January 17, 2024

Supreme Court

Just the News: Over 80 congressional Republicans back NRA in Supreme Court free speech lawsuit

By Madeleine Hubbard

.....Dozens of congressional Republicans are urging the Supreme Court to side with the National Rifle Association in its lawsuit against a New York state regulator accused of pressuring financial institutions to blacklist the Second Amendment rights organization. 

Sen. Ted Budd and Rep. Richard Hudson, both North Carolina Republicans, led 79 other GOP lawmakers in filing a brief Monday in support of the NRA's lawsuit against former New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo. 

The Courts

AP News: Judge says No Labels can block candidates from running for offices other than president in Arizona

By Jonathan J. Cooper

.....No Labels, the group preparing for a possible third-party presidential campaign, can prohibit members from using its ballot line to run for office in Arizona, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

The decision protects the group’s efforts to maintain control and secrecy around its operations and finances as Donald Trump critics warn that No Labels could help return Trump to the White House by siphoning voters who might otherwise vote for the former president.

A judge blocked Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes from recognizing candidates wanting to run for office under the No Labels banner aside from the party’s yet-to-be-chosen ticket for president and vice president...

No Labels has drawn increasing scrutiny as it spends tens of millions of dollars to secure ballot access in all 50 states by Election Day. The group’s critics have pushed for transparency around its donors, whom No Labels leaders have refused to name, and had hoped that state campaign finance laws could help pry information loose.

But the Arizona ruling could support the No Labels argument that it doesn’t have to file campaign finance disclosures under Arizona law because it is not supporting any candidates for state office.

AP News: An Ohio official was arrested for speaking at her own meeting. Her rights were violated, judge says

By Michael Rubinkam

.....An Ohio elected official’s constitutional rights were violated when her colleagues on a county board of commissioners had her arrested for criticizing the sheriff during a public meeting, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Niki Frenchko, the lone Republican on the three-member Trumbull County Board of Commissioners, was placed in handcuffs by sheriff’s deputies at the commissioners’ meeting on July 7, 2022, and charged under an Ohio law that makes it a misdemeanor to “prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting.” The law prohibits obstructive conduct or speech that “outrages the sensibilities of the group.” The charge was later dropped,

Frenchko — who livestreamed her arrest on Facebook — subsequently filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, saying she was ordered to leave the meeting and placed under arrest for exercising her First Amendment right to free speech, and that the sheriff’s department lacked probable cause to charge her.

U.S. District Judge J. Philip Calabrese agreed.

FEC

Washington Post (Technology 202): FEC to weigh AI limits for political ads by ‘early summer,’ chair says

By Cristiano Lima-Strong

.....As the 2024 U.S. elections officially kick off this week, the nation’s top campaign regulator is facing growing pressure to limit the use of artificial intelligence in political ads. But the agency may still be months away from deciding whether to step in, according to its chairman.

In August, the Federal Election Commission teed up consideration of a proposal banning candidates from using AI to deliberately misrepresent opponents in political ads. Federal law already bans such deceptive ads more broadly, but the plan would make it explicitly apply to AI...

The agency voted last fall to open the petition to public comment, launching a two-month window for regulators to field outside feedback. Now that the comment period has passed, proponents are calling on the FEC to move swiftly. 

Public Citizen president Robert Weissman, whose left-leaning advocacy group filed the petition last year, slammed the FEC for not taking it up, calling it “past time” for action. 

“Do we have a real Federal Election Commission, or is the FEC just a computer-generated illusion?” he said in a statement Tuesday. 

FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey (R) pushed back, telling The Technology 202: “Any suggestion that the FEC is not working on the pending AI rulemaking petition is false.”

Agency staff is “diligently reviewing the thousands of public comments submitted,” he added. Once that process has wrapped, he expects that the FEC “will resolve the AI rulemaking by early summer.”

Candidates and Campaigns

Washington Post: OpenAI won’t let politicians use its tech for campaigning, for now

By Gerrit De Vynck

.....Artificial intelligence company OpenAI laid out its plans and policies to try to stop people from using its technology to spread disinformation and lies about elections, as billions of people in some of the world’s biggest democracies head to the polls this year.

The company, which makes the popular ChatGPT chatbot, DALL-E image generator and provides AI technology to many companies, including Microsoft, said in a Monday blog post that it wouldn’t allow people to use its tech to build applications for political campaigns and lobbying, to discourage people from voting or spread misinformation about the voting process. OpenAI said it would also begin putting embedded watermarks — a tool to detect AI-created photographs — into images made with its DALL-E image-generator “early this year.”

“We work to anticipate and prevent relevant abuse — such as misleading ‘deepfakes,’ scaled influence operations, or chatbots impersonating candidates,” OpenAI said in the blog post.

The States

The Hill: New York high court denies Trump appeal of fraud case gag order

By Ella Lee

.....New York’s top court has dismissed former President Trump’s appeal of a gag order imposed in his civil fraud trial, which came to a close last week.

The New York Court of Appeals tossed the challenge because it involved no “substantial constitutional question,” according to a Tuesday court filing. Trump’s legal team had argued that the former president’s speech was unlawfully restricted by the rule.

Washington Times: Trump attorneys not the only targets: Florida lawyer says bar discipline fueled by political bias

By Alex Swoyer

.....A lawyer is facing potential discipline by the Florida Bar over complaints about his political campaign for a prosecutor position, not his representation of clients...

Mr. Crowley will appear this week before a Florida judge to seek a rehearing of his case. A previous judge said he intentionally misrepresented his opponent in his 2018 Republican primary campaign for circuit state attorney, who is the lead prosecutor over several counties.

He lost the primary election to Amira Fox, who now serves as state attorney for Florida’s 20th Judicial Circuit...

The Florida Bar in 2020 initiated disciplinary action, accusing Mr. Crowley of misconduct, saying he had disparaged Ms. Fox during his campaign. A state judge in 2021 ruled in the bar’s favor, but she was removed from the case over a conflict of interest.

The case was put on hold due to COVID-19 restrictions and because Mr. Crowley was recalled to active duty with the Army Reserve Command in North Carolina...

Ty Clevenger, an attorney who polices lawyer misconduct, said state bar associations are becoming too political.

“They are horribly political,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how conservative the state is, these institutions are always controlled by the left.”

Daily Caller: Blue State Hired AI Company To Track Election ‘Misinformation.’ It Routinely Flagged Conservative Opinions

By Jason Cohen

.....Oregon’s Secretary of State recruited an artificial intelligence firm to monitor social media for “threats” to election security as part of a program that frequently flagged conservative opinions, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Throughout the 2022 midterm election cycle, the firm Logically AI sent state officials weekly “misinformation” reports that would routinely flag posts from conservatives on a variety of hot-button issues, including mail-in ballots, voter ID and “dark money” in elections, according to slides reviewed by the DCNF. Now, the Secretary of State’s office is looking to re-hire Logically AI to monitor social media chatter during the 2024 election cycle — a move that faces stiff resistance from state Republicans, voters and even talk show hosts.