September 24, 2024

In the News

KFOR: KFOR takes State Superintendent Ryan Walters to court

By Irish Stogner and Kari King

.....KFOR is in a legal battle involving the Oklahoma State Department of Education, specifically State Superintendent Ryan Walters and his Press Secretary, Dan Isett.

KFOR-TV and The Institute for Free Speech filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on Monday.

For months, KFOR journalists have been refused access to public, State Board of Education meetings and placed in an overflow room.

KFOR journalists have been excluded from press conferences held by Walters following those board meetings.

Walters and Isett claim News 4, with its 75-year broadcast history, isn’t a legitimate news organization.

KFOR has always held our duty and responsibility to inform viewers in high regard.

This means holding government and elected officials accountable. We cannot do our jobs when we can’t ask those in public positions questions.

Washington Times: When Kamala Harris took on the First Amendment — and lost

By Stephen Dinan

.....Ms. Harris, a rising star in California Democratic circles, saw an opportunity. Flexing the state’s charity disclosure laws, she demanded that charities turn over secret documents detailing donors. No other state required the document, which usually went only to the IRS under strict privacy protections.

The result was a case that went to the Supreme Court. The justices gave Ms. Harris a firm rebuke and reaffirmed the fundamental constitutional rights of free association.

Those who battled Ms. Harris say it was also a chilling warning about her willingness to use government power to encroach on the First Amendment and a striking incompetence in carrying it out.

“They were trying to intimidate and silence conservative organizations. I just don’t think there’s too much doubt about that,” said Brad Smith, a professor at Capital University Law School in Ohio.

New from the Institute for Free Speech

Oklahoma TV Station, Reporters Sue State Officials Over Exclusion

.....Oklahoma’s oldest TV station is fighting back against state officials who have repeatedly barred its journalists from public meetings and press conferences—all without explanation.

Attorneys from the Institute for Free Speech, along with local counsel Bob Nelon of Hall Estill, filed a federal lawsuit today on behalf of three reporters and their employer, the owner of Oklahoma City television station KFOR-TV, against Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and Oklahoma State Department of Education Press Secretary Dan Isett.

Although KFOR-TV is a news outlet with a storied, 75-year history, the defendant state officials have blocked the station’s reporters from attending State Board of Education meetings and Secretary Ryan’s press conferences. Isett has physically prevented KFOR-TV journalists from entering spaces accessed by other media members.

The Courts

The Tennessean:  Federal judge temporarily blocks part of TN's abortion travel ban on free speech grounds

By Angele Latham and Melissa Brown

.....A federal judge has blocked a portion of a new Tennessee law passed earlier this year that makes it a felony to recruit or transport a minor for an illegal abortion without parental consent, following wide First Amendment concerns over the phrasing of the law…

“No one associated with (the law) seems to have a particularly clear picture of what the provision is supposed to prohibit — not the prosecutors who will be called on to enforce it; not the state attorneys called on to defend the statute in court; and, it seems, not even the individuals who drafted the provision itself,” Trauger wrote in her ruling.

Trauger said the law creates “criminal exposure” for statements encouraging abortion, but not for nearly identical statements discouraging abortion, and delivers a hearty defense of free speech rights.

“The freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment is not simply a special protection that the Constitution grants to a few, high-profile speakers so that those speakers can hear themselves talk; it is a protection available to everyone, for the interconnected benefit of everyone, because messages do not gain their fullest power by being uttered, but by being spread,” Trauger said. “Welty and Behn do not just have a right to speak their message; they have a right to live in a state where that message can be repeated by all who find it valuable to all who wish to hear it. Otherwise, there would be no actual freedom of speech — just freedom of a few speakers to address a silenced populace.”

Ed. note: The opinion is embedded in this article.

Boston Herald: Karen Read protesters’ lawsuit appeal against Canton Police is tossed by federal court

By Rick Sobey

.....A group of “Free Karen Read” protesters who sued Canton Police after the demonstrators were warned they would be arrested for witness intimidation have had their lawsuit appeal tossed by a federal court.

The backers of Read — who’s charged with the murder of her boyfriend John O’Keefe and other charges — had filed a First Amendment lawsuit against Canton police and town officials over the enforcement of Massachusetts witness intimidation statutes.

Before the start of Read’s first trial that ended in a mistrial, the protesters gathered across the street from witness Chris Albert’s business. Meanwhile, Canton cops drove by several times before telling the demonstrators that if Selectman Albert could see the protest, they would be arrested for witness intimidation.

Two days later, the protesters brought the lawsuit against Canton police and town officials.

Free Expression

Nonprofit Law Prof Blog: The E4 Mafia and Nonprofit Hate Speech

By Darryl K. Jones

.....When I heard about a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee last week, I knew right away that the E4 Mafia had struck again. It seems the Army used PowerPoint slides (see one below) to train soldiers on what terrorist organizations look like. So that soldiers won't accidentally join or associate with a terrorist organization on their off time and end up storming the Capital or something. The slides labeled "terrorist" several nonprofits organizations with household names like PETA and National Right to Life. And it also labeled "terrorism" various types of democratic advocacy, including picketing, bumper stickers, and sidewalk advocacy. The Committee harangued a Three-star and an Assistant SECDEF because nobody could explain how and why this happened. It was the E4 Mafia, trust me. 

New York Times: The Surprising Reality of Political Violence in America

By Charles Homans

.....Instances of extremist violence have actually declined in recent years by some key measures. Although some Americans continue to say they approve of political violence, support for the most serious types of violence has not increased amid election-related tensions this year.

And neither apocalyptic political rhetoric nor extraordinary events over the past few years have produced eruptions of political violence of the sort that many feared would become more commonplace after the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In short, even amid an explosive political climate and some high-profile incidents, politics may not be becoming broadly more violent.

San Francisco Chronicle: An upscale retirement community is cracking down on free speech after a pickleball brawl over Trump

By Joe Garofoli

.....Shortly thereafter, according to the Rossmoor News, Leanne Hamaji, president of the Golden Rain Foundation board, “decided to place a moratorium on the political columns in response to incidents of political discord in Rossmoor and a political climate that has fostered incivility.”

Peterson said the pickleball scuffle “was only one part” of what led to the changes, and that political tensions had been mounting for months. Several residents told Rossmoor leadership they had been confronted at the Rossmoor farmers’ market over political columns or movies shown in political meetings, Peterson said. Rossmoor’s in-house security was called to the farmers’ market at least three times.

Plus, she said, some clubs had “received anonymous letters that were threatening in nature, again because of their political beliefs and some of the speakers that they were bringing into Rossmoor.” 

Online Speech Platforms

Fox Business: Elon Musk confirms plans for X to change its blocking feature: 'High time'

By Andrea Margolis

.....X reportedly plans to change its blocking feature in the near future, which will allow users to see the public posts of whoever has blocked them.

The news was announced on Monday afternoon by a web developer named Nima Owji.

"BREAKING: X is about to remove the current block button, meaning that if an account is public, their posts will be visible to the blocked users as well!" Owji wrote.

X owner Elon Musk seemingly confirmed the news in a reply to Owji, where he wrote approvingly about the feature change.

"High time this happened," the Tesla, Inc. CEO said. "The block function will block that account from engaging with, but not block seeing, public post[s]."

NBC News: Banned political ads found on TikTok weeks ahead of 2024 elections

By Victoria Feng

.....TikTok has banned all political advertising on the app since 2019, but that hasn’t stopped advertisers from running what appear to be paid political messages on the platform.

NBC News found 52 videos on the platform tagged with either a “Paid Partnership” label, #ad or #sponsored that have received up to hundreds of thousands views per video while spreading political messages that appear to violate TikTok’s rules.

The States

New Mexico In Depth: Dark money group agrees to disclose donors

By Marjorie Childress and Trip Jennings 

.....A dark money group that ran political advertising in the weeks before the June primary election and has fought divulging the source of its money and the details of its spending for months will disclose both by next week.

News of the settlement with The New Mexico Project came Monday afternoon in a press release from the State Ethics Commission after a mid-morning court hearing in Albuquerque. The agreement requires the nonprofit to register as a political action committee (PAC) by the end of Monday and to disclose its donors and details of how it spent money by Oct. 2, a week from this Wednesday. 

“In good faith, we have agreed to register our organization with the state of New Mexico,” the group’s president, Jeff Apodaca, confirmed in a statement provided to New Mexico In Depth by his attorney, A. Blair Dunn.

New York Post: Trump fan sues Mets for $2M over MAGA hat ban at Citi Field: ‘Emotional distress’

By Dean Balsamini

.....Aura Moody wants $2 million in damages from the team and Citi Field, claiming she was barred from entering the stadium last month until she took off her “Make America Great Again” hat, according to a Sept. 6 Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit.

The Republican from Saint Albans, Queens, insisted the ban violated her right to free speech and caused her “emotional distress.”

“This country is supposed to be the beacon of freedom for all,” Moody, 64, who is representing herself, told The Post.

She’s accusing the Mets of “racial discrimination and political retaliation” and “reputational harm.” …

The suit acknowledges that a team rep phoned Moody Aug. 17 and “apologized on behalf of the New York Mets,” and assured her that “there is no such policy against wearing a MAGA hat, and the Staff has been retrained.”