign finance laws as part of the alleged scheme. That would be the largest-ever financial penalty for violations of those rules.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Maria Quiñones Sánchez is dropping out of the Philly mayor’s race due to the ‘obnoxious, obscene amount of money’

By Sean Collins Walsh

.....Former City Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez is suspending her mayoral campaign, saying the flood of money into the race from self-funding candidates and outside spending groups made it impossible for her to keep up...

Quiñones Sánchez supports public financing of elections to level the playing field between candidates with major financial backing and those without it. Short of that reform, which would be a significant overhaul of the city election system, she said she supports revising Philadelphia’s campaign contribution limits...

Those limits were intended to prevent special interests from currying influence with elected officials by writing enormous checks that regular voters couldn’t afford. But they were created before the U.S. Supreme Court changed the electoral landscape by allowing outside spending groups known as super PACs to spend unlimited amounts of money on politics with decisions such as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010.

Now, critics say, Philly’s contribution limits are undermining their original purpose because they prevent candidates such as Quiñones Sánchez from collecting bigger checks from donors while allowing those backed by super PACs to benefit from unlimited fundraising.

“The contribution limits make it harder for candidates like me,” Quiñones Sánchez said. “Nobody can do it without a super PAC anymore, which was not the intent of campaign [contribution limits].”

Bismarck Tribune: Bills to boost campaign finance transparency hit dead end in ND Legislature

By Jeremy Turley

.....A recent rise in nebulous political spending has increased appetite among lawmakers for reforming North Dakota’s campaign finance laws, but most measures to expand reporting requirements fell flat this year.

The Senate last week voted 42-5 to kill House Bill 1441, which would have required so-called multicandidate committees to report the recipients of their expenditures over $5,000 and the names of candidates and measures they support or oppose. The House of Representatives in February unanimously passed the legislation sponsored by Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo...

Earlier this year, the House and Senate scrapped bills that aimed to crack down on so-called dark money — campaign spending that comes from unknown sources…

Rejected bills sponsored by Magrum and Rep. Mike Schatz, R-New England, would have required the organizations to publicly divulge the “ultimate and true source” of the funds they use to buy political ads.

The Republican legislators filed the bills after being targeted last year with attack ads by an independent expenditure filer known as the Brighter Future Alliance...

The Legislature and Burgum did approve House Bill 1257, which will require some school board candidates to file financial disclosures. Rep. Liz Conmy, D-Fargo, sponsored the proposal.

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