October 2, 2024

In the News

Daily Mail: Parents sue school district following wristband protest against transgender girl at soccer game

By Associated Press

.....Three parents and a grandparent have sued a New Hampshire school district, saying their rights were violated when they were barred from school grounds for wearing pink wristbands with "XX," representing the female chromosome pair, in protest of a transgender girl playing in a girls soccer game.

The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Concord followed a Sept. 17 match at Bow High School against Plymouth Regional High School. A 15-year-old transgender girl is playing on the Plymouth team as she and another teen challenge a New Hampshire ban in court.

Two of the parents whose daughters play for Bow wore the wristbands during the second half of the game to "silently express their opinion about the importance of reserving women's sports for biological females," according to their lawsuit filed by attorneys from the Institute for Free Speech.

New from the Institute for Free Speech

Comments to the FEC Supporting Political Party Rules

.....On September 30, 2024, the Institute for Free Speech wrote comments to the Federal Election Commission expressing support for the Commission to commence a rulemaking to lessen the burden on state and local political parties.

Read a PDF of the comments here.

The Courts

Washington Post: Judge sides with U-Md. pro-Palestinian group, clears way for Oct. 7 vigil

By Ellie Silverman

.....A pro-Palestinian student group at the University of Maryland at College Park said Tuesday it plans to move forward with an Oct. 7 interfaith vigil to mourn people killed in Gaza during the war with Israel.

It comes after a federal judge granted a request by U-Md.’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine to halt the university’s decision to cancel student-led events next Monday, which marks one year since Hamas militants attacked Israel and took hostages, prompting a significant military response from Israel.

The university had initially approved an event by the SJP chapter but said last month that it would only host university-sponsored events that day, citing safety concerns. Some Jewish student groups had also petitioned U-Md. to revoke the reservation.

SJP filed a lawsuit, saying the cancellation violated students’ First Amendment rights.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte granted the student organization’s request for a preliminary injunction and wrote that the group “has demonstrated a substantial likelihood that it will prevail on the merits of its freedom of speech claim.”

Congress

National Review: Adam Schiff Urges Social Media Platforms to Hammer Out ‘Misinformation’ as Election Approaches

By James Lynch

.....Representative Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) is pressing social-media platforms on what they are doing to combat “misinformation” and “disinformation” as the 2024 presidential election fast approaches.

Schiff and a handful of Democratic colleagues wrote a letter Monday to chief executives at Meta, X, Instagram, Google, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and Microsoft demanding more information on how the technology companies are gearing up for online “misinformation” and “disinformation” heading into the 2024 election.

“We write to your platforms as concerned Members of Congress, seeking further information about your preparation for and response to the spread of misinformation and disinformation, or the potential incitement of violence on your platforms leading up to the 2024 elections,” the letter reads.

“We continue to be concerned with each of your companies’ ability to react efficiently and effectively to misinformation and disinformation, or to any potential incitement of violence occurring on your platforms.”

The Democratic lawmakers included a list of questions for the platforms and asked them to take further action on fighting “misinformation” and “disinformation” during times outside of election season. The questions address the platforms’s election policies and whether they will be transparent about enforcement.

Fox Business: House GOP bill aims to stop US taxpayer dollars from funding Brazil's 'free speech crackdown' on Elon Musk, X

By Danielle Wallace 

.....Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Chris Smith of New Jersey and Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