September 19, 2023

In the News

Texas Scorecard: Judge Allows Conservative Professor’s Free Speech Lawsuit Against UT to Proceed

By Valerie Muñoz

.....An Austin court has allowed a University of Texas professor’s lawsuit against three McCombs School of Business officials to proceed after a motion to dismiss.

Tenured UT finance professor Richard Lowery is accusing defendants Lillian Mills, dean of the McCombs School of Business, Ethan Burris, senior associate dean for academic affairs, and Sheridan Titman, chair of the finance department, of violating his First Amendment rights.

In the complaint filed in February, Lowery claims the university administration “threaten[ed] his job, pay, institute affiliation, research opportunities, academic freedom, and label[ed] his behavior as inviting violence or lacking in civility” for being critical of “administrators at Texas’ flagship state university for their use of public funds for ideological indoctrination.”

According to the Institute for Free Speech, Professor Lowery is “well known” for writing opinion articles that challenge university officials’ actions regarding “critical race theory indoctrination, affirmative action, academic freedom, competence-based performance measures, and the future of capitalism.”

Congress

Committee on House Administration: Full Committee Hearing: "Oversight of the Federal Election Commission"

.....Wednesday, September 20, 2023, at 10:15 a.m. ET, the Committee on House Administration will hold a full committee hearing titled, “Oversight of the Federal Election Commission.” The hearing will take place in room 1310 of the Longworth House Office Building.

Watch live here.

Center Square: Nebraska Senator files bill requiring watermarks on AI-generated content

By Tom Joyce

.....U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts, R-Nebraska, introduced a bill to regulate artificial intelligence this week.

Ricketts introduced the Advisory for AI-Generated Content Act. If enacted, it would require a digital watermark on content generated by Artificial Intelligence. 

Additionally, it would direct the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security to create federal guidelines for enforcing the requirement, including on political advertising.

National Taxpayers Union Foundation: NTUF to Ways & Means: IRS is Ill-Equipped to Regulate Expanded Nonprofit Donor Disclosure

By Tyler Martinez

.....Should the federal government expand regulation of political activity? If so, should this power be given to the IRS? Should all non-profits be subject to additional disclosure requirements? These are questions we answer in a submission to the U.S. House Committee on Ways & Means in response to a Request for Information (“RFI”) asking about expanded donor disclosure. 

The IRS is a tax agency, focused on collecting revenue. But it currently must define political activity, as it grants or denies tax-exempt status to organizations in part based on how much political the nonprofit engages in. The Internal Revenue Code does not define “political activity” so the IRS has come up with an eleven factor “facts and circumstances” test that is ambiguous enough to be likely unconstitutional and in practice unworkable in the real world.

The Courts

Washington Post: Judge blocks California law meant to increase online safety for kids

By Cristiano Lima

.....A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked an online child protection law in California and said it probably violates the Constitution.

Under the law, known as the California Age-Appropriate Design Code, digital platforms would have to vet their products before public release to see whether those offerings could harm kids and teens. The law also requires platforms to enable stronger data privacy protections by default for younger users.

U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman granted a request Monday by the tech trade group NetChoice for a preliminary injunction against the measure, writing that the law probably violates the First Amendment and does “not pass constitutional muster.”

Reuters: Virginia, other US states back Montana in TikTok ban -court filing

By David Shepardson

.....A group of 18 state attorneys general said on Monday they backed Montana's effort to ban Chinese-owned short video app TikTok, urging a U.S. judge to reject legal challenges ahead of the Jan. 1 effective date...

TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday, and filed a suit in May seeking to block the first-of-its-kind U.S. state ban on several grounds, arguing it violates the First Amendment free speech rights of the company and users.

A hearing on TikTok's request for a preliminary injunction is set for Oct. 12.

DHS

Washington Post (Cybersecurity 202): DHS warns about 2024’s cyberthreats

By Tim Starks

.....Since 2024 is a major election year, DHS expects the likes of China, Russia, Iran and domestic violent extremists to go on offense, DHS predicted.

“Nation-state threat actors likely will seek to use novel technologies and cyber tools to enhance their capabilities and malign influence campaigns, ultimately to undermine our confidence in a free and fair election,” DHS said. “Cyber actors likely will seek to exploit election-related networks and data, including state, local, and political parties’ networks and election officials’ personal devices and email accounts.” ...

Artificial intelligence figures to enhance threats in a number of ways, the assessment states.

“The proliferation of accessible artificial intelligence (AI) tools likely will bolster our adversaries’ tactics,” it reads. “Nation-states seeking to undermine trust in our government institutions, social cohesion, and democratic processes are using AI to create more believable mis-, dis-, and malinformation campaigns, while cyber actors use AI to develop new tools and accesses that allow them to compromise more victims and enable larger-scale, faster, efficient, and more evasive cyber attacks.”

Free Expression

Washington Examiner: 'Disinformation' tracker accused of censorship holds ties to UK government: 'Dark arts'

By Gabe Kaminsky

.....A self-described "disinformation" tracker that Republicans accuse of helping to censor conservative voices online has shared ties with the British government, records show.

As part of his sprawling "censorship" investigation, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) in August subpoenaed the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a United States charity with a London-based arm the White House has cited as an expert on thwarting purported disinformation. But the U.K. entity has other affiliations raising eyebrows among watchdog groups: Its board of directors has included British politicians, officials, and their staffers.

Candidates and Campaigns

Washington Post: Lawmakers are spending way more to keep themselves safe. Is it enough?

By Greg Morton, Marianna Sotomayor and Camila DeChalus

.....Candidates running for House and Senate offices increased campaign spending on security by more than 500 percent between the 2020 election and the 2022 midterms, a new Washington Post analysis of filings with the Federal Election Commission found, a measure of the extraordinary rise in threats against elected officials in recent years and the country’s increasingly volatile political climate.

The steep increases came as changes in federal campaign finance rules made it easier to spend campaign dollars on security, a recognition of the nation’s changing threat outlook for elected officials.

The States

Texas Tribune: Texas A&M System’s guidance on the state’s DEI ban shows compliance might be a hard needle to thread

By Caroline Wilburn

.....The Texas A&M University System issued staff guidance earlier this month on how to comply with the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, providing a first glimpse into how Texas universities are navigating the thorny implementation of the new law.

The guidance, compiled in a list of FAQs, is meant to provide clarity on the law but also shows that university employees trying not to run afoul of the ban may have a hard needle to thread.