March 14, 2024

In the News

Bloomberg Law: Government Censorship of Social Media Demands Bright-Line Rule

By Charles Miller and Brett Nolan

.....Stopping the government from secretly attempting to remove lawful political speech it dislikes from public discourse should be a First Amendment no-brainer.

Unfortunately, while the US Supreme Court has long recognized that government may not pressure private parties to censor speech the government can’t censor directly, federal appellate courts have resolved questions about this type of government pressure with a squishy multifactor balancing test.

Those tests require courts to parse every word the government uses when communicating with third parties, weighing “tenor” and “tone” to decide whether this phrase or that transforms “persuasion” into “coercion.” The results are unpredictable, and years may pass by the time everything is sorted out in court.

This term, the Supreme Court has an opportunity to bring clarity to this state of affairs and defend free speech when it hears Murthy v. Missouri.

Supreme Court

Bloomberg Law: NRA High Court Case Risks Free Speech Suits Against Regulators

By Evan Weinberger

.....The US Supreme Court next week will hear a case that threatens to expose more government actions to free speech challenges and chill future efforts to warn financial institutions about working with high-risk industries.

At the center of the case, National Rifle Association v. Vullo, is April 2018 guidance from New York’s Department of Financial Services cautioning insurers about the “reputational” risks of doing business with the NRA and other gun rights advocacy groups.

The Courts

AP News: Bribery, fraud charges reinstated against former New York Lt. Governor

By Larry Neumeister

.....A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated bribery and fraud charges against former New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin.

The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reversed a December 2022 ruling by a lower-court judge that wiped out the bulk of the case against the Democrat, leaving only records falsification charges.

The appeals court said in its written decision that a jury could infer from the alleged facts in the case that Benjamin promised to allocate $50,000 in state funds to a non-profit organization controlled by a real estate developer in return for campaign contributions from the developer.

National Review: Michael Mann Owes Us $1 Million

By The Editors

.....On Monday, National Review filed a motion in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia to recover a portion of the legal fees that Michael Mann’s frivolous lawsuits have forced us to spend over the last twelve years. We cannot recover the time and effort that Mann has wasted, but we can recover more than a million of the dollars that we have lost defending our unalienable right to free speech.

Congress

Wall Street Journal: House Passes Bill to Ban TikTok or Force Sale of the Chinese Video App

By Natalie Andrews and Kristina Peterson

.....The House voted overwhelmingly to approve a bill on Wednesday that would ban TikTok from operating in the U.S. or force a sale, setting the stage for a final showdown in the Senate, where lawmakers signaled a more cautious approach on the legislation.

The measure passed 352 to 65, with one member voting present, showing broad bipartisan support for cracking down on the app. The vote moved Congress closer to an unprecedented ban of one of the most popular apps in the U.S., with lawmakers balancing national-security worries with concerns about freedom of speech, the impact on TikTok users and creators, and misgivings about interfering with a company’s business operations.

Wall Street Journal: The House Sends China a TikTok Post

By Editorial Board

....TikTok hoovers up personal data that Beijing could use for political-influence campaigns. White House adviser John Podesta reportedly pushed for a suspension on new liquefied natural gas export projects after a video by a climate activist went viral on TikTok. Did the CCP have a hand in amplifying the video?

It’s impossible to know. Conservatives sued the Biden Administration for violating their First Amendment rights by jawboning U.S. social-media companies to censor critics of Covid vaccines. Legal discovery produced emails showing how Biden officials privately pressured the companies to take down posts.

But Americans have no legal recourse if CCP officials violate speech rights or privacy by searching personal data. This ought to disturb conservatives who fret about censorship, and progressives who worry about personal privacy.

Free Expression

New York Times: New U.K. Extremism Policy Raises Concerns Over Free Speech

By Stephen Castle

.....Britain’s government published a new definition of extremism on Thursday that it intends to use to cut ties or funding to groups deemed to have crossed the line, but which critics fear could curtail campaigners’ rights and curb free speech.

Michael Gove, a senior cabinet minister, said in a statement that the move was intended to “protect democratic values” by being “clear and precise in identifying the dangers posed by extremism.”

Online Speech Platforms

AP News: AI image-generator Midjourney blocks images of Biden and Trump as election looms

By Matt O'Brien

.....The popular artificial intelligence image-generator Midjourney has started blocking its users from creating fake images of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential election, according to tests of the AI tool by The Associated Press.

With the election in full swing, it’s time to “put some foots down on election-related stuff for a bit,” Midjourney CEO David Holz told several hundred members of the service’s devoted userbase in a digital office hours event Wednesday.