November 15, 2023

In the News

San Francisco Chronicle: Federal judge takes step toward overturning California community colleges’ DEI mandate

By Bob Egelko

.....California community college rules requiring the schools and their teachers to promote diversity and speak out against racism appear to violate a conservative professor’s freedom of speech, a federal magistrate has concluded.

Monday’s decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Baker was only a recommendation in the case of one teacher at Bakersfield College. But it could be the first step toward overturning the statewide rules adopted in April by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors.

“California has a strong interest in ensuring nearly two million community college students have equal educational opportunities,” Baker wrote. “However, California’s goal of promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in public universities does not give it the authority to invalidate protected expressions of speech.”

Archive.today link

Election Law Blog: Federal District Court Denies Summary Judgment to IRS over Whether IRS Can Require Disclosure of Donor Information in Government Reports for 501(c)(3) Organizations

By Rick Hasen

.....Looks like [Buckeye Institute v. IRS] is going to trial, and (as I’ve said, Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta will have lots of ramifications for disclosure rules). From the opinion:

New from the Institute for Free Speech

Judge Recommends Injunction against State-Imposed Wokeism

.....The Institute for Free Speech applauded a federal magistrate judge’s report and recommendation supporting Bakersfield College Professor Daymon Johnson’s free speech lawsuit against California state officials. The judge recommended blocking California Community Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian and Kern Community College District trustees from enforcing mandatory diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) policies against Johnson when he speaks as a private citizen or through his teaching and scholarship.

“California’s goal of promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in public universities does not give it the authority to invalidate protected expressions of speech,” wrote Magistrate Judge Christopher D. Baker in his Report and Recommendations (R&R), issued today.

Congress

Politico: D.C. attorney general hits back at Jordan, Comer in Leonard Leo probe

By Heidi Przybyla

.....D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb won’t share with Congress information about his investigation into whether judicial activist Leonard Leo abused nonprofit tax laws, according to a letter released on Monday.

Leo presides over a multi-billion-dollar network of tax-exempt nonprofit groups and used it, in part, to organize campaigns over the past decade to install the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. The question at issue is the transfer of tens of millions of dollars collected by one of his aligned nonprofit organizations to his for-profit entity...

In his letter, Schwalb rejected both the request and its premise — that any probe might be politically motivated.

Washington Examiner: Hamas-tied charities under congressional investigation following terror attacks in Israel

By Gabe Kaminksy

.....House Republicans on a key committee overseeing the IRS are investigating numerous Hamas-linked nonprofit groups while also working to identify others and plot out next legislative steps.

The Courts

Bloomberg Law: Texas Booksellers Say They Can’t Be Forced to Rate Sex Content

By Julie Steinberg

.....A Texas law that requires booksellers to assign sex-content ratings to all titles sold to public schools unlawfully compels them to implement “vague government-created” criteria with which they disagree, the plaintiffs say in a filing to the Fifth Circuit.

FEC

NextGov/FCW: ACLU warns of free-speech risks in FEC oversight of AI-generated election ads

By Alexandra Kelley and Jessie Bur

.....Election campaign advertisements generated with help from artificial intelligence software should not be called out for special treatment in cases of "fraudulent misrepresentation" by the Federal Election Commission because of First Amendment protections,according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

ACLU officials said in a letter to FEC Chair Dara Lindenbaum on Monday that AI-generated content made for political elections is protected as free speech under the First Amendment.

Fraudulent misrepresentation as defined by the FEC covers the deliberate mislabeling of advertising to impersonate rival campaigns or otherwise confuse voters about the source of a particular advertisement.

The letter responds to a petition for rulemaking filed with the FEC by Public Citizen — a consumer rights advocacy group — which called for the regulatory agency to proactively clarify that its prohibition on “fraudulent misrepresentation” in political campaigns applies to AI-generated material.

Free Expression

Bloomberg Law: Judge Says ‘Moral Confusion’ by Students Over Israel-Hamas War

By Jacqueline Thomsen

.....[Judge Edith Jones of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit] also took issue with the US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in New York Times Company v. Sullivan, which creates legal protections for journalists writing about public figures. She said that it “allows the press to utter the most grave falsehoods about anybody with very little recourse.”

“It certainly has created incentives against truth telling in the news,” she added.

The high court has declined to revisit its finding that those suing media outlets must prove “actual malice,” or that a statement was made with knowing or reckless disregard for it being false. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have signaled a willingness to reconsider that decision.

Online Speech Platforms

Fox News: Critics rip Nikki Haley over vow to require all social media users be verified: 'blatantly unconstitutional'

By Brandon Gillespie

.....Republican presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley was ripped by critics Tuesday after she vowed to require all social media users be verified in the name of "national security."

"When I get into office, the first thing we have to do, social media accounts, social media companies, they have to show America their algorithms. Let us see why they're pushing what they're pushing. The second thing is every person on social media should be verified by their name," Haley said during an appearance on Fox News earlier in the day. 

"First of all, it's a national security threat. When you do that, all of a sudden people have to stand by what they say. And it gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots and the Chinese bots. And then you're going to get some civility when people know their name is next to what they say, and they know their pastor and their family members are going to see it," she added.

Social media users quickly jumped on Haley, blasting her comments as "blatantly unconstitutional," and "completely unhinged." Those critics included her Republican primary opponents Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

"You know who were anonymous writers back in the day? Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison when they wrote the Federalist Papers. They were not ‘national security threats,’ nor are the many conservative Americans across the country who exercise their Constitutional right to voice their opinions without fear of being harassed or canceled by the school they go to or the company they work for," DeSantis wrote.

CNN: China is using the world’s largest known online disinformation operation to harass Americans, a CNN review finds

By Donie O'Sullivan, Curt Devine and Allison Gordon

.....The Chinese government has built up the world’s largest known online disinformation operation and is using it to harass US residents, politicians, and businesses—at times threatening its targets with violence, a CNN review of court documents and public disclosures by social media companies has found.

The onslaught of attacks – often of a vile and deeply personal nature – is part of a well-organized, increasingly brazen Chinese government intimidation campaign targeting people in the United States, documents show.

The US State Department says the tactics are part of a broader multi-billion-dollar effort to shape the world’s information environment and silence critics of Beijing that has expanded under President Xi Jinping. On Wednesday, President Biden is due to meet Xi at a summit in San Francisco.