March 11, 2024

In the News

Courthouse News: Ninth Circuit reinstates bid for injunction in University of Oregon Twitter spat

By Edvard Pettersson

.....The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday reinstated an Portland State University professor's bid for a preliminary injunction against the University of Oregon after he was temporarily blocked from one of the latter university's accounts on X (formerly Twitter).

In a split decision, the Ninth Circuit panel found that Bruce Gilley's demand for an injunction wasn't moot even though the University of Oregon has unblocked him from @UOEquity, the university's X account for its Division of Equity and Inclusion.

"Although the University of Oregon no longer blocks Gilley on Twitter, the request for prospective relief is not moot," the majority said in the unsigned decision. "Mootness turns on whether the voluntary cessation exception applies because 'a defendant cannot automatically moot a case simply by ending its unlawful conduct once sued.'"

The two circuit judges, Ryan Nelson and Daniel Collins, both Donald Trump appointees, said that the university hadn't met its heavy burden to show that the challenged conduct wouldn't occur again.

Post and Courier: Commentary: Bill would correct a glaring weakness in SC's free speech protections

By David Keating

.....South Carolina currently provides no protection against a key threat to free speech: strategic lawsuits against public participation, or “SLAPPs.”

But there’s good news. A bill under consideration in the S.C. House would allow lawmakers to remove South Carolina from the shrinking list of states with no legal safeguards against this danger to First Amendment rights.

The S.C. Public Expression Protection Act would immediately fortify South Carolinians’ free speech rights against the threat posed by SLAPPs.

H.4274 mirrors the nonpartisan Uniform Law Commission’s model statute, the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act.

People United for Privacy: Biden State of the Union Mangles History to Attack Associational Privacy

By Luke Wachob

.....In his State of the Union Address, President Joe Biden attacked “unlimited dark money” as a force that is “taking us back in time” to the era before the Civil Rights Movement. That would likely come as a shock to the movement’s leaders, who fought all the way to the Supreme Court to protect so-called “unlimited dark money.”

As Dr. Helen Knowles-Gardner of the Institute for Free Speech recently wrote for TIME, the NAACP’s legal battle with Alabama officials in the 1950’s spawned the most famous and important Supreme Court ruling protecting the privacy of donations to nonprofit groups:   

New from the Institute for Free Speech

Ninth Circuit Vacates Denial of Preliminary Injunction in Portland State University Professor Bruce Gilley’s Free Speech Case

.....The Institute for Free Speech applauded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision today to vacate the denial of a preliminary injunction in Portland State University Professor Bruce Gilley’s free speech lawsuit against the University of Oregon for blocking him on X (formerly Twitter). A federal district court will now reconsider Professor Gilley’s case on remand.

The Courts

Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Trump Media Libel Lawsuit Against Washington Post Dismissed, but Might Be Refiled With More Detailed "Actual Malice" Allegations

By Eugene Volokh

.....From today's opinion in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. v. WP Co. LLC, decided by Judge Tom Barber (M.D. Fla.):

Christopher F. Rufo: In the Fight with the ACLU

.....In 2021, I worked with political leaders across the country to restrict critical race theory and other noxious, discriminatory ideologies from public schools in more than a dozen states, including Florida, where I worked with Governor Ron DeSantis on a number of education-related policies.

The following year, as part of its lawsuit against the State of Florida, the ACLU filed a subpoena against me, sending an agent to my home while I was eating dinner with my wife and children. But it was no ordinary subpoena, tightly limited to the case. The 18-page document requested all of my journalism, sources, materials, documents, and communications related not only to the Stop Woke Act but also to “critical race theory,” “BLM,” and “racial justice protests,” more generally—which would include all of my confidential journalistic sources.

In other words, the ACLU, which purports to protect civil rights and free speech, wanted to use its subpoena to brazenly violate my own First Amendment rights.

Congress

Reason: Dear Government: Stop Trying To Make TikTok Bans Happen

By Elizabeth Nolan Brown

.....We went here with Trump, who tried to ban TikTok via executive order in 2020. (The courts said no, and the Biden administration rescinded the order.) We went here with Montana, which passed a TikTok-banning law last year. (The court said no, at least preliminarily, though Montana is appealing.) We went here with multiple bills, including one in 2022 from Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and one in 2023 from Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner. (Both broad-reaching messes, and neither bill went anywhere after being introduced.)

Now, here we are again, with a bipartisan bill from Reps. Mike Gallagher (R–Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D–Ill.), who head up the House of Representatives' Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Committee Chair Gallagher and ranking Democrat Krishnamoorthi announced their bill on Tuesday, calling it the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA?).

The States

Fox Business: Republican AGs demand Wells Fargo answer for abruptly closing gun dealer's account, other woke policies

By Joe Schoffstall

.....More than a dozen Republican attorneys general are demanding Wells Fargo answer for the closure of a gun dealer's account and woke environmental policies they feel could negatively impact its clients, according to a letter provided to Fox News Digital.

The coalition of top state legal officers is eyeing Wells Fargo's practices regarding debanking, or the closure of individual or organization accounts the bank views as a risk. The group believes the financial institution uses the practice as "a political tool to extend the policies of the Biden Administration throughout the economy."

"Wells Fargo is pushing the Biden administration's anti-gun and anti-traditional energy policies and discriminating against customers who don't fall in line with their political beliefs," Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told Fox News Digital. 

Politico: America’s election chiefs are worried AI is coming for them

By Zach Montellaro

.....A false call from a secretary of state telling poll workers they aren’t needed on Election Day. A fake video of a state election director shredding ballots before they’re counted. An email sent to a county election official trying to phish logins to its voter database.

Election officials worry that the rise of generative AI makes this kind of attack on the democratic process even easier ahead of the November election — and they’re looking for ways to combat it.