The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech June 22, 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]. New from the Institute for Free Speech Chairman Smith Urges House Committee to Reform Campaign Finance Laws .....On May 11, the Committee on House Administration invited Institute for Free Speech Chairman Bradley Smith to testify regarding how campaign finance laws can better respect free speech. The following letter is written testimony that Chairman Smith was invited to submit to the House Administration Committee. At the hearing, Smith explained that the only constitutional justification for setting campaign finance contribution limits is to prevent quid pro quo corruption or the appearance of such corruption. However, many laws have drifted far from this standard. Numerous current contribution limits are so low that they burden political speech without meaningfully limiting corruption. Excessive disclosure laws are also exposing donors to harassment, which chills political speech... Read the full letter below or in this PDF. The Courts Vox: The Fifth Circuit comes for the First Amendment right to protest By Ian Millhiser .....For more than four years, a rogue federal appeals court has given life to a highly dubious lawsuit targeting DeRay Mckesson, a prominent figure within the Black Lives Matter movement. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s decisions would not only strip Mckesson of his First Amendment-protected right to organize mass protests against police violence, it threatens all Americans’ ability to organize any protest. On Friday, the Fifth Circuit handed down its latest decision in Doe v. Mckesson, the case at the heart of this crusade against the First Amendment. Under the Fifth Circuit’s latest approach, a protest organizer who commits even a minor legal violation — in this case the court faulted Mckesson for leading a protest “in front of the Baton Rouge police station” and for attempting “to block a public highway” — may potentially be held liable for the illegal actions of someone else who attended the protest. Reuters: Challenge to abortion clinic 'buffer zone' law rejected by US court By Daniel Wiessner .....A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld a New York county's law barring anti-abortion activists from approaching people outside abortion clinics, teeing up potential review by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the law adopted last year by Westchester County, New York, was valid under a 2000 Supreme Court ruling that rejected a challenge to a similar law in Colorado... Lawyers for the plaintiff, "sidewalk counselor" and devout Catholic Debra Vitagliano, acknowledged that their challenge was foreclosed by the Supreme Court ruling. But they have said in court papers that they intend to ask the high court to overrule that decision and strike down "buffer zone" laws. Congress Washington Post: GOP: Biden violated First Amendment by pressing Big Tech on covid misinfo By Will Oremus .....House Republicans on Wednesday used a hearing on the U.S. government’s coronavirus policies to highlight a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of using social media to censor Americans’ speech in violation of the First Amendment… The hearing featured testimony from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R), who with his Louisiana counterpart is suing in federal court to block the White House from working with tech companies such as Google and Meta to restrict what Americans can say on social media sites. A Trump-appointed federal judge in Louisiana has allowed the case to move forward, raising the possibility of another high-profile legal clash in higher courts over online speech. Fox News: Republicans accelerate investigation into foreign influence of US climate groups, environmental policy By Thomas Catenacci and Joe Schoffstall .....Republican leaders on the House Natural Resources Committee are probing the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) over the high-profile eco group's relationship with foreign donors as part of a broader investigation. Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., the chairman of the panel's oversight subcommittee, penned a letter Tuesday to LCV President Gene Karpinski, demanding answers to a series of questions about his organization's internal operations. The lawmakers particularly questioned whether LCV is in compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). College Fix: Bill would mandate free speech training on public college campuses nationwide By Joseph Silverstein .....Public universities would be required to provide free speech information and training to new students during their orientation under a bill recently introduced in the House. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-California, proposed the “Free Speech on Campus Act” in May, which seeks to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to mandate the First Amendment training. The legislation was co-sponsored by Utah Republican Rep. Burgess Owens, who stated the bill would “ensure diverse voices and viewpoints in higher education.” The proposed amendment would require public institutions provide a written statement and educational programming to new and transfer students on their rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution. Free Expression Washington Post: The professor is canceled. Now what? By Jack Stripling .....Across higher education, cases like Negy’s are tying college administrators in knots as they seek to balance free-speech traditions with goals like diversity and inclusion. While faculty, especially those with tenure, can enjoy broad latitude to speak their minds, college officials face enormous pressure to act when students point to possible discrimination and harassment in the classroom. Yet their responses to such controversies, which often follow a similar pattern, seldom leave anyone satisfied. The Washington Post analyzed several emblematic cases and found that the incidents often trigger lengthy and opaque investigations that can disrupt departments for years and turn students into witnesses against their professors. They often harden views that colleges are either hopelessly “woke” or woefully incapable of confronting bigotry within their own ranks. In the end, it’s hard for anyone to say what has been accomplished. National Review: Free-Speech Group Petitions Yale Administration By Sahar Tartak .....Last week, the Buckley Institute, the only organization dedicated to promoting intellectual diversity and free speech at Yale, sent a petition to Yale University president Peter Salovey and members of the Yale Corporation as part of Fight for Yale’s Future, a Buckley Institute project. With over 1,500 signatures of students, alumni, and faculty, the petition demands that administrators make reforms to improve the state of free speech on campus. The Media Reason: Reporters Convicted of 'Trespass' for Doing Their Jobs By J.D. Tuccille .....The arrest of people reporting news should raise eyebrows, especially when they're covering the conduct of police and other agents of the state. The stakes increase when those journalists aren't even allowed to raise the First Amendment as a defense. Such is the case after the widely condemned conviction for trespassing of two reporters in Asheville, North Carolina, while they covered police clearing a homeless encampment in a public park. Podcasts Early Returns - Law and Politics with Jan Baran: Jill Holtzman Vogel – A Trailblazing Woman in Politics and the Law .....In this episode, Jan speaks with Jill Holtzman Vogel, the managing partner of Holtzman Vogel and a Virginia State Senator. Jill started her law firm 21 years ago as a sole practitioner specializing in political law. It now has over 40 lawyers in four states. Jill also has devoted 16 years of public service in the Virginia Senate. Jill speaks openly about her experiences as a woman in these two male dominated industries, and how she navigated her career, built a growing and successful law firm, and shared the same energy and focus with her six children and husband. The States New Hampshire Bulletin: The budget removes limits on campaign donations. Not all are thrilled. By Ethan DeWitt .....In 2022, lawmakers made a change to the state’s campaign finance laws that some quickly came to regret. In a bill sponsored by Sen. James Gray, the Legislature added new limits on how much candidates could receive from political committees, and how much they could transfer from their previous campaign’s war chests. Where statewide candidates had once enjoyed unlimited transfers, suddenly they would be capped at $30,000 per cycle. The change took effect in January. But it didn’t take long for New Hampshire politicians and campaign staff to call for its reversal. Having caps on transfers meant that a person who won a state Senate seat in 2022 would not be able to transfer more than $30,000 in leftover campaign funds toward their 2024 re-election campaign. And it meant that someone seeking to run for governor would face the same limits over how much they could roll forward from their state Senate or Executive Council campaigns. On Tuesday, those caps were lifted, six months after they had taken effect. The budget signed by Gov. Chris Sununu included a last-minute amendment to do away with the caps, allowing any candidate, political action committee, or political advocacy organization to transfer an unlimited amount of money directly to a candidate during an election cycle. 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 political rights to free speech, press, assembly, and petition guaranteed by the First Amendment. Please support the Institute's mission by clicking here. For further information, visit www.ifs.org. 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