The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech August 9, 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 Reason: Biden's Exit Exposed the Chaotic Maze of Campaign Finance Law By David Keating .....President Joe Biden's decision to exit the 2024 race gave the public a rare look at the Byzantine world of campaign finance law. It's not a pretty sight. This tangle of often incomprehensible rules highlights the need for a judicial firewall to protect political speech—a "separation of campaign and state." After Biden stepped away, his presidential campaign committee and its $92 million war chest were essentially handed to Vice President Kamala Harris. Donald Trump's campaign then filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), challenging the legality of the transfer. While the situation is unprecedented, two things are certain: The law and regulations aren't clear, and the controversy won't be resolved before the election. Reynolds Journalism Institute: If your state doesn’t have an anti-SLAPP law, you should read this By Sara George .....The language of anti-SLAPP laws differ, but common strengths include an expedited legal process and a reclamation of legal fees. For example, in many states without anti-SLAPP legislation, a plaintiff can request discovery before a summary judgment is ruled on. “That could mean a couple of different things,” said David Keating, the president at the Institute for Free Speech. “They could ask for your records. Your records might include things like your emails, maybe your text messages. Obviously, this would be very intrusive and it’s a lot of work to compile all of the messages.” ... Keating said that in states without anti-SLAPP legislation, it can be difficult to recover legal fees. The Courts Bloomberg Law: Corporate Funding of Anti-Abortion Super-PAC Must Be Allowed By Quinn Wilson .....An Indiana law prohibiting corporate donations to super-PACs likely violates the First Amendment and can’t be used to stop a media company’s donations to an anti-abortion group, a federal appeals panel ruled. Indiana can’t enforce its campaign-finance laws against Sarkes Tarzian Inc. for its desired $10,000 donation to Indiana Right to Life Victory Fund, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit unanimously ruled Thursday. After the Indiana Supreme Court confirmed that the law prevented corporate donation to super-PACs, the panel ruled that the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged they faced irreparable harm from potential state enforcement. Reason: California School Punishes First-Grader for a Drawing, Sparking Federal Lawsuit By Patrick McDonald .....A California first-grader was punished for a drawing she made at school, resulting in a federal lawsuit that probes whether the First Amendment extends to the first-grade classroom… In February of this year, district court judge David O. Carter ruled in favor of the defendants, giving "great weight to the fact that the students involved were in first grade." PLF has appealed the decision, and the case will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. A spokesperson for PLF tells Reason that the case will likely be set for oral argument sometime in 2025. NLRB The Hill: ACLU must reinstate employee fired for offensive language, judge rules By Miranda Nazzaro .....The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) illegally fired an employee who the group claimed used racist language and discriminated against some coworkers, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) judge ruled Wednesday. Administrative law judge Michael Rosas ruled Katherine Oh, who served as senior policy counsel, was terminated for protected concerted activity, a right of workers to address work-related issues guaranteed by the NLRB Act. The ACLU argued Oh, who was fired in May 2022, was terminated “because she exhibited a tendency to cast her complaints using hyperbolic and exaggerated language,” per the ruling. The non-governmental organization claimed it tolerated the conduct until Oh “took it to an entirely different level” and showed “disregard” for other employees’ wellbeing, particularly her Black colleagues. Congress Fox News: House GOP demands FEC probe 'potentially illegal' ActBlue fundraising as Dem platform hauls Harris millions By Danielle Wallace .....Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., demanded in a letter Thursday that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) investigate recent allegations "of fraudulent, deceptive, and potentially illegal behavior" on the part of ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform that's hauled in millions of dollars in donations for Vice President Harris' presidential campaign and its affiliated entities. Tenney, who co-chairs the House Election Integrity Caucus, cited in the letter addressed to FEC Chair Sean Cooksey and Vice Chair Ellen Weintraub "significant public reporting on anomalous transaction activity involving hundreds of thousands of dollars." According to the agency's publicly available data, Tenney wrote, "numerous individuals have allegedly donated to ActBlue thousands of times annually." However, "it was reported many of these individuals were unaware their names and addresses were being used to make thousands of dollars in political donations." FEC Mises Institute: Watergate-era “reforms” made the federal government even stronger By Stephen Anderson .....Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the resignation of President Richard Nixon, who later was pardoned of all Watergate crimes by President Gerald Ford… One post-Watergate legacy was the passage of new federal election finance laws and the creation of a new agency to enforce, finance, record, and regulate them... Mises Institute executive editor Ryan McMaken, in a Mises Wire article in October 2016 entitled “Decentralize the Elections,” described the history of states administering elections for federal offices and the methodical takeover of elections by the federal government over time... For all the lessons supposedly learned from the Watergate scandal, the only real lesson is that so-called reform in Washington is little more than bait-and-switch. While Congress passed a number of post-Watergate laws that supposedly reined in what progressives were calling Nixon’s so-called imperial presidency along with its phantom campaign funding, the power of the executive branch has grown exponentially in the past five decades, and campaign spending has grown with it. Bloomberg Law: AI-Generated Campaign Ads Evade US Election Officials’ Scrutiny By Jorja Siemons and Courtney Rozen .....Republican members of the Federal Election Commission killed a proposal to regulate AI-generated “deepfakes” in political campaign ads. Republican FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey, joined by two of his Republican colleagues, said in a draft notice they requested the commission discuss in the agency’s Aug. 15 meeting that the proposal goes beyond the agency’s statutory authority and the commission lacks necessary technical expertise. The proposal is unlikely to survive, since the Republican FEC members, which comprise half of the agency’s voting members, are proposing to end the pending rulemaking petition. “The relatively limited use of AI-generated content in federal campaigns to date means there is little evidence of significant harms that would benefit from regulation,” the commissioners said. Free Expression Racket News: American Stasi: Tulsi Gabbard Confirms "Quiet Skies" Nightmare By Matt Taibbi .....Tuesday night, while self-styled Democratic nominee Kamala Harris pledged to defend “freedom, compassion, and the rule of law” to cheers in Philadelphia, Hawaii’s Tulsi Gabbard described being tracked by teams of government agents in a surveillance regime more reminiscent of East Germany than a free country. Whistleblowing Air Marshals told Uncover DC Gabbard was singled out as a terror threat under the so-called “Quiet Skies” program, and the former presidential candidate says she noticed… “The TSA agent said, ‘Why are you Quad-S? You’re in the military,’” explains Gabbard. “And I said, ‘That’s exactly what I’m wondering.’ Gabbard goes on: “Then I said, ‘The only thing I can think of is, I work in politics.’ And he said, oh.” … The former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii’s 2nd district is far from the first American to be placed under physical surveillance as a “domestic terrorist” threat in post-9/11 America. Especially since January 6th, 2021, when the Quiet Skies program expanded to accommodate a broad effort to track people who were at the Capitol, Americans following Americans on airplanes is no longer uncommon, though the public largely has no idea of the scale of this activity. DOJ Nonprofit Quarterly: Warning Signs for Philanthropy: The Authoritarian Crackdown on Social Movements By Ken Chapman, Jeree Thomas, Lorraine Ramirezand José Servin .....[T]he Department of Justice (DOJ) recently released a scathing report stemming from a three-year investigation into the Phoenix Police Department and the City of Phoenix… The DOJ also found overwhelming evidence that the Phoenix police systematically used “indiscriminate force against protestors, falsified allegations to arrest protest leaders, retaliated against people critical of the police, and prevented people from lawfully recording police conduct.” The report went on to describe “a culture in which sworn officers flaunted their hostility toward protestors without recourse. While on duty and responding to protests, officers made malicious and demeaning statements about protestors, cheered the use of force, and celebrated their success in suppressing speech.” Online Speech Platforms TechCrunch: Facebook creators have a new way to avoid ‘jail’ By Sarah Perez .....In a revised policy, announced on Wednesday, social networking giant Meta said that creators who violate the company’s Community Standards for the first time will be offered the option to take a new training course instead of receiving a formal warning. Upon completion of the course, the warning will be removed from the user’s account, Meta explained in a blog post aimed at creators. The States Attorney General of Texas: Attor­ney Gen­er­al Ken Pax­ton’s Ongo­ing Inves­ti­ga­tion Into Act­Blue Yields Coop­er­a­tion On Donor Cred­it Card Identification .....In December 2023, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into the major fundraising platform ActBlue to determine whether ActBlue’s operations are compliant with all applicable laws. ActBlue has been the subject of numerous allegations of illicit activity, including that its platform may enable fraud. One major focus of Texas's investigation is ActBlue’s failure to require that donors provide “CVV” codes when making donations by credit card on the ActBlue platform. “CVV” codes are a commonly required security measure. Today, the OAG issued a supplemental civil investigative demand to obtain additional information relevant to the latest allegations regarding ActBlue. NH Business Review: New Hampshire law requires more transparency in AI-generated political ads By Olivia Richardson -NH Public Radio .....A new law aims to rein in the use of artificial intelligence in political ads. The law requires AI-generated content to be disclosed in political ads within 90 days of an election. The legislation allows candidates or election officials who are “depicted through the use of a deceptive and fraudulent deepfake” in violation of the law to bring legal action against those responsible for that depiction. Rep. Angela Brennan, a Democrat from Bow, introduced the legislation. She said she hopes it’ll deter misinformation during the upcoming election cycle. Washington Post: California is weighing a flurry of sprawling tech bills — again By Cristiano Lima-Strong .....While members of Congress settle in for a lengthy August recess, state lawmakers in California return this week for a busy final stretch where they will consider hundreds of bills, including major proposals on artificial intelligence, child online safety and digital advertising. 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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