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

.....School board candidates are now free to state their political affiliation without fear of being fined by the Florida Elections Commission (FEC).

This positive development for free political speech in Florida comes as a result of a lawsuit filed by Kells Hetherington and litigated by attorneys at the Institute for Free Speech, a nonpartisan First Amendment advocacy organization that defends political speech rights.

To read more about the case, Hetherington v. Madden, click here. To read Judge Rodgers’ opinion, click here.

Law360: Libertarian Org Asks Supreme Court To Review AB 5

.....Libertarian public interest organization Pacific Legal Foundation urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a lawsuit challenging a California law establishing a strict test for employee classification, saying the law allows the state "strangle constitutional rights amid a tangle of regulations and exemptions,” Pacific Legal said in its brief. 

[Ed. note: Read our petition in Mobilize the Message, LLC v. Bonta, here. Learn more about the case here.]

Washington Post: This Jan. 6 case could make U.S. politics even worse

By Jason Willick

.....The most consequential [legal question from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot] is the meaning that courts assign to a federal “obstruction of an official proceeding” statute. The Justice Department has already used the statute to charge roughly 300 of 1,000 riot defendants. For months, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has been weighing whether that is a legitimate use of the law, which carries up to a 20-year penalty.

The court’s decision, released last Friday, was a mess. Prosecutors technically won United States v. Fischer by a 2-1 vote, but each judge wrote a separate opinion interpreting the law differently — a split that invites Supreme Court review. If the courts ultimately greenlight the Justice Department’s novel and sweeping interpretation of the obstruction law, they’ll be blessing a significant expansion of the federal government’s power to punish political activity it opposes.

Come on, you might say. No need for a parade of horribles. Legitimate “political activity” is easily distinguishable from the Jan. 6 violence. Here’s the problem: The statute in question has no violence requirement, nor any requirement that a defendant attempted to do anything so radical as overturn an election. It was passed after the 2001 Enron Corp. scandal to make sure prosecutors had the tools to pursue accountants who destroyed documents sought by investigators.

Washington Post: Loudoun schools’ bias-reporting system might violate free speech, court says

By Rachel Weiner and Karina Elwood

.....A program intended to address discrimination at Loudoun County Public Schools might violate the First Amendment, a federal appellate court ruled Friday, and a lawsuit challenging the program can move forward.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the “Bias Incident Reporting System,” which allows students to anonymously report alleged incidents of bias and request an administrative investigation, could have a “chilling effect” on conservative students who describe their views on race and gender as unpopular.

Daily Signal: Election Oversight That America’s Next President Should Champion

.....When the next president takes office in January 2025, he or she will have the opportunity to reform the Federal Election Commission, which governs campaign spending and fundraising and has significant authority over activity protected by the First Amendment.

Fox News: DCCC, Marc Elias' firm accused of 'apparent civil violations' of federal election law

By Houston Keene and Joe Schoffstall

.....An anti-Biden political action committee filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging "apparent civil violations" of election law between the House Democrats’ campaign arm and top liberal lawyer and former Hillary Clinton attorney Marc Elias’ law firm.

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained the complaint filed by the Committee to Defeat the President as well as their letter to Justice Department election crimes branch Director Robert Heberle regarding the allegations against the DCCC and Elias Law Group.

Cato: The Trump Indictment Reminds Us That Campaign Finance Regulation Should Not Exist

By Jeffrey Miron and Jacob Winter

.....Proponents of campaign finance regulation assert that contributions affect a candidates’ electoral chances; that contributions influence the policies candidates support; that this influence is undesirable; and that regulation successfully limit this influence.

New York Times: The Moral Center Is Fighting Back on Elite College Campuses

.....Free speech is indispensable to the American idea. It protects us from tyranny more thoroughly and effectively than any other constitutional right. As Frederick Douglass proclaimed after his own brush with mob censorship, “Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist.”

The Hill: Florists’ free speech: Liberals in Tennessee appear to be making the case for conservative justices

.....The owners [of a flower shop] are at the center of a national controversy after refusing to provide decorations for a GOP event featuring former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Michael Pence, and other Republicans. They further urged other businesses to deny future services to the Republican Party over gun control.

AZ Central: New Arizona law makes it easy for extremists to harass regular donors like you

By Jon Gabriel

.....Sold as the Voters’ Right to Know Act, it required entities and persons making independent expenditures of more than $50,000 on a statewide campaign or $25,000 on a local campaign to disclose the names of the money’s original sources.

Must Read Alaska: Anchorage Assembly may crack down on political speech by labeling it ‘hate’

By Suzanne Downing

.....A resolution to be considered at Tuesday’s Anchorage Assembly meeting appears to give the Assembly the ability to end public comment at meetings if the members of the body deem the comments to be hateful.

Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. For email filters, the subject of this email will always begin with "Institute for Free Speech Media Update."  

The Institute for Free Speech is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and defends the First Amendment rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government. Please support the Institute's mission by clicking here. For further information, visit www.ifs.org.