July 21, 2023
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Congressional Republicans led by Rand Paul and Jim Jordan strike back against Biden’s censorship with new legislation
By Robert Romano
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on July 20 introduced legislation, the Free Speech Protection Act, that promises to rein in censorship by the executive branch of regular Americans on social media.
The censorship, or relaying of so-called misinformation, disinformation and malinformation concerns to social media has been ongoing for years, and even predates the current tenure of President Joe Biden, and has targeted all manner of political speech otherwise protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
On July 4, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana placed a nationwide injunction—now temporarily stayed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals — on the White House, federal government departments and agencies including the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the State Department’s Global Engagement Center and the Justice Department’s FBI Foreign Influence Task Force from coordinating with and pressuring social media companies including Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube to remove political speech from their platforms that opposed tyrannical government policies during Covid, including lockdowns, vaccine and mask mandates, opposition to the outcome of the 2020 election, exposed the Hunter Biden laptop story and any future efforts to squelch speech, calling the activities “the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history…”
According to Doughty, in granting the injunctive relief, “The Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the Government has used its power to silence the opposition. Opposition to COVID-19 vaccines; opposition to COVID-19 masking and lockdowns; opposition to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19; opposition to the validity of the 2020 election; opposition to President Biden’s policies; statements that the Hunter Biden laptop story was true; and opposition to policies of the government officials in power. All were suppressed.”
The speech that suppressed almost exclusively came from political opponents of the Biden administration, pointing to a targeted campaign of “viewpoint discrimination”: “It is quite telling that each example or category of suppressed speech was conservative in nature. This targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech. American citizens have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country.”
And Doughty called the actions, which began before Biden even took office, an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” from George Orwell’s warning of totalitarian censorship in his book 1984: “Although this case is still relatively young, and at this stage the Court is only examining it in terms of Plaintiffs’ likelihood of success on the merits, the evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’ The Plaintiffs have presented substantial evidence in support of their claims that they were the victims of a far-reaching and widespread censorship campaign. This court finds that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their First Amendment free speech claim against the Defendants. Therefore, a preliminary injunction should issue immediately against the Defendants as set out herein.”
As for the expansive injunction, it just about covers all the bases of the activities in evidence at the trial. It forbids the government from: “(1) meeting with social-media companies for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms; (2) specifically flagging content or posts on social-media platforms and/or forwarding such to social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech; (3) urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner social-media companies to change their guidelines for removing, deleting, suppressing, or reducing content containing protected free speech; (4) emailing, calling, sending letters, texting, or engaging in any communication of any kind with social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech; (5) collaborating, coordinating, partnering, switchboarding, and/or jointly working with the Election Integrity Partnership, the Virality Project, the Stanford Internet Observatory, or any like project or group for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content posted with social-media companies containing protected free speech; (6) threatening, pressuring, or coercing social-media companies in any manner to remove, delete, suppress, or reduce posted content of postings containing protected free speech; (7) taking any action such as urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner social-media companies to remove, delete, suppress, or reduce posted content protected by the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution; (8) following up with social-media companies to determine whether the social-media companies removed, deleted, suppressed, or reduced previous social-media postings containing protected free speech; (9) requesting content reports from social-media companies detailing actions taken to remove, delete, suppress, or reduce content containing protected free speech; and (10) notifying social-media companies to Be on The Lookout (‘BOLO’) for postings containing protected free speech.”
The injunction effectively shuts down government efforts to coordinate and acting in concert with social media in removing content. Presumably, a full trial, if the plaintiffs are successful, would find that the activities outlined certainly violated the First Amendment to the Constitution’s protection against abridgement of free speech.
And now the Paul-Jordan legislation would explicitly ban it all.
Under Section 4 of the bill, “An employee acting under official authority or influence may not… use any form of communication (without regard to whether the communication is visible to members of the public) to direct, coerce, compel, or encourage a provider to take, suggest or imply that a provider should take, or request that a provider take any action to censor speech that is protected by the Constitution of the United States, including by… removing that speech from the applicable covered platform; … suppressing that speech on the applicable covered platform; … removing or suspending a particular user (or a class of users) from the applicable covered platform or otherwise limiting the access of a particular user (or a class of users) to the covered platform; … labeling that speech as disinformation, misinformation, or false, or by making any similar characterization with respect to the speech; or … otherwise blocking, banning, deleting, deprioritizing, demonetizing, deboosting, limiting the reach of, or restricting access to the speech…”
Nor can an employee “direct or encourage a provider to share with an Executive agency covered information containing data or information regarding a particular topic, or a user or group of users on the applicable covered platform, including any covered information shared or stored by users on the covered platform; … work, directly or indirectly, with any private or public entity or person to take an action that is prohibited under [the law]….”
