April 4, 2024

In the News

Texas Scorecard: New Details Emerge in Conservative Professor’s Free Speech Lawsuit Against UT

By Adam Cahn

.....A slew of additional allegations are coming to light in Professor Richard Lowery’s free speech lawsuit against UT-Austin.

As Texas Scorecard reported last fall, Lowery, a tenured professor at McCombs School of Business, filed a lawsuit alleging that three administrators had stifled his first amendment rights by retaliating against him for public comments critical of university policies. Lowery works in the Salem Center for Policy at McCombs.

Lowery has been critical of the cost of the university’s ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ bureaucracy. A conservative estimate suggests the cost of the DEI bureaucracy is at least $13 million. While the Texas legislature abolished university DEI offices in 2023, some have questioned the degree to which the university has complied.

In addition, Lowery’s lawsuit revives accusations of nepotism against UT President Jay Hartzell.

The Gazette: Capitol Notebook

.....The state will pay for attorney fees and adjust House press policies as part of a settlement with liberal journalist Laura Belin, state officials decided Tuesday.

The three-member State Appeals Board agreed Tuesday to settle a lawsuit brought by Belin against Iowa House Chief Clerk Meghan Nelson after Belin was denied press credentials for the Iowa House of Representatives.

Belin sued Nelson in January, alleging the refusal to provide her credentials to the Iowa House violated her First Amendment rights. Press credentials allow reporters to sit on the House floor and afford easier access to state lawmakers.

Shortly after filing the lawsuit, Belin was given credentials to the House floor, and a policy requiring that credentialed journalists be “nonpartisan” was removed from the House press rules.

As part of the settlement, the state will pay nearly $50,000 for Belin’s attorney fees. Belin, the publisher and lead reporter for the liberal-leaning Iowa politics website Bleeding Heartland, was represented by the Institute for Free Speech.

New from the Institute for Free Speech

Free Speech Arguments – Episode 5: Gilliam v. Gerregano

.....Leah Gilliam v. David Gerregano, Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Revenue, et al., argued before the Supreme Court of Tennessee on April 3, 2024...

Question Presented: Are personalized plates personal speech—as Ms. Gilliam maintains and as nearly every other court to consider that question has held—or are personalized plates the Government’s speech, as the Chancery Court Panel anomalously held below?

FEC

Roll Call: New FEC regulations on candidate salaries will transform our political landscape

By Liuba Grechen Shirley and Shana M. Broussard

.....The Federal Election Commission...can play a pivotal role in ensuring access to our political system is not reserved for those with deep pockets.

In 2018, the FEC approved the use of campaign funds for childcare and changed the way parents, especially moms, run for federal office. By the time American women are 45 years old, 85 percent are moms, however only 6.8 percent of our Congress members are moms of minor children. The astronomical cost of childcare is a major barrier for parents considering a run for federal office, but using campaign funds for childcare has allowed more parents and caregivers to step up and run...

Recently, the FEC approved final rules to make it easier for federal candidates to draw salaries from their privately raised campaign funds and pay themselves a livable wage. This will change the political landscape.

Free Expression

Jonathan Turley: Scottish Minister Doubles Down on Anti-Free Speech Law

.....There is global criticism of the new anti-free speech law in Scotland, including a dare from author J.K. Rowling to arrest her for her criticism of transgender policies. The law is so bad that even the British Prime Minister, in a country previously denounced for attacks on free speech, has demurred from supporting the Scottish law. Now Humza Yousaf, first minister of Scotland, has doubled down in supporting the draconian law while misrepresenting its language.

Yousaf bizarrely claimed that critics have ignored that the legal threshold of “the new offences is very, very high indeed. Your behaviour has to be threatening or abusive and intended to stir up hatred.” It is almost comical in its absurdity. No, a standard based on “stirring up hatred” is not very very high. Moreover, the showing can be based on a showing that stirring up hatred was “likely” rather than “intended.”

In signature form, Yousaf reportedly then lashed out at critics like Rowling and Joe Rogan as “right-wing actors” who have “[no] sympathy for the fact we are bringing in legislation that is clamping down on hatred.” He insisted that this is merely an extension of the fight against “disinformation.”

Bloomberg Law: Law School Israel Protest Culture Is ‘Cancer,’ US Judge Says

By Allie Reed

.....Eleventh Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch told Harvard Law School students that protests she views as antisemitic on law school campuses are a spreading “cancer” that cross the line beyond protected speech.

“What is happening on campuses throughout the country is a cancer. Harvard is similarly stricken,” Branch said Tuesday at a Harvard Federalist Society talk on campus speech in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“I have no quarrel with peaceful protests. I might not agree with you, but I support your right to protest,” said Branch, a Donald Trump appointee who has sat on the Atlanta-based court since 2018. “But that’s not what’s happening.”

She said that pro-Palestine symbols used by protesters including black and white scarves called keffiyeh, hands painted red, and the expression “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” can cross the line from protected speech into threats and incitement of bullying.

Branch urged law school administrators “to stop tolerating the abuse these students are inflicting on campus” and equally enforce speech policies, and recommended law students file written reports against students they believe have violated those policies.

Taxpayer-Financed Campaigns

Washington Post: Ex-police officer gets 200 hours community service for campaign scheme to help New York City mayor

By Associated Press

.....A former police officer who prosecutors say was the ringleader of a campaign donations scheme to help New York City Mayor Eric Adams during his winning 2021 run was sentenced Tuesday, authorities said.

Dwyane Montgomery was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service and was prohibited from hosting political fundraisers or soliciting contributions on behalf of any campaign for a year during his sentencing, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office confirmed in an email…

Prosecutors say that between 2020 and 2021, Montgomery orchestrated more than two dozen straw donations by encouraging friends and relatives to take advantage of the city’s generous matching funds system, which provides an 8-to-1 match for the first $250 donated by a city resident. Montgomery also helped organize fundraisers for Adams.

The States

The Oregonian: Gov. Tina Kotek signs historic campaign finance bill

By Carlos Fuentes

.....Gov. Tina Kotek on Wednesday signed into law a bill that will limit the amount of money that individuals and groups can contribute to Oregon political campaigns starting in 2027. The law is historic for Oregon, which has seen increasingly large sums of money poured into campaigns.

Kotek and lawmakers of both parties praised each other for achieving compromise on the bill during this year’s legislative session. The bill cleared the Legislature with overwhelming support from both parties and support from good government groups, labor unions and business groups, which negotiated the details of the bill…

The law restricts contributions from individuals and corporations to political campaigns to $3,300 per election and establishes limits on how much money political parties, caucus committees and other politically-affiliated groups can accept from various groups. It also requires so-called dark money groups that spend independently on candidate campaigns to disclose their significant donors.

People United for Privacy: Nebraska Lawmakers Unanimously Protect Privacy and Free Speech

By Luke Wachob

.....The right to support nonprofit causes freely and safely just got a major boost in the Cornhusker State. Governor Jim Pillen signed L.B. 43 into law on March 27, making Nebraska the 18^th state to pass the Personal Privacy Protection Act (PPPA). The law will ensure that Americans’ sensitive personal information, such as their name and home address, remains private when donating to nonprofit causes in Nebraska.