The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech August 16, 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]. The Courts Washington Post: Suit alleging D.C. violated antiabortion advocates’ rights can proceed, court rules By Casey Parks .....The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday that a lower court was wrong to dismiss antiabortion advocates’ claims that the city violated their free speech rights when it arrested them for writing a slogan on a sidewalk in 2020. In August 2020, police arrested Erica Caporaletti, a 22-year-old student at Towson University, and Warner DePriest, a 29-year-old D.C. resident, who were writing “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” with chalk on the sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood facility in Northeast Washington. It is illegal for people to write or mark on any public or private property without a permit. Free Expression Reuters: ABA weighs new free speech rule for law schools By Karen Sloan .....The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which oversees law school accreditation, on Friday will consider a new rule mandating “written policies that encourage and support the free expression of ideas.” Schools would develop their own free speech policies under the ABA proposal, but those policies must protect the rights of faculty and staff and students to communicate controversial or unpopular ideas and safeguard robust debate, demonstrations, or protests. They must also forbid disruptive activities that hinder free expression or substantially interfere with law school functions or activities. “Becoming an effective advocate or counselor requires learning how to conduct candid and civil discourse in respectful disagreement with others while advancing reasoned and evidence-brd arguments,” the proposed new rule reads. “Concerns about civility and mutual respect, however, do not justify barring discussion of ideas because they are controversial or even offensive or disagreeable to some.” Forbes: Group Of College Presidents Launches New Campaign In Defense Of Free Speech By Michael T. Nietzel .....A group of 13 college presidents is launching a new campaign, called the Campus Call for Free Expression, to bring renewed attention to the importance of free expression, critical inquiry and civil discourse on college campuses. The Campus Call is a project of College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, a recent initiative convened by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars. The group ‘brings together college presidents who are committed to addressing the challenge of ensuring today’s young people are well-informed, productively engaged, and committed citizens.” The Media Washington Post: State investigators will probe police raid of Kansas newspaper office By Paul Farhi and Sofia Andrade .....The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has begun a criminal probe of the police raid of a newspaper office last week that has drawn outrage from journalists nationwide who see it as a violation of the First Amendment. It’s not clear whether the state investigation is focused on the local officers who conducted the search at the Marion County Record or on the reporters and editors for the small weekly paper. The agency said it was asked by Marion police and the local county attorney to join an investigation into allegations of “illegal access and dissemination of confidential criminal justice information,” according to the Kansas City Star. Axios: Exclusive: Courier Newsroom plots expansion ahead of 2024 election By Sara Fischer .....Courier Newsroom, a local news group with a progressive perspective, is launching a new newsroom in Nevada Tuesday, and it's planning to launch two more newsrooms in Texas and New Hampshire in the coming months, said its publisher Tara McGowan. Courier is open about its partisan lens and funding, which McGowan says differentiates its efforts from that of "pink slime" networks on the right and left. IRS Washington Examiner: Democratic Arabella dark money network faces IRS complaint over lining ex-Clinton aide's pockets By Gabe Kaminsky .....Nonprofit groups in the largest Democratic-linked dark money network in the United States may have illegally "diverted substantial portions of their income and assets" to benefit the founder of the for-profit firm overseeing them, a watchdog says. Candidates and Campaigns Los Angeles Times: Column: How small donors have become a destructive, dividing force in American politics By Jonah Goldberg .....[L]ast week on CNN, I made a fairly conventional point about the distorting effects of the rise in small donors for democracy. Candidates who depend on small donors tend to take more polarizing positions. In part because they don’t care much about electability, they push their party to more extreme stances, making the party “brand” less appealing to moderates. Such observations are not particularly controversial among experts. Election expert Richard Pildes writes, “One of the most robust findings in the empirical campaign-finance literature is that individual donors are the most ideological and polarizing sources of money flowing to campaigns.” ... As uncontroversial as this is in the real world, it’s now heresy in certain quarters of the right, particularly among those who make a living trying to keep small donors angry enough to provide a credit card number... A common refrain among my dyspeptic critics is that small donors are enriching democracy by participating. Obviously, this is true for plenty of individual small donors. But it leaves out the fact that, at scale, they cut out the parties and disproportionately reward performative rabble-rousers on the left and right. Again, the most ideologically polarized candidates monetize the most ideologically polarized small donors who in turn reward further polarization. This monetization of fear and outrage is a big business. The Hill: GOP lawmaker says he was hacked by Chinese spies By Olafimihan Oshin .....Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said Tuesday that he was the victim of a hacking attack by Chinese spies after hackers reportedly also managed to read emails belonging to State Department employees. “I thank the FBI for notifying me that the CCP hacked into my personal and campaign emails from May 15th to June 16th of this year,” Bacon wrote Monday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. He added that the hackers “utilized a vulnerability in the Microsoft software” and that the breach was not caused by “user error.” Digiday: Agencies weigh the pros and cons of generative AI as political advertising grows By Antoinette Siu .....The advantages to applying AI can range from better personalization and access to real-time insights to efficient campaign management and lower advertising costs. With how quickly tools are being developed, candidates and groups that can leverage AI effectively may gain an “upper hand,” said Mike Nellis, CEO of Authentic and founder of AI campaign tool Quiller… Targeting can become more accurate and engaging, and voter outreach will expand with less investment in personnel. Larry Adams, founder of agency LVA, said AI can help brands create dynamic creative and segmentation decisions — and it “can help political campaigns reach specific demographics with tailored messaging, maximizing the effectiveness of their ads.” 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. 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