October 17, 2023

In the News

Casper Star-Tribune: Federal judges affirm gun group's win, grant request for attorney's fees

By Maya Shimizu Harris

.....Second Amendment advocacy group Wyoming Gun Owners again won affirmation Wednesday after [the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit] sided with the organization in its challenge to a donor disclosure requirement under Wyoming election law.

The [Tenth Circuit panel] added in a bonus ruling in favor of the organization’s request for a reimbursement of attorney’s fees, which was previously dismissed in a lower court.

Though U.S. Circuit Court Judge Timothy Tymkovich didn't agree with all of the plaintiff's arguments, the assertion that he did affirm — that the donor disclosure requirement is unconstitutionally vague — achieves the result Wyoming Gun Owners primarily sought: a block on the state's enforcement of the rule as it relates to the organization in this situation.

"The result is fatal for the regulatory regime here, and we pretty much get the relief we wanted," Del Kolde, an attorney with the Institute for Free Speech who is representing the organization, said in a call with the Star-Tribune.

Supreme Court

SCOTUSblog: Justices grant four new cases, including Chevron companion case

By Amy Howe

.....In Nieves v. Bartlett, the Supreme Court held that when a plaintiff contends that he was arrested in retaliation for speech protected by the First Amendment, he must show that police did not have probable cause to arrest him. But the court carved out an exception to that rule for cases in which the plaintiff can show that he was arrested but others who had not been engaged in the same kind of protected speech had not been.

In Gonzalez v. Trevino, the justices agreed to decide what kinds of evidence will meet the exception outlined in Nieves. The question comes to the court in the case of Sylvia Gonzalez, who was elected to the city council in Castle Hill, Texas, after promising to dislodge the supposedly corrupt city manager through a petition. Shortly after she was elected, Gonzalez was charged with violating a Texas law that bars destroying or tampering with government documents when the petition – which she had presented to the city’s mayor – was discovered in a binder she had brought to a city council meeting.

The Courts

Politico: Judge imposes gag order on Donald Trump in D.C. trial

By Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein

.....A federal judge has barred Donald Trump from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and court staff involved in his Washington, D.C., criminal case, imposing a gag order that sharply escalates the tension between Trump’s 2024 bid for the presidency and the realities of his status as a criminal defendant.

“First Amendment protections yield to the administration of justice and to the protection of witnesses,” Judge Tanya Chutkan said Monday as she issued the gag order. “His presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify … public servants who are simply doing their job.”…

It is the second time in two weeks that a judge has tried to muzzle Trump’s attacks. Earlier this month, in an ongoing civil trial in New York over alleged business fraud by Trump and his companies, a Manhattan judge issued a limited gag order after Trump posted an attack on the judge’s top clerk.

Congress

Bloomberg Law: AI Deepfakes Bill Pushes Publicity Rights, Spurs Speech Concerns

By Isaiah Poritz

.....Proposed federal protections against AI-generated digital replicas of celebrities and performers pose thorny questions about free speech and how they would interact with existing intellectual property laws.

The proposed No Fakes Act, released as a discussion draft by a bipartisan group of senators last week, would establish the first federal right to control one’s own image and voice, often called the right of publicity. That’s an area of active concern among celebrities, musicians, and actors who have raised alarms about viral AI-created deepfakes circulating on social media.

Free Expression

Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): The Cecil-the-Lion-Killing Dentist, Civil Rights Boycott Noncompliers, and Hamas Supporters

By Eugene Volokh

.....What should the legal system think about attempts to publicly identify people whom one accuses of shameful behavior? What should social norms be on this?

The issue just came up a few days ago as to the lists of names and photos of Harvard students who were allegedly linked to pro-Hamas-attack statements. But the question has come up many times in recent years. Some people label such behavior "doxxing," including when the only information released is the person's name and perhaps photograph (as opposed to, say, bank account numbers, social security numbers, home addresses, home phone numbers, etc.). Many are understandably concerned that such behavior can lead not just to ostracism and condemnation, but also to violent attacks or at least threats.

Online Speech Platforms

New York Times: ‘A.I. Obama’ and Fake Newscasters: How A.I. Audio Is Swarming TikTok

By Stuart A. Thompson and Sapna Maheshwari

.....The technology used to create A.I. voices has gained traction and wide acclaim since companies like ElevenLabs released a slate of new tools late last year. Since then, audio fakes have rapidly become a new weapon on the online misinformation battlefield, threatening to turbocharge political disinformation ahead of the 2024 election by giving creators a way to put their conspiracy theories into the mouths of celebrities, newscasters and politicians.

The fake audio adds to the A.I.-generated threats from “deepfake” videos, humanlike writing from ChatGPT and images from services like Midjourney.

Disinformation watchdogs have noticed the number of videos containing A.I. voices has increased as content producers and misinformation peddlers adopt the novel tools. Social platforms like TikTok are scrambling to flag and label such content.

Just the News: Apple blocks presidential candidate's newsletter, Libs of TikTok banned from email marketing

By Greg Piper

.....Apple is blocking delivery of a newsletter founded by Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Rectenwald to his own email subscribers, while email marketing provider AWeber booted Libs of TikTok, the influential chronicler of progressive pieties, a day after accepting its business.

Neither provider has allegedly explained the basis for their actions or responded to Just the News queries going back to late September, but the deprived proprietors assume it's ideological.

The States

Election Law Blog: West Virginia SOS Mac Warner Sends Letters to Social Media Companies Warning They Could Be Violating Campaign Finance Laws If They Moderate Content from Politicians

By Rick Hasen

.....This letter is pretty weak as a legal threat, but it does show the state of some parts of today’s Republican Party. Here’s a snippet of Warner’s accompanying press release: