May 29, 2024

The Courts

CBS News: TikTok ban challenge set for September arguments

By Kaia Hubbard

.....A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday fast tracked oral arguments in a challenge to a law that could lead to a ban on the widely popular social media app TikTok.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit set oral arguments over the measure for sometime in September, amid time pressure for the app to be sold by its China-based owner within a year or be removed from U.S. app stores. 

Politico: Judge Cannon rebukes Trump prosecutors over gag order request

By Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney

.....The judge overseeing the criminal case against Donald Trump for hoarding classified documents at his Florida home has again chided special counsel Jack Smith’s team for its tactics — this time over a request for an order preventing Trump from repeating baseless claims that FBI agents carrying out a search at Mar-a-Lago last year were authorized to kill him.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon turned down the gag order request Tuesday as she delivered another sharp warning to prosecutors that they need to make more concerted efforts at dialogue with Trump’s counsel before bringing disputes to the court.

“The Court finds the Special Counsel’s pro forma ‘conferral’ [with the defense] to be wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy,” wrote Cannon, a Trump appointee. “It should go without saying that meaningful conferral is not a perfunctory exercise.”

Concord Monitor: U.S. district court strikes down controversial ‘divisive concepts’ law

By Jeremy Margolis

.....A district court judge on Tuesday struck down New Hampshire’s controversial “divisive concepts” law, ruling that it is “unconstitutionally vague” in violation of the Constitution’s 14th amendment.

The summary judgment ruling by Judge Paul J. Barbadoro was celebrated by the state’s two teachers’ unions, House Democrats, and educational advocates, who have argued that the law infringes upon teachers’ autonomy and has a chilling effect in the classroom.

New York Times: Top FTX Executive Sentenced to 7½ Years in Prison

By David Yaffe-Bellany

.....Ryan Salame, a top executive at the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on Tuesday, making him the first of Sam Bankman-Fried’s circle of advisers at FTX to receive prison time…

When FTX imploded, Mr. Salame became a target of federal prosecutors, who searched his home in Maryland. Mr. Bankman-Fried was charged with stealing $8 billion from FTX’s customers and using the money to finance political contributions, venture investments and luxury real estate purchases...

In September, Mr. Salame also pleaded guilty, admitting that he had acted as an illegal “straw donor” who made political contributions at the direction of Mr. Bankman-Fried to evade federal disclosure requirements. In a sentencing memo, prosecutors called it “one of the largest ever” campaign finance offenses in American history.

Congress

Breitbart: Exclusive — U.S. Chamber of Commerce Defies Congressional Committee Chairman Demanding Funding Information

By Matthew Boyle

.....The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has decided to defy a powerful House Republican committee chairman investigating the source of funds into its affiliated foundation, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

A House Ways and Means Committee aide told Breitbart News that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce did not provide the relevant information to the panel’s chairman Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) ahead of a deadline earlier this month when asked about donations made through the Tides Foundation to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation amounting to more than $12 million over the past several years. As Breitbart News and others have reported, Smith’s investigation into this matter is a major step for Republicans digging into the business community’s top lobbying arm—and it comes amid questions about who exactly is giving money to the Chamber’s foundation arm and why they are using a donor-advised fund like the Tides Foundation to do it rather than just giving the money directly. Doing it this way shields the identity of the giver, which raises questions about the source—and purpose—of the donations, especially since the money was given to a program designed to hire veterans.

Smith, in a statement to Breitbart News, noted the Tides Foundation’s role in passing funding through to various entities behind antisemitic college campus protests and escalated his demand for information from the group.

IRS

Wall Street Journal: I’m a Crime Victim—ProPublica Has My Tax Returns

By Ira Stoll

.....The U.S. Treasury Department recently alerted me that my company’s tax return was among those leaked by an Internal Revenue Service contractor. The department’s letter included documents from a federal criminal case explaining that Charles Edward Littlejohn “stole tax returns and return information” and disclosed them to news organizations…

As federal crime victims go, I count myself fortunate. There was no violence involved. So far, no news organization has published my business’s tax information. Higher-income and politically active taxpayers have had their information exposed.

I do, though, have to live with the possibility that one of the outlets, ProPublica—which describes itself as “an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force”—will publish the tax return as part of what it calls “an ongoing reporting project.” …

[Prosecutors] told me that “over 50,000” and perhaps as many as 70,000 taxpayers have been affected by the disclosure, making it the largest known unauthorized disclosure of tax information in U.S. history…

I’ve been critical of ProPublica, including in several articles for this page. If I write about the outlet again, I’ll have to weigh whether doing so would increase the chances it reports on my company’s return.

FCC

Fox Business: FCC's proposal to regulate AI in political ads is misguided, commissioner says

By Eric Revell 

.....Carr went on to say that the FCC does not have the authority to require such a disclosure on political ads that air on platforms other than TV and radio, which means the disclosure could be enforced unevenly for ads appearing on streaming services or social media platforms and confuse consumers…

Carr also questioned whether the disclosure would help consumers understand how AI was used in an ad as they consider its credibility. "How useful is that to consumers? Like, am I seeing something that's completely fake? Is it just that ChatGPT was used to assist in one sentence in the actual script that was used?"

"I think this is an issue better left for the [Federal Election Committee], which is where Congress has sort of delegated authority in terms of an agency that can impose disclosure obligations with respect to candidates and political ads," he added. "At a minimum, the FCC needs to make clear it's not going to upend the apple cart when it comes to political speech right on the eve of a contested national election."

Ed. note: Read FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr's statement in response to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's proposal here.

Free Expression

New York Times: Harvard Says It Will No Longer Take Positions on Matters Outside of the University

By Vimal Patel and Anemona Hartocollis

.....Harvard said on Tuesday that it would now avoid taking positions on matters that are not “relevant to the core function of the university,” accepting the recommendations of a faculty committee that urged the university to dramatically reduce its messages on issues of the day.

If put into practice, Harvard would no longer issue official statements of empathy, which it did for Ukraine, after the Russian invasion, and for the victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, for example.

“In issuing official statements of empathy, the university runs the risk of appearing to care more about some places and events than others,” the report said. “And because few, if any, world events can be entirely isolated from conflicting viewpoints, issuing official empathy statements runs the risk of alienating some members of the community by expressing implicit solidarity with others.”

The university’s Institutional Voice Working Group, made up of eight faculty members, issued the report, with a set of principles and a recommended path forward, which the administration and governing board accepted.

“Harvard isn’t a government,” Noah Feldman, a Harvard law professor and a co-chair of the committee that developed the recommendations, said in an interview with The Harvard Gazette, released Tuesday as part of the university’s announcement. “It shouldn’t have a foreign policy or a domestic policy.”

Sacramento Bee (via Yahoo): Addressing illegal campus protests is requiring officials to use a lot of politics

By Erwin Chemerinsky

.....The events of the last month have caused me to realize that by focusing so much on the law, there has not been enough attention to the pragmatic considerations that should guide decisions. College administrators are facing some key questions.

How much is the activity disrupting the campus and its educational and research mission? Some encampments are small or in areas of campus that do not interfere with its functioning. But others have been large and very disruptive. Some encampments, for example, are where commencement ceremonies were scheduled and had to be cleared in order for commencement to happen.

How great is the risk of violence and destruction of property? Campuses have a duty to protect the safety of those in the community. The First Amendment never includes a right to endanger others or destroy property. There are situations where the presence of protests and counter-protests creates too great a danger of escalation into violence. A campus cannot wait until the violence occurs to take action.

Is the activity a violation of the law or a violation of campus rules?...

How much is there harassment?

The States

Denver Post: Colorado’s new “deepfake” law requires campaign ads to disclose AI-generated content

By Nick Coltrain

.....Colorado campaign ads with audio, video and other content generated using artificial intelligence will need to feature prominent disclosures under a bill signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis over the weekend.

The law, passed as House Bill 1147, likens “deepfakes,” or the use of AI to create false depictions of people doing or saying things, to forcing the subject to act under duress. It warns that candidates’ reputations can be “irreparably tainted” by fabricated messages and requires “clear and conspicuous” disclosures when they’re used to portray candidates within 60 days of a primary election or 90 days of a general election.

The new law gives people the right to file administrative complaints with the Secretary of State’s Office alleging violations of election law and also gives candidates the ability to sue over the dissemination of deepfakes.

KALB: La. bill nearing Gov. Landry’s desk would outlaw the distribution of fake political media

By Rob LaPerle

.....On May 28, a Louisiana House bill proposing the outlawing of certain political media saw debates over constitutionality on the Senate floor.

House Bill 154 by Louisiana State Representative Mandie Landry, aims to outlaw the distribution of political materials and media that were made with any form of manipulated imagery, audio or video, with the intent of deceiving Louisiana voters or otherwise harming a political candidate’s reputation.

Louisiana State Senator Blake Miguez expressed deep concerns over the constitutionality of the proposed legislation, arguing that the outlawing of such media could impact the protective rights of political speech by impeding Americans’ rights to the First Amendment.

Shore News Network: New Jersey Wants to Criminalize Certain Political Speech on Campaign Media

.....A new bill in New Jersey would criminalize deceptive speech on campaign mailers and commercials, making essentially every person running for office a criminal.

A new legislative measure, Senate Bill No. 2543, spearheaded by Senator Paul D. Moriarty from District 4, seeks to impose criminal penalties on the distribution of deceptive audio or visual media, commonly known as "deepfakes," within 90 days of an election.

Spectrum News 1: Ohio bill seeks to punish educators 'pandering obscenity'

By Samana Sheikh

.....A push at the Ohio Statehouse could limit the types of material both teachers and librarians present to students in schools.

A new proposal would make it a felony if educators and librarians pander “obscene” material. State Rep. Adam Mathews, R-District 56, wants Ohio to place limits on the type of material that teachers and librarians can make available to younger students...

House bill 556 would make it a felony for teachers or librarians to pander obscenity. A first offense could be punished with up to one year in prison, and those convicted could also face a fine. Mathews said the bill's intent is to protect children and help parents build trusting relationships with their schools. While the bill does not specifically define obscenity, Mathews said it would align with the definition found in Ohio’s Revised Code.