The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech June 12, 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]. In the News Federalist Society: NRA v. Vullo: A Resounding Win for Free Speech, But Will It Endure? By Charles M. Miller .....[T]he Court in Vullo did not merely restate the holding of Bantam Books. Rather, Vullo expands the protections afforded to political speakers against government interference beyond only government coercion of intermediaries, to government use of intermediaries to conduct viewpoint discrimination. Vullo contains the first statement in a free speech case that “a government official cannot do indirectly what she is barred from doing directly.” This statement begins to shift the focus away from whether an intermediary was coerced—which, by its nature, is difficult to discover and prove—and toward an analysis of the government’s own actions and intentions. Congress Cato: House Bill Calls for an End to Government Funding of Censorship By David Inserra .....The First Amendment and a robust culture of free expression mean most Americans understand that our society addresses hard topics through robust speech and debate. The way we handle disagreements among Americans is not to have the government wade into highly subjective, highly political issues to declare one group correct and silence the others as dangerous or wrong.. Unfortunately, this cultural dedication to expression is under pressure from government efforts to fund counter “disinformation” projects that are often thinly veiled efforts to suppress the speech of Americans. In response, Rep. Thomas Massie (R‑KY) introduced HR 8519 to prohibit the funding of research of disinformation and online trust and security. The Massie bill recognizes such funding for what it is: government funding of censorship. The short bill would prevent the government from funding three things: Washington Free Beacon: Republicans Introduce Bill To Ban DEI in Government, Federal Contracting By Aaron Sibarium .....Congressional Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday that would eliminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion positions in the federal government and bar federal contractors from requiring DEI statements and training sessions. The Dismantle DEI Act, introduced by Sen. J.D. Vance (R., Ohio) and Rep. Michael Cloud (R., Texas), would also bar federal grants from going to diversity initiatives, cutting off a key source of support for DEI programs in science and medicine. Other provisions would prevent accreditation agencies from requiring DEI in schools and bar national securities associations, like NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange, from instituting diversity requirements for corporate boards. Fox News: Civil liberty, whistleblower protection groups urge Congress to allow vote on Espionage Act reform amendment By Landon Mion .....A group of 19 civil liberty, press freedom, human rights and whistleblower protection groups are calling on the House Rules Committee to allow a Floor vote on an amendment to reform the Espionage Act. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., offered amendment 759 to the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 in an effort to reform the Espionage Act and protect journalists and whistleblowers from the government's abuse of power. The groups wrote a letter to Rules Committee Chair Michael Burgess, R-Texas, and Ranking Member Jim McGovern, D-Mass., according to a post on X by Defending Rights & Dissent, which led the letter to the committee. House Judiciary Committee: Hearing on the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office .....The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday, June 13, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. ET to examine Alvin Bragg's political prosecution of President Trump. With his unprecedented politicized indictment of President Trump, Manhattan District Attorney Bragg has opened the door for politically motivated prosecutions of federal officials by state and local prosecutors. Other ambitious state prosecutors have already followed Bragg's lead and pursued politically motivated indictments of President Trump… Witnesses: The Honorable Andrew Bailey, Attorney General, State of Missouri Trey Trainor, Commissioner, Federal Election Commission (FEC) Elizabeth Price Foley, Of Counsel, BakerHostetler The Hill: Porter to propose bills to modernize lobbying database, extend ‘cooling-off’ period By Taylor Giorno .....Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) will introduce a package of bills Tuesday intended to help Congress run more efficiently and curb influence-peddling by former members of Congress and government officials, her office told The Hill. The package of five bills includes legislation to modernize the government’s federal lobbying disclosure database and enact a blanket two-year ban on lobbying by former members of Congress, senior congressional staff and senior executive branch officials. Other proposals include new absence accommodations and proxy voting in the House chamber and committees, alternating seating during committee hearings to foster bipartisanship and requiring a simple majority threshold for a procedural vote to bring bills to both the House and Senate floor. DOJ Just the News: In shocking litmus test, FBI security inquiry tried to unmask employee’s Trump support, memos show By John Solomon .....FBI officials conducting a top-secret security clearance review for a longtime employee asked witnesses whether that employee was known to support former President Donald Trump, if he had expressed concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine or had attended a Second Amendment rally, according to internal memos that prompted a complaint to the Justice Department’s internal watchdog alleging political bias inside the bureau. The employee’s security clearance was revoked months after the interviews, which confirmed his support for Trump and gun rights and his concerns about the COVID vaccine, according to the documents obtained by Just the News. The memos show that agents for the FBI’s Security Division asked at least three witnesses in spring 2022 whether the employee, whose name and job title was redacted from the memos, had been known to “vocalize support for President Trump” or “vocalize objections to Covid-19 vaccination.” Agents ascertained from at least one witness that the worker, in fact, had declined to get the coronavirus inoculation. Free Expression Boston Globe: ACLU lawyer who defended Nazis sees free speech retreat in America By Joan Vennochi .....As a young lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, David Goldberger defended the rights of Nazis to hold a demonstration in Skokie, Ill., a village that was home to many Jewish residents, including hundreds of Holocaust survivors. The famous case, which set the course of his legal career, also led to a historic First Amendment ruling by the US Supreme Court, which was issued in June 1977 — 47 years ago. When speech today can so quickly be labeled and censored as antisemitic, would he take up such a cause again? Yes, he said. “But I’d have a bigger lump in my throat now than I did back then,” Goldberger, 82, told me in an interview. When it comes to free speech in America, he sees a hugely disappointing retreat. “We fought like hell to establish these rights and it seems like, frankly, they are really under siege,“ he said. “Here we go again.” To think it would be harder in 2024 to fight for free speech than it was in 1977 is somewhat stunning, isn’t it? Or maybe not, given the backlash to assorted civil and constitutional rights that were fought for and won over the past half century. Archive.today link The Media Axios: Dark money news outlets outpacing local daily newspapers By Sara Fischer .....The number of partisan-backed outlets designed to look like impartial news outlets has officially surpassed the number of real, local daily newspapers in the U.S., according to a new analysis. There are least 1,265 websites identified as being backed by dark money or are intentionally masquerading as local news sites for political purposes, according to a new report from NewsGuard, a misinformation tracking company. The States NC Newsline: Controversial anti-masking, campaign finance bill heads to governor’s desk By Ahmed Jallow .....On Tuesday, North Carolina House Republicans voted in favor of a controversial bill that would restrict mask wearing in public, crack down on protesters, and change the state’s campaign finance laws. The House voted 69-43, sending the measure titled “Unmasking Mobs and Criminals” to the governor’s desk. Last month, the North Carolina House rejected controversial Senate amendments to the bill that would have, among other things, banned wearing masks in public, even for health reasons. The new language, unveiled last Thursday and voted on today, allows people to wear only “a medical or surgical grade mask” to prevent the spread of contagious disease. This exemption is narrower than the current, broad COVID-era exemption in state law. New York Times: Fake Donations Helped a Candidate Get $162,000 From Taxpayers By Jay Root and Bianca Pallaro .....Under New York State’s new generous system for publicly financing political campaigns, Mr. Yin claimed the Zadrans’ modest donations as eligible for $1,380 in matching funds. Yet in interviews, the Zadrans said they had not given money to Mr. Yin, nor had they even heard of him... Despite his lack of name recognition, Mr. Yin is now one of New York’s top recipients of public matching funds — $162,800 at last count — after reporting the highest percentage of cash, the least traceable form of donation, of any state candidate who received matching funds this year. But after canvassing many of the homes in Flushing associated with 55 people listed as cash donors to Mr. Yin’s campaign, The Times found at least 19 who said they had not contributed. Eleven others no longer lived at the addresses listed for them. Some had moved to other cities or states years ago, including one who left New York in 2013 and said he had not donated. Only seven of those interviewed said they had donated small sums to Mr. Yin… The large number of apparently fake donors listed in Mr. Yin’s campaign filings may make him an outlier, but it highlights a central weakness in the new matching-funds system, which state lawmakers endowed with $100 million before its debut this year and which regulators say is the largest in the country. 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. 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