Nor can an employee “on behalf of the Executive agency employing the employee… enter into a partnership with a provider to monitor any content disseminated on the applicable covered platform; or … solicit, accept, or enter into a contract or other agreement (including a no cost agreement) for free advertising or another promotion on a covered platform.”
That about covers it, and the best part is it would supersede existing laws that otherwise allow the government to communicate with private sector entities including social media.
In 2018, Congress unanimously passed legislation in the closing days of the Republican-controlled House on unanimous consent, H.R. 3359, that authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security and the newly created Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — one of the worst censorship offenders in the federal court injunction — to disseminate information to the private sector including Big Tech social media companies in a bid to combat potential foreign and domestic terrorists.
The law authorizes CISA to “To access, receive, and analyze law enforcement information, intelligence information, and other information from agencies of the Federal Government, State and local government agencies (including law enforcement agencies), and private sector entities, and to integrate such information, in support of the mission responsibilities of the Department and the functions of the National Counterterrorism Center established under section 119 of the National Security Act of 1947 [50 U.S.C. 3056], in order to… identify and assess the nature and scope of terrorist threats to the homeland;…detect and identify threats of terrorism against the United States; and … understand such threats in light of actual and potential vulnerabilities of the homeland.”
The law also allows CISA to “disseminate, as appropriate, information analyzed by the Department within the Department, to other agencies of the Federal Government with responsibilities relating to homeland security, and to agencies of State and local governments and private sector entities with such responsibilities in order to assist in the deterrence, prevention, preemption of, or response to, terrorist attacks against the United States.”
With that authority, CISA says it “rout[es] disinformation concerns” to “appropriate social media platforms”: “The [Mis, Dis, Malinformation] MDM team serves as a switchboard for routing disinformation concerns to appropriate social media platforms and law enforcement,” according to the agency’s website.
This has been going on since 2018: “This activity began in 2018, supporting state and local election officials to mitigate disinformation about the time, place, and manner of voting.” And it was expanded in 2020: “For the 2020 election, CISA expanded the breadth of reporting to include other state and local officials and more social media platforms.” During the pandemic, CISA also targeted Covid “disinformation” too: “COVID-19…create[d] opportunities for adversaries to act maliciously. The MDM team supports…private sector partners’ COVID-19 response…via regular reporting and analysis of key pandemic-related MDM trends.”
The agency bragged about its “rapport” with Big Tech firms in censoring speech so they’re on the same page: “This activity leverages the rapport the MDM team has with the social media platforms to enable shared situational awareness.”
But with the new law, if passed and signed into law, that would all come to an end.
In March, CISA actually scrubbed these pages to conceal its blatant censorship activities but they have been preserved by web.archive.org. Here is CISA’s MDM page from Feb. 20, 2023 at http://web.archive.org/web/20230220065334/cisa.gov/mdm. Similarly, CISA’s election security page at https://www.cisa.gov/election-security has been scrubbed from its earlier iteration. An archived version of the page from Feb. 20, 2023 is still available at http://web.archive.org/web/20230220031118/https://www.cisa.gov/election-security. So too has its so-called Rumor Control page at https://www.cisa.gov/rumorcontrol been changed, which can still be found at http://web.archive.org/web/20230220062536/https://www.cisa.gov/rumorcontrol.
In addition to the CISA authorizing statute, the 2018 through 2020 National Defense Authorization Acts included extensive provisions allowing the government to target what it calls “foreign malign influence” by Russia and other countries, but which was used to target to speech of regular Americans, including violating the freedom of the press as it related to reports about Russiagate and also the Hunter Biden laptop story.
In the 2018 NDAA, under Sec. 1239A it authorized the censorship: “The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State, in coordination with the appropriate United States Government officials, shall jointly develop a comprehensive strategy to counter the threat of malign influence” including “the use of misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda in social and traditional media” and “Efforts to work with traditional and social media providers to attribute and counter the threat of malign influence…”
That too would be superseded by the new law, as it covers all executive departments and agencies, including the Department of Defense, who undoubtedly will complain that this will somehow prevent them from stopping terrorist communications, child trafficking and so forth. But the Paul-Jordan anticipates that and provides “Notwithstanding subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1), the prohibition under that subparagraph shall not apply with respect to an action by an Executive agency or employee pursuant to a warrant that is issued by … a court of the United States of competent jurisdiction in accordance with the procedures described in rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure; or … a State court of competent jurisdiction.”
So, if for example, a message board or other private chat were being used to plan terrorist attacks, drug or human trafficking and so forth in violation of federal and state laws, and a court had issued a warrant for the arrest of those individuals, then the provisions of the Paul-Jordan bill would not apply, because that would not be protected speech.
This meets with the standards of the Brandenburg v. Ohio Supreme Court decision of 1969 which found “the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.” That was a case of white supremacists who in demonstrations were in fact advocating the overthrow of the government, however, as there was no actual attempt to do so, was protected political speech.
So, under the bill, there would still need to be an actual criminal prosecution not merely for expressing sentiments that if acted upon would violate the law, but were factually a part of a real criminal plan to violate the law. That’s a particularly high standard, but is also about the only speech—for example a phone call to a hitman to murder someone—that the government is allowed under the First Amendment to concern itself with, because it would be evidence of a crime.
The standard under the bill of a Fourth Amendment warrant applies to criminal prosecutions under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and so ought to preclude any monkey business with the very different set of standards used by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court.
The bill also provides for penalties for any government employee found to be violating the statute, including fines of no less than $10,000 and permanent revocation of the employee’s security clearance and bar of working under a federal contract.
And it includes a private right of action for individuals who are ever censored by the government “for reasonable attorneys’ fees, injunctive relief, and actual damages” removing any presumption of sovereign immunity and indemnity from the federal government.
This is the best and most comprehensive bill I’ve seen so far that addresses at point blank range the specific activities that have been occurring by federal departments and agencies, and rather than playing whack-a-mole with this or that agency or board, includes a blanket, enforceable prohibition for all federal departments and agencies. Target the activity.
But passing it will not be easy, even if the provisions would equally protect Republicans, Democrats, independents and everyone else from government censorship. As can be seen with the CISA and NDAA provisions, there is almost always a colorable rationale for the government to intervene and remove what it perceives to be enemy communications and propaganda from U.S. media outlets including social media. They wanted to call the Hunter Biden laptop Russian disinformation, for example, even though it was not.
Fortunately, the provisions of the Paul-Jordan right to dissent legislation would also make for a particularly good defund in the House and Senate appropriations bills, or in any omnibus spending bill that tends to pass each fiscal year, to deny funds to departments and agencies for the purposes of reporting on or conveying supposed disinformation, misinformation or malinformation concerns on social media. Just take the language from the bill and add the words “none of the funds shall be used for” and stick it in a funding bill.
If the Free Speech Protection Act is filibustered, then make it a part of appropriations and if opponents want to shut down the government over it, that’s their prerogative. Force them to defend the censorship. There can be no debate without free speech, and nobody should be getting paid while this remains an outstanding concern. It would be a curious objection, in any event, since the government is denying it is doing any of the things covered by the legislation and the federal court injunction. If federal employees are not doing anything wrong and not violating the freedom of speech and of the press, they have nothing to worry about. If there is no censorship taking place, why object to its prohibition?
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
Video: Rand Paul, Jim Jordan Act to End Biden Censorship
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI2-vpjH9F4
New Poll: Public Increasingly Conservative on Immigration and Cultural Issues as Trump Gains Momentum
By Manzanita Miller
Former President Trump’s lead in the GOP primary field has increased four percentage points since June, and immigration and cultural issues are pushing more of the public toward the right according to a new Reuters/ Ipsos poll.
The poll found Trump has the support of 47% of Republican primary voters, up from 43% one month ago, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis trails at 19% and biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy is up to 9%.
The poll also finds immigration and cultural issues are likely to play a significant role in the next presidential election, and public opinion appears to be shifting toward the right on these issues.
The public now says 48% to 37% that immigration is contributing to increased difficulties for native-born Americans, and this echoes Gallup polling data showing an increasing number of Americans want immigration numbers restricted.
The Gallup survey found a significant rise in dissatisfaction with immigration in the past two years under the Biden Administration, and the bulk of those who are dissatisfied say they want immigration curbed.
Two-thirds (63%) of Americans are currently dissatisfied with immigration, the highest share in over a decade. The survey also found the share of Americans who want immigration levels decreased has more than doubled since President Biden took office, going from 19% in early 2021 to 40% today.
The same survey found a sharp spike in dissatisfaction with immigration levels not only among Republicans, but among Democrats and Independents as well. A full 70% of Republicans are dissatisfied with the immigration crisis and want immigration levels decreased, up from 40% in 2021.
Independents are also increasingly concerned with immigration levels, with 36% saying immigration levels should be curbed, up from 19% only two years ago.
The share of Democrats who say immigration should be reduced has skyrocketed under the Biden Administration going from just 2% when Biden took office to nearly a fifth of Democrats (19%) today.
Americans also want to discourage illegals who are already here from settling in the U.S., with a recent Harvard-Harris poll finding an overwhelming 68% of Americans believe that those who cross the border unlawfully should be dissuaded from establishing residency in the United States.
Public opinion is shifting on immigration, and there is momentum building for limiting the share of immigrants the United States accepts on both sides of the aisle.
Cultural issues are also heating up, with the recent Reuters poll showing Americans say 50% to 36% that issues related to sexuality and gender identity should not be taught in public schools.
A similar sentiment was found in a recent Harvard-Harris poll which found that eight out of ten Americans would favor legislation in their states giving parent’s more control in their children’s education. The poll also found seven out of ten Americans say schools should not teach children that gender is unrelated to biological conditions.
These findings suggest cultural issues will play an important role in the 2024 election. A growing share of Americans across the political spectrum are open to conservative approaches to restricting immigration and teaching a science-based approach to gender in schools.
Manzanita Miller is an associate analyst with Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2023/07/new-poll-public-increasingly-conservative-on-immigration-and-cultural-issues-as-trump-gains-momentum/
Republicans Are Joining Liberals to Reward Woke Retailer Target
By Rick Manning
U.S. Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) has just delivered his support to the woke corporations that are forcing Americans to embrace their left-wing politics. He has joined Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) to give more power to the Federal Reserve and reward the left-wing companies that shamelessly attack Americans and their values.
For the last decade, Durbin has worked to capture corporate interests, drafting them into an ongoing campaign to advance left-wing political goals. Durbin has helped convince big corporations to become more and more woke and rewarded them for doing so. It’s a transactional relationship that benefits both woke companies and left-wing politicians like Durbin: in exchange for supporting his politics, Durbin rewards them with cronyism.
This campaign kicked off with the now-infamous Durbin Amendment, which became law when Barack Obama was President and Democrats controlled a large majority in both the House and Senate. The Durbin Amendment created price controls on the fees retailers pay to banks, credit unions, and credit card networks to process debit card payments. It transfers billions – yes, billions – of dollars to retailers that already dominate the market, including Walmart, Home Depot, and Target. At the time, Home Depot’s CFO told investors the amendment would be worth at least $35 million a year to the retailer.
Durbin admitted in 2013 that the strategy was working. Big businesses that previously resisted left-wing policy goals were suddenly receptive to them, an obvious thank you to the Democrats for the payoff they received from the Durbin Amendment. “For the longest time, Democrats had very little to say to retailers who walked into their offices,” Durbin told POLITICO. “The conversations were cordial, and then came the issue of minimum wage and there was the end of the meeting. But now there’s a lot to talk about.’”
Since then, the floodgates have opened. Corporations have become willing participants in the Democrats’ culture war. Walmart has forced Critical Race Theory training on its employees. Home Depot has shamed Christian workers. Kroger was named America’s Wokest Supermarket for their employee indoctrination plans.
In recent months, the tide seems to be turning. Bud Light sales cratered after they embraced woke culture, insulted their customer base, and refused to own up to it. Target’s stock price crashed after they were exposed for promoting “tuck friendly” swimsuits to children.
While Target was defending itself to customers and investors, Senators Roger Marshall and J.D. Vance introduced the poorly named Credit Card Competition Act, a bill to put tens of millions more in the pocket of Target by expanding the Durbin amendment and creating more price controls that would amount to a payoff for the retailer while eliminating consumer credit card rewards. This week Max Miller joined them on the House version of the bill. Unsurprisingly, Target’s stock price is climbing.
A month ago, I wrote that Republican Senators like Vance needed to ask themselves why they would support legislation that replenishes the dollars woke corporations are spending to destroy America. Today, the same question must be asked of Max Miller.
It is easy to understand why Illinois’ Dick Durbin would want to fill the pockets of woke retailers like Target with unearned cash, what is impossible to fathom is why Congressman Max Miller would join him.”
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2023/07/republicans-are-joining-liberals-to-reward-woke-retailer-target/
Americans for Limited Government Urges Cosponsorship of Paul-Jordan Free Speech Protection Act
July 20, 2023, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging members of the House and Senate to cosponsor the Free Speech Protection Act by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio):
“Senator Rand Paul and Representative Jim Jordan have introduced the most important civil liberties protection legislation in at least a decade. The Free Speech Protection Act ends the practice of federal government officials, agencies and their contractors of communicating with media and social media platforms to censor speech. What’s more, it provides the ability of those whose speech is censored to take legal action against those government officials who were responsible for the censorship.
“This is why Americans for Limited Government is urging every Member of Congress to cosponsor the Free Speech Protection Act. Every American should agree that the right to dissent, which is at the heart of the First Amendment freedom of speech and assembly clauses, is part of the DNA of the American political experience. Every Member of Congress should be appalled by the abuses of power and work to assure that future administrations cannot do the same to their political opposition.”
To view online: https://getliberty.org/2023/07/americans-for-limited-government-urges-cosponsorship-of-paul-jordan-free-speech-protection-act/