July 18, 2023

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

We're Hiring!

Director of Development

.....Institute for Free Speech is hiring a Director of Development responsible for developing and implementing a fundraising plan and managing all development efforts.

IFS seeks a skilled development professional with a proven record of developing relationships with major donors, such as individuals or foundations, our donor network, and other supporters.

This position demands a candidate passionate about free speech and an in-depth understanding of what drives people to support a cause. In short, you will help raise the funds needed to litigate important cases in court and win the fight for the First Amendment’s speech freedoms in the court of public opinion.

This person will report to the president of the Institute for Free Speech and can be executed from Washington, DC or virtually from anywhere in the United States.

You must have strong writing and networking abilities and have the ability to build and maintain trusted, positive, and productive relationships with donors.

In the News

Votebeat: In a volatile information landscape, secretaries of state search for ways to reach voters

By Carrie Levine

.....“The government can’t pressure private actors to do something unconstitutional and then say it’s private actors,” said Brad Smith, the chairman and founder of the Institute for Free Speech, who says the government should be allowed to express its point of view to social media companies, but not pressure them. “The argument here should simply come down to how much pressure do you think should be allowed, and I think we need to be careful.”

New from the Institute for Free Speech

Institute for Free Speech Expands Communications Team

.....The Institute for Free Speech is pleased to announce that Sarah Fisher has joined IFS as Associate Director of Communications. Tiffany Donnelly, who joined the Institute as media manager in 2019, has been promoted to Deputy Director of Communications.

Sarah comes to IFS after nearly four years on the communications team for Council for a Strong America, a nonprofit advocacy organization in Washington, DC.

Sarah has wide-ranging public relations and social media experience in the arts, entertainment, and nonprofit sectors. In her career, she has published dozens of pieces in major news outlets across the country and created social media content for audiences of over a million people. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and resides in Hampton Roads.

Regarding her new position, Sarah said, “I am thrilled to join the Institute for Free Speech team and further elevate the critical work of this organization.”

Sarah and Tiffany will collaborate with the Chief Communications Officer on media outreach, social media, guest commentaries, and more.

Tiffany will continue her role as Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Media Update, a curated compilation of the latest free speech and campaign finance news.

Supreme Court

Courthouse News: Supreme Court flag policy ruling muddied water for cities

By Sam Ribakoff

.....A unanimous ruling in a Supreme Court case last year about the city of Boston’s lack of a policy for choosing which flags it allowed to be flown on city hall grounds was supposed to clarify how municipalities like Carlsbad could create their own policies for flying flags on city property.

Instead, municipalities across the country have diverging interpretations about the ruling's implications while they try to dodge potential lawsuits as more kindling gets added onto the fires of the culture war.

The Courts

Reason: A Win for the First Amendment, and a Loss for Partisans Who Want to Weaponize Censorship

By Robert Corn-Revere

.....The problem with Missouri v. Biden is that the political noise surrounding the case is distracting attention from the important First Amendment principles at stake. And the even bigger problem is that the noise is coming from all sides—including those who brought the case, some of the reactions to it, and Doughty's opinion itself.

Fox News: Black equity director called a 'White supremacist' after speaking out about college's radical agenda: lawsuit

By Hannah Grossman

.....A Black equity director who worked at a taxpayer-backed California community college, accused her former employer of racial discrimination, retaliation and First Amendment violations after she committed thought crimes — "ideological discretion[s]" — that weren't in line with the administration's radical "antiracism," according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

Arkansas Advocate: Arkansas ACLU files amicus brief in social media age verification suit

By Antoinette Grajeda

.....The ACLU of Arkansas on Friday filed a proposed amicus brief in a federal lawsuit challenging a new state law that requires social media platforms to verify new users’ ages.

NetChoice, a tech trade group whose members include Meta (Facebook), Twitter and TikTok, filed a federal lawsuit in June that argues Act 689 of 2023 violates the First Amendment rights of Arkansans.

The law, heralded by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, seeks to protect children from the harms of social media by requiring new users to prove that they are 18 or older or obtain parental permission to be on a site...

In the amicus brief, the ACLU of Arkansas echoed NetChoice’s free speech concerns, arguing that core First Amendment activity takes place on social media, including engaging in political expression, artistic expression, and religious worship or fellowship, as well as sharing minority views and experiences.

Congress

New York Times: Democrats to Press Supreme Court Ethics Rules Over G.O.P. Opposition

By Carl Hulse

.....Senate Democrats plan to push ahead this week with legislation imposing new ethics rules on the Supreme Court in the wake of disclosures about the justices’ travel and outside activities, despite blanket opposition by Republicans who claim the effort is intended to undermine the high court.

The Judiciary Committee is scheduled on Thursday to consider legislation by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, that would require the Supreme Court to establish a new code of conduct for justices, set firmer ground rules for recusal from cases, create a new investigatory board and promote transparency about ties with those before the court.

CNBC: U.S. lawmakers extend social media investigation to Meta’s Threads

By Lauren Feiner

.....House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to hand over documents about content moderation on Threads in response to an earlier subpoena related to the panel’s ongoing investigation of tech platforms’ policies and contact with the Biden administration.

The letter, obtained exclusively by CNBC, is an early indication of the added spotlight Meta’s newest product could bring to the company in Washington. Threads competes directly with Twitter, which owner Elon Musk wants to shape with his self-declared free speech absolutism in mind, despite at times suspending users including journalists.

While Meta executives have made clear they don’t want news and politics to dominate the conversation on Threads, it’s a large part of what users have historically come to Twitter to discuss. The more that becomes the case on Threads, the more it could land in political crosshairs.

Free Expression

New York Times: Can A.I. Invent?

By Steve Lohr

.....Generative artificial intelligence, the technology engine powering the popular ChatGPT chatbot, seems to have a limitless bag of tricks. It can produce on command everything from recipes and vacation plans to computer code and molecules for new drugs.

But can A.I. invent?

Legal scholars, patent authorities and even Congress have been pondering that question. The people who answer “yes,” a small but growing number, are fighting a decidedly uphill battle in challenging the deep-seated belief that only a human can invent.

Online Speech Platforms

NBC News: Facebook banned anti-government ‘Boogaloo’ groups. They found a way to return, research says.

By Brandy Zadrozny

.....Eighteen months after Facebook banned communities and users connected with the “Boogaloo” anti-government movement, the group’s extremist ideas were back and flourishing on the social media platform, new research found.

The paper, from George Washington University and Jigsaw, a unit inside Google that explores threats to open societies — including hate and toxicity, violent extremism and censorship — found that after Facebook’s June 2020 ban of the Boogaloo militia movement, the content “boomeranged,” first declining and then bouncing back to nearly its original volume.

Candidates and Campaigns

Washington Post (Daily 202): Cash for kitsch: Let’s talk about campaign merchandise

By Olivier Knox

.....Back when I dug into the campaign merch’ phenomenon in 2015 over at Yahoo News, I learned some history about political memorabilia.

At George Washington’s inauguration, someone sold buttons that read “Long Live The President G.W.,” so the phenomenon truly stretches back to the founding of the republic.
It’s not just bumper stickers and yard signs: Private vendors have put political messages on everything from thimbles (when women got the right to vote in 1920) to condoms (in the 1980s, during the AIDS epidemic).

(Fun fact: Former president Donald Trump wasn’t the first candidate to make merch’ with a mug shot. Back in 2014, former Texas governor Rick Perry did the same.)

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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