The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech April 29, 2024 Click here to subscribe to the Daily Media Update. This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected]. The Courts The Chronicle of Philanthropy: A New Lawsuit Could Erase the Red Line Between Politics and Charity By Craig Kennedy .....A small nonprofit that doesn’t even have a website is attempting to upend a 70-year-old law that prohibits charities from endorsing political candidates. If it succeeds, it could cause major disruptions in the nonprofit world. Last month, Students and Academics for Free Expression, Speech, and Political Action in Campus Education — a nonprofit led by Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute — asked the Federal Tax Court to approve its application for 501(c)(3) status. This action was necessary, the nonprofit said, because the Internal Revenue Service had not approved the request in the allotted 270-day time frame. The IRS application was itself unusual in that it explicitly stated that the nonprofit, which uses the acronym SAFE SPACE, would endorse political candidates and engage in substantial lobbying. If successful, the lawsuit filed in the Federal Tax Court would essentially overturn the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits charitable organizations from endorsing political candidates. Star Tribune: Former diversity worker sues University of Minnesota after firing over swastika photo By Liz Navratil .....A former University of Minnesota diversity, equity and inclusion manager is suing the school after it fired her for a social media post that showed her standing in front of an Israeli flag with swastikas painted on it. In a lawsuit served this week, Mashal Sherzad accuses the university of violating her First Amendment right to free speech, discrimination and other claims. She asks to have her job reinstated and receive more than $75,000 in damages. Biden Administration American Conservative: Biden’s New Title IX Rule is the Beginning of the End for Free Speech By Cherise Trump .....The Biden administration just released its 1500-page revision of the Title IX Rule. This new Rule makes this administration’s primary goal glaringly obvious: to cram Neo-Marxist gender ideology down the throats of every American and punish any resistance. That’s why they are weaponizing Title IX to compel speech. Despite the fact that expressing and debating views and ideas is fundamental to the American system, my organization, Speech First, has found that many universities prefer to shut down speech, punish students for merely asking questions or stating basic facts, and enforce a dogmatic approach towards all political speech. At the same time, they embed their preferred political speech in all aspects of student life. Similarly, the Biden administration does not want to wait for the end result of the traditional American way—debate and discourse that seeks truth through reason, and ultimately settles on a conclusion based on core constitutional principles. Instead, the administration is attempting to bend the country to its will by turning Title IX against the Constitution. Free Expression New York Times: Colleges Have Gone off the Deep End. There Is a Way Out. By David French .....[W]hat we’re seeing on a number of campuses isn’t free expression, nor is it civil disobedience. It’s outright lawlessness. No matter the frustration of campus activists or their desire to be heard, true civil disobedience shouldn’t violate the rights of others. Indefinitely occupying a quad violates the rights of other speakers to use the same space. Relentless, loud protest violates the rights of students to sleep or study in peace. And when protests become truly threatening or intimidating, they can violate the civil rights of other students, especially if those students are targeted on the basis of their race, sex, color or national origin. The result of lawlessness is chaos and injustice. Other students can’t speak. Other students can’t learn. Teachers and administrators can’t do their jobs. In my experience as a litigator, campus chaos is frequently the result of a specific campus culture. Administrators and faculty members will often abandon any pretense of institutional neutrality and either cooperate with their most intense activist students or impose double standards that grant favored constituencies extraordinary privileges. Nonprofits Daily Caller: Dark Money Juggernaut Boosting Dems Got Massive Chunk Of Funding From Foreign Billionaire’s Nonprofit, Report Finds By Robert Schmad .....A single foreign billionaire’s nonprofit was responsible for roughly one-sixth of a massive left-wing dark money group’s revenue over the past few years, according to a new report. The Berger Action Fund, a nonprofit founded by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, gave $143 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund between 2019 and 2022, a new report from the Capital Research Center found, constituting roughly 16% of the group’s revenue. The States Florida Politics: Gov. DeSantis OKs disclosure requirement for AI in political ads By Gray Rohrer .....As campaign season ramps up, candidates in Florida must disclose whether they used artificial intelligence in creating their advertisements, after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure imposing the new requirement. Under HB 919, sponsored by Hialeah Republican Rep. Alex Rizo, political ads using AI must have a disclosure within the ad. Specifically, the disclosure must be in 12-point font for a print ad, be “clearly readable” and take up 4% of the space of a television or video ad, be “viewable without the user taking any action” in an internet ad and be at least 3 seconds in an audio ad on the radio. As defined in the bill, “generative artificial intelligence” means “a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, emulate the structure and characteristics of input data in order to generate derived synthetic content including images, videos, audio, text, and other digital content.” Washington Examiner: California legislators advance limiting ‘influential’ anonymous online speech By Kenneth Schrupp .....California legislators nearly unanimously voted to limit “influential” anonymous online free speech by requiring social media companies to “seek to verify” personal information — including government-issued identification — for “influential” accounts. Providence Journal: Unions pushing ban on 'captive audience meetings.' What that would mean for RI. By Katherine Gregg .....Free speech? Union-busting tactic? From the Rhode Island union point of view: Workers here and across the nation need protection from "offensive or unwanted political speech" by their employers at meetings they dare not skip without putting their jobs at risk. From the Rhode Island employers' point of view: The legislation that flew out of committee on its way to a full Senate vote next week would prohibit an employer from "communicating how regulations, as well as union organizing efforts, will affect a small business and the workers' jobs." Such discussions are known in labor parlance as "captive audience meetings." Banning them is one of the top priorities of the AFL-CIO in Rhode Island and a host of local unions. But killing the bill is an equally high priority for groups that represent employers, such as the Rhode Island Business Coalition and the National Federation of Independent Business, which calls the framing of the bill deceptive. "This bill appears to attempt to protect the free speech rights of employees in the workplace, but it also limits the First Amendment rights of employers," NFIB State Director Christopher Carlozzi told legislators. Reason: California's New Social Media Law Invites Expensive Lawsuits By Steven Greenhut .....After the California Assembly's Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee recently voted 11-0 to support a far-reaching, speech-quelling, lawsuit-promoting bill in the name of protecting "the children," Assemblymember Joe Patterson (R–Rocklin) posted this on X: "The most simple bill ever and I was pleased to support it after a lot of heartburn. All the bill says is companies are liable if they don't 'exercise ordinary care or skill towards a child.' Do you disagree?" Well, yes, I disagree, but more on that in a moment. When asked by a reporter about his gut reaction, Patterson doubled down: "I worry a little bit about exploding litigation that could clog up our courts. But I think the risks to our children are greater if we don't ask them to exercise ordinary care." Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. For email filters, the subject of this email will always begin with "Institute for Free Speech Media Update." The Institute for Free Speech is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and defends the political rights to free speech, press, assembly, and petition guaranteed by the First Amendment. Please support the Institute's mission by clicking here. For further information, visit www.ifs.org. Follow the Institute for Free Speech The Institute for Free Speech | 1150 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]