September 12, 2024

The Courts

National Review: Federal Judge Blocks Utah Law Restricting Social-Media Access for Minors

By David Zimmermann

.....A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Utah law designed to regulate social-media access for minors, dealing a blow to state Republicans’ legislative efforts to protect the mental health of children from addictive algorithms.

In his order, U.S. District Court judge Robert Shelby handed a preliminary victory to NetChoice — a tech-industry trade group whose members include Amazon, Meta, Snap, Google, and X — halting enforcement of the Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act for now, as litigation runs its course in court. The law requires age verification and express parental consent for social-media users under 18, among other provisions.

Washington Post: TikTok back in court as government does the ‘national security’ dance

By George F. Will

.....On Monday, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, TikTok will challenge the law banning it from U.S. app stores. TikTok argues in its brief that the law demands a divestiture (from Chinese ownership) that is technologically and commercially impossible — and unprecedented: “Never before has Congress expressly singled out and shut down a specific speech forum. Never before has Congress silenced so much speech in a single act.” Last year, TikTok says, U.S. users uploaded more than 5.5 billion videos that were viewed worldwide more than 13 trillion times. TikTok argues that the ban violates the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee and the guarantee of equal protection of the laws.

Granted, any company beholden to China’s Leninist party-state will do what the Communist Party dictates. But labeling speech (often accurately, regarding TikTok) as foreign propaganda does not license government interference with it. In 1965, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a law that burdened citizens’ “right to receive” communist propaganda mailed from a foreign adversary.

Courthouse News: Ninth Circuit upholds Chinese developer’s conviction for bribing LA councilman

By Edvard Pettersson

.....A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Wednesday rejected an attempt by a Chinese real-estate developer to overturn a conviction for bribing a corrupt Los Angeles city councilman to gain his support for building a 77-story skyscraper in downtown LA.

Shen Zhen New World had argued that the more than dozen lavish, all-expenses-paid trips to Las Vegas — including complimentary gambling chips and prostitutes — that its owner provided to José Huizar didn't amount to bribery under federal law.

"In challenging its conviction, Shen Zhen conflates the specific intent required of a bribe-giver with that of the bribe-taker, i.e., a public official," U.S. Circuit Judge Gabriel Sanchez, a Joe Biden appointee, said in the unanimous decision.

Congress

Roll Call: Election oversight continues to dominate, divide House Administration panel

By Justin Papp

.....Last week, Steil and other House Administration Republicans introduced legislation aimed at preventing contributions made from prepaid cards, which they argue could be exploited by straw donors or foreign actors. It would also require political committees to collect the card verification value, or CVV, for credit and debit card contributions. 

Steil sent a letter to Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue last year requesting more information about its CVV collection and other practices, and this summer urged the Federal Election Commission to boost donor verification requirements. 

The measure will be marked up Wednesday, along with several other unrelated bills.

FEC

Bloomberg Law: Election Officials Say Candidates Can’t Mislead With AI Ads

By Courtney Rozen

.....Political candidates will be barred from using artificial intelligence to generate misleading campaign ads that look or sound like their opponents approved them, under a bipartisan agreement announced by US election regulators Tuesday.

The announcement, backed by four members of the Federal Election Commission, will apply to candidates running in the 2024 election. The commissioners are expected to formally approve it when they meet on Sept. 19.

“It is already illegal for candidates to fraudulently misrepresent communications as coming from their opponents, regardless of the technology used,” said FEC Chair Sean Cooksey (R), who did not list his name on Tuesday’s announcement. “The commission will continue to enforce the laws on the books without singling out AI for special restrictions.”

FCC

Washington Post (Tech Brief): FCC chair rebuffs Trump’s post-debate call to strip ABC’s license

By Cristiano Lima-Strong

.....The Democratic chair of the Federal Communications Commission is pushing back on former president Donald Trump’s call for ABC to lose its broadcast license because of the way its journalists moderated his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump bashed ABC’s moderators Wednesday for not fact-checking the Democratic nominee more forcefully, suggesting that regulators should strip the network of its ability to air news.

“They’re a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that,” Trump told Fox News the morning after the debate.

In response, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel disputed the notion that the agency — which oversees TV and radio licenses — could target the network without running afoul of the Constitution’s freedom of speech provisions.

“The FCC does not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage,” Rosenworcel said in an emailed statement.

Free Expression

National Review: Stanford and UPenn Adopt Institutional-Neutrality Policies, Will Stay Out of Politics

By Abigail Anthony and David Zimmermann

.....Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania have adopted institutional-neutrality policies in support of academic freedom and will no longer issue statements on events or controversies unless there is a direct bearing on the university’s functions. 

In an announcement on Tuesday, the University of Pennsylvania’s interim president J. Larry Jameson announced two new institutional positions, a statement titled “University Values” and another titled “Upholding Academic Independence.” Jameson noted that, with increasing frequency, leaders at the University of Pennsylvania have issued public statements about external events that largely “sought to provide acknowledgement and solidarity following often horrific circumstances.”

The States

Willamette Week: Secretary of State Directs Elections Division to Open Investigation Into Candidate Donation-Swapping

By Sophie Peel

.....Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade has directed her elections office to open an investigation into donation-swapping agreements made by nearly a dozen candidates running for city office.

As WW reported over the past week, at least 11 candidates running for City Council agreed in writing to make reciprocal donations to one another in an effort to unlock public financing. Donations made under the agreement of reciprocity are likely a violation of Oregon Revised Statutes 260.665, three campaign finance experts and attorneys told WW last week. That state law prohibits candidates and campaigns from soliciting donations by offering something of value in return, like money.

Washington Post: 42 state AGs endorse federal plan to add warning labels on social media

By Cristiano Lima-Strong

.....A coalition of over 40 state attorneys general urged Congress on Tuesday to place labels on social media platforms warning of their potential risks to children, rallying substantial bipartisan support behind a proposal championed by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy