April 10, 2024

In the News

Fox News (Life, Liberty & Levin): Election law expert rejects prosecutor's allegation Stormy Daniels payments are an election expense (Video)

.....Former FEC Chairman Bradley Smith tells 'Life, Liberty & Levin' the alleged hush money is 'clearly... independent' of former President Trump's campaign.

Supreme Court

SCOTUSblog: Jan. 6 defendant asks Supreme Court to throw out obstruction charge

By Amy Howe

.... Finally, Fischer criticizes the government’s interpretation of Section 1512(c)(2) as “breathtaking” in its scope, particularly when the government would not even limit it to inquiries or investigations, Fischer says. “So anything that affects or hinders a proceeding falls within the government’s definition” – including, Fischer suggests, political speech protected by the First Amendment, such as “lobbying, advocacy, and protest.” …

[T]he government dismisses any concerns that Section 1512(c)(2) could be used too broadly, including to target, for example, speech protected by the First Amendment, as “policy-focused speculation” that “provides no basis for departing from Section 1512(c)(2)’s unambiguous test.” That suggestion, the government continues, also “fails to account for” the provision’s “significant limits.” For example, the government stresses, Section 1512(c)(2) only applies to “acts that hinder a proceeding,” and the provision also requires a defendant to act “corruptly,” which requires more than proof that defendant’s act was intentional or knowing. And in any event, the government concludes, the First Amendment does not give Fischer “any right to assault police officers inside the Capitol as part of an effort to impede an official proceeding.”

The Courts

CBS News: Federal judge blocks Florida teacher's pronoun restriction

.....A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Florida education officials from enforcing a law requiring a transgender teacher to use pronouns that align with her sex assigned at birth, saying the law violated her First Amendment rights…

Plaintiffs Katie Wood, a transgender Hillsborough County teacher, and AV Schwandes, a nonbinary teacher fired last year by Florida Virtual School, sought preliminary injunctions as part of a lawsuit challenging the restrictions.

The challenge alleged the law violates the teachers' First Amendment rights and runs afoul of a federal civil rights law.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday that blocked enforcement of the law against Wood, but the injunction does not apply statewide. Walker's decision also denied a preliminary injunction sought by Schwandes.

FEC

Texas Tribune: Ted Cruz faces campaign finance complaint over podcast deal

By Matthew Choi

.....U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is facing a formal campaign finance complaint over money sent from the company that syndicates his podcast to a political action committee supporting his reelection bid.

The complaint, filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission, alleges Cruz may have improperly directed radio distribution and marketing firm iHeartMedia to send over $630,000 to the Truth and Courage PAC, a group dedicated to Cruz’ reelection effort. The amount would exceed the $5,000 limit an officeholder is permitted to solicit for a super PAC.

End Citizens United and the Campaign Legal Center filed the complaint and are seeking a formal FEC investigation into the payments.

Washington Examiner: FEC eyes letting campaigns fund security after 8,000 threats last year

By Paul Bedard

.....In a brief statement, the FEC said Tuesday that it will be seeking comments over the next two months on a proposal to allow for “reasonable costs” of candidate security.

The campaign finance watchdog agency said it has allowed special case funding for security but would now like to approve a formal rule allowing spending for “non-structural security devices; structural security devices; professional security personnel and services; and cybersecurity software, devices and services.”

FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey told Secrets that the rise in threats against candidates is driving the move.

Earlier this year, the Capitol Police reported it received 8,008 claims of threats in 2023, a huge jump from the 906 in 2016. Election years have seen big growth in threats of violence, the police data showed.

Online Speech Platforms

Washington Post: Content creators ask Meta to reverse politics limits on Instagram, Threads

By Taylor Lorenz

.....Hundreds of political and news content creators, along with activists, meme account administrators and journalists, have signed an open letter to Meta asking the company to reverse its decision to limit the reach of accounts posting “political content” on Threads and Instagram.

Meta announced in February that it no longer would recommend content about politics and social issues on the two social media platforms, which have tens of millions of users in the United States.

The decision has alarmed users who post about social issues, including LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, racial inequality and disability. And independent journalists and content creators say they’ve struggled to reach their audiences in recent weeks since the change was rolled out. The limits, they say, have significantly affected creators who are Black, female, disabled and LGBTQ.

The letter suggests that rather than changing the default settings of all accounts to restrict political content, Meta should give users the opportunity to opt in to such restrictions.

Washington Post (Technology 202): Elon Musk picks his speech battle

By Will Oremus

.....Though Elon Musk often insists his goal with X is to promote free speech, his actions have rarely been those of the “free-speech absolutist” he once claimed to be. Yes, he has rolled back the social platform’s policies on hate speech, cut back on content moderation and reinstated banned extremists under the free-speech banner. But he has also made up rules to ban accounts he doesn’t like, suspended journalists and sued nonprofit advocacy groups in what one judge ruled was a bid to silence critics. 

In the United States, the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act give X a free hand to moderate or tolerate speech as it sees fit. And while many on the left have decried Musk’s policies, they’ve been widely cheered on the right. But it’s worth remembering that most X users are not American. And other countries have their own speech laws, some of them much more restrictive. 

Since acquiring Twitter, which once prided itself on protecting dissidents abroad, Musk has proved unusually compliant when it comes to government censorship and surveillance requests.

The States

New York Times: 2 Men Fined $1.25 Million for Robocall Scheme to Suppress Black Vote

By Lola Fadulu

.....Two right-wing political operatives who used a robocall campaign to try to discourage Black New Yorkers from voting in the 2020 election will pay up to $1.25 million for their actions, the New York State attorney general’s office announced on Tuesday.

During the summer of 2020, around 5,500 New Yorkers received robocalls falsely claiming that if they voted by mail, their personal information would be sent to law enforcement agencies, debt collectors and the government. The calls were made at a time when many states were encouraging voters to cast their ballots by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic…

The attorney general, Letitia James, called Mr. Wohl and Mr. Burkman’s robocall campaign “depraved and disinformation-ridden” and said her office would “always defend the right to vote.”

Arizona Capitol Times: New law on campaign finance reporting takes effect

By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services

.....Sometime in July, Arizonans are going to find out how much money Katie Hobbs has amassed in her campaign war chest and who has been donating.

That’s all because two GOP lawmakers crafted legislation closing a loophole in campaign finance laws that has so far allowed Hobbs to shield that information. And the governor on Monday signed it.

Until now, state law has said that those who run for office need file quarterly reports of contributions and expenses starting the year before they are up for election. That works to provide ample public notice of the money collected and spent by legislators who serve two-year terms.

But that meant anyone serving a four-year term like Hobbs is not required to file until a year out from the election. Sen. T.J. Shope of Coolidge and Rep. Matt Gress of Phoenix said that would allow the governor to avoid disclosure until a report due in January 2026.

No more.