The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech May 19, 2023 Click here to subscribe to the Daily Media Update. This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected]. Supreme Court SCOTUSblog: Supreme Court rules Twitter not liable for ISIS content By Amy Howe .....The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against the family of a 2017 ISIS attack victim who sought to hold tech companies liable for allowing ISIS to use their platforms in its terrorism efforts. The lawsuit seeking to hold Twitter, Facebook, and Google liable for aiding and abetting international terrorism cannot go forward, a unanimous court found. And based on that decision, the justices sidestepped a major ruling in a separate case on the scope of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which generally shields tech companies from liability for content published by users. The justices sent that case, Gonzalez v. Google LLC, back to the lower court for another look – suggesting that it too was unlikely to survive. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for a unanimous court in Twitter v. Taamneh, a lawsuit filed by the family of a Jordanian citizen, Nawras Alassaf, who was killed in an ISIS attack on an Istanbul nightclub in 2017. The lawsuit relied on the Antiterrorism Act, which allows U.S. nationals to sue anyone who “aids and abets, by knowingly providing substantial assistance,” international terrorism. New York Times: Why the Supreme Court Is Blind to Its Own Corruption By Randall D. Eliason .....Over more than two decades, the Supreme Court has gutted laws aimed at fighting corruption and at limiting the ability of the powerful to enrich public officials in a position to advance their interests. As a result, today wealthy individuals and corporations may buy political access and influence with little fear of legal consequences, either for them or for the beneficiaries of their largess. The Courts Courthouse News: Judge stops DeSantis supporters from sending petition urging him to run for president By Ryan Knappenberger .....Amid reports that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis plans to officially enter the race for president next week, a federal judge ruled supporters cannot send him a petition urging him to run because it would violate campaign finance laws. Ready for Ron, a political action committee that considers DeSantis the “Next Great American President,” asked the judge for an injunction allowing them to send the petition, including the names and contact information of those who signed, after the Federal Election Commission blocked it. U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss, a Barack Obama appointee, agreed with the FEC Wednesday evening that the petition was effectively a contact list, “something of value,” and would therefore exceed campaign contribution limits. “The FEC’s conclusion that RFR’s contact list constitutes a ‘contribution’ under [the Federal Election Campaign Act] is ‘not only reasonable but also the best interpretation of the statute,’” Moss wrote in his 60-page opinion. Attorneys for Ready for Ron disagreed with the decision and said it was “certainly not the end” of the litigation. They said the ruling denied the signatories their right to express their political views. “Speech is not money, and should not be regulated as such,” said Dan Backer, an attorney with Chalmers, Adams, Backer & Kaufman. Courthouse News: Federal judge in Chicago permanently blocks Illinois judicial election reforms By Dave Byrnes .....Conservative political action committees scored a win in Illinois on Thursday, when an Obama-appointed federal judge in the Windy City struck down two of the state's recently enacted judicial election reform laws. The first reform, enacted by the Illinois General Assembly in November 2021, barred non-Illinois residents from donating to state judicial candidates. The second, enacted in May 2022, prevented individual donors from giving more than $500,000 to independent expenditure committees — like PACs — involved in state judicial elections. Retired Illinois attorney John Matthew Chancey, alongside the conservative political action group Restoration PAC and its judicial election affiliate Fair Courts America, first sued the Illinois State Board of Elections in opposition to the reforms last August. The trio were represented in their suit by Liberty Justice Center, a conservative law firm. The Enterprise: Middleboro student sues. Why Liam Morrison says his 'two genders' shirt protected speech By Christopher Butler .....Twelve-year-old Liam Morrison and his family filed a lawsuit against the town of Middleboro and school officials after he was sent home from school twice for wearing a controversial shirt that school officials said broke the dress code. Morrison's attorneys announced Wednesday his family filed a federal lawsuit against the town for violating his First Amendment right to freedom of speech during school. In March, the middle school's principal and a school counselor pulled Morrison, a seventh-grade student at Nichols Middle School, out of his gym class and told him to change his T-shirt that read "there are only two genders." He declined and was sent home. Newsweek: Donald Trump's Alleged Crimes Listed by Manhattan DA in Hush Money Probe By James Bickerton .....More details about the allegations facing Donald Trump in the case over his alleged payment of hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels were revealed on Tuesday in a court filing by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office… The court filing set out which laws Trump may have violated: NY Election Law 17-152, NY Tax Law 1801(a)(3) & 1802, NY Penal Law 175.05 & 175.10, and Federal Election Campaign Act, 52 USC 30101. Speaking to Newsweek, former Los Angeles County prosecutor and criminal defense attorney with El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers, Joshua Ritter, explained what this means in practice. He said: "The election and tax laws that Bragg's office has cited as underlying crimes are fairly straightforward. The election laws simply involve using unlawful means to gain an advantage in a political campaign and failing to disclose how funds are used in a campaign. The tax statutes just relate to submitting false or fraudulent information in a tax return." Colorado Politics: Federal judge finds Loveland did not violate company's constitutional rights over political mail By Michael Karlik .....Loveland officials did not violate the constitutional rights of a sales and consulting firm by attempting to enforce its regulations on campaign spending during the 2019 municipal election, a federal judge ruled last month. Congress Federalist: Whistleblowers Expose FBI’s Corruption And Ongoing Persecution Of Political Opponents In Damning New Testimony By Shawn Fleetwood .....In an explosive House committee hearing on Thursday, several whistleblowers accused the FBI of engaging in a complex series of highly corrupt and partisan activities, including the manipulation of statistics, targeting of political opponents, and retaliating against whistleblowers seeking to expose the agency’s corruption. The revelations come days after a report from U.S. Attorney John Durham revealed the FBI had no evidence then-candidate Donald Trump colluded with the Russians when it launched its Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the former president’s 2016 campaign. Washington Examiner: Supreme Court 'transparency' group hammered by Judiciary GOP over IRS donor blunder By Gabe Kaminsky .....Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans have rebuked an advocacy group pushing for Supreme Court "transparency" after it unwittingly leaked its donors to the Washington Examiner and panicked… Roth had said that he "misunderstood the filing instructions" for the IRS and mailed 990 Forms to the agency on Wednesday. The States Insider NJ: Republican County Chairs Slam Unconstitutional Gopal Bill .....The Republican County Chairs listed below issue the following statement with regard to the New Jersey Legislature’s consideration of S3838/A5429: This bill unconstitutionally targets Sheriffs, County Clerks and Surrogates and seeks to take from them the right to maintain political associations and assume positions of leadership in the furtherance of political beliefs. It has been sixty-five years since our United State Supreme Court made clear that association for political purposes is worthy of the highest protection under the Constitution. The Supreme Court said, “It is beyond debate that freedom to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas is an inseparable aspect of the ‘liberty’ assured by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which embraces freedom of speech.” It is beyond dispute that leadership in the context of political association is as highly protected, if not more so, than general political association. If not, then the whims of political opponents who have wrested control of Legislative and Executive power will be allowed to dictate who can lead in the political arena. Allowing such a construct would wreak havoc with our political party system and represent a threat to democracy itself. Washington Post: School librarians face a new penalty in the banned-book wars: Prison By Hannah Natanson .....Librarians could face years of imprisonment and tens of thousands in fines for providing sexually explicit, obscene or “harmful” books to children under new state laws that permit criminal prosecution of school and library personnel. At least seven states have passed such laws in the last two years, according to a Washington Post analysis, six of them in the past two months — although governors of Idaho and North Dakota vetoed the legislation. Another dozen states considered more than 20 similar bills this year, half of which are likely to come up again in 2024, The Post found. 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. Follow the Institute for Free Speech ‌ ‌ ‌ The Institute for Free Speech | 1150 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]