February 15, 2024

Supreme Court

The New Republic: The Supreme Court Could Radically Redefine the Right to Protest

By Matt Ford

.....Street protests are an unruly but essential part of democracy. Courts have long held that those who organize them are generally protected by the First Amendment. An unnamed police officer and the most conservative court in the nation want to change all that and, to that end, have filed a lawsuit against a leading figure in the Black Lives Matter movement. In its private conference this week, the Supreme Court will consider whether to take up a case that could rewrite how free speech principles protect nonviolent protesters from legal liability.

The Courts

Bloomberg Law: School DEI Training Appeal Poses Complex Worker Speech Questions

By Patrick Dorrian

.....A federal appeals court in St. Louis on Thursday will hear arguments by two public school workers who say job training they received required them to support anti-racism theories, violating their free-speech rights.

Whether an adverse action is needed for government employees to have standing to sue under the First Amendment or whether the infringement alone is sufficient harm are among the main questions raised by Brooke Henderson and Jennifer Lumley in their challenge to a lower court‘s dismissal of their suit against Springfield Public School District. A ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit could provide clarity for public employers and employees elsewhere.

Free Expression

Harvard Crimson: Free Speech Aids Racial Justice. Activists Must Defend It.

By Randall L. Kennedy

.....As an African American with strong, decades-long commitments to civil rights and civil liberties, I have been concerned to see racial justice activists in the African American community distance themselves from the most ardent champions of freedom of speech in recent years...

Racial justice activists must realize that a speech-protective culture — a culture that defends even ugly expression — benefits minority communities that depend upon protest to make their presence and preferences seen and heard...

Many of the most important judicial rulings that extended civil liberties in the post-World War II era arose directly from protests seeking racial justice.

In the 1950s, when the state of Alabama sought to obtain the membership lists of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, lawyers persuaded the Supreme Court to protect NAACP members’ right to free association without fear of exposure and retaliation.

In the 1960s, when white supremacists arbitrarily denied Black civil rights activists the permission to hold rallies, lawyers persuaded the Supreme Court to protect the right to protest, requiring officials to issue clear, objective, uniform regulations, applicable to all on an equal basis.

The Media

New York Post: CBS sparks outrage over firing of Catherine Herridge, ‘lone voice’ at network probing Hunter Biden laptop

By Alexandra Steigrad

.....Viewers and journalists alike slammed CBS News over this week’s firing of Catherine Herridge — an award-winning senior correspondent who sources said had run into “internal roadblocks” at the network as she covered the Hunter Biden laptop story.

The veteran investigative reporter, who has a First Amendment case that’s being closely watched by journalists nationwide, was among 20 CBS News staffers who lost their jobs Tuesday as part of a broader purge of 800 employees across parent company Paramount Global, sources told The Post.

Candidates and Campaigns

Politico: A company tracked visits to 600 Planned Parenthood locations for anti-abortion ads, senator says

By Alfred Ng

.....A company allegedly tracked people’s visits to nearly 600 Planned Parenthood locations across 48 states and provided that data for one of the largest anti-abortion ad campaigns in the nation, according to an investigation by Sen. Ron Wyden, a scope that far exceeds what was previously known.

The details in Wyden (D-Ore.)’s letter, sent Tuesday morning, reveal what’s believed to be the largest publicly known location-driven anti-abortion ad campaign. Abortion rights supporters have feared this type of data could also be used by certain state governments to prosecute women who get the procedure after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled there is no constitutional right to an abortion.

Wyden’s letter asks the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Near Intelligence, a location data provider that gathered and sold the information. The company claims to have information on 1.6 billion people across 44 countries, according to its website.

Jonathan Turley: The Eyes Have It: U.S. Intelligence Allegedly Asked Foreign Countries to Surveil Trump Associates

.....There is a disturbing report published on Michael Shellenberger’s Public Substack detailing how the U.S. intelligence community called upon foreign governments to target associates of Donald Trump before the 2016 election. The request to the “Five Eyes” agencies (the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) appears to have come from Obama’s CIA Director, John Brennan.

According to Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag, foreign intelligence agencies were asked to conduct the surveillance, including “bumping” the associates — a term for making contact with or casually engaging a target to generate intelligence. These encounters may also have been used to generate intelligence reports used to support further intelligence efforts by the United States in the Russian investigation.

The States

OPB:  Top Oregon House lawmakers say they’re working to produce a campaign finance deal

By Dirk VanderHart 

.....Democratic and Republican leaders in the Oregon House acknowledged this week they are hoping to reach a swift compromise on campaign contribution limits this session, in a bid to avoid dueling ballot measures on the topic in November.

Such a deal, if it can be reached, would be a surprise after years of deep partisan divides on the subject of caps on political giving. It faces an especially fraught path during the five-week legislative sprint of an even-year “short” session, in which lawmakers are already wrestling with weighty policies on housing and addiction.

People United for Privacy: Oklahoma Lawmaker Asks Ethics Commission to Dox Nonprofit Donors

By Alex Baiocco

.....On February 9, People United for Privacy urged the Oklahoma Ethics Commission to reject a lawmaker’s concerning request to implement donor exposure policies already wreaking havoc on nonprofits in Arizona and suffering multiple legal challenges.

PUFP submitted comments in response to the Ethics Commission’s draft agenda for its February 9 meeting, which included a rulemaking request by Representative Cody Maynard (R). Despite myriad legal, administrative, and policy issues with Arizona’s recently enacted Prop 211 statute, Rep. Maynard submitted an identical proposal and asked the Oklahoma Ethics Commission to adopt it via rulemaking.

Boston Globe: Shore access advocate, attorney general, and town of Westerly, R.I., look to SLAPP back at fire district’s suit

By Brian Amaral

.....The Weekapaug Fire District went to state Superior Court in December to block the Coastal Resources Management Council from designating a parcel known as Spring Avenue Extension as a public access path to the beach. The district sued Westerly resident and shore access advocate Caroline Contrata, who’d intervened before the state Coastal Resources Management Council to get the path designated as public. It also sued the town of Westerly, the attorney general’s office, and the CRMC itself.

Contrata, the town of Westerly, and Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office are now arguing in separate legal filings that the suit is an attack on the right to speak out and petition the government – core First Amendment rights that are protected under the Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation, or SLAPP...

“This is an attempt to use a part of the sovereign power of the State to sue a citizen for speech,” Michael Rubin, Contrata’s attorney, wrote in a motion to dismiss the case on Wednesday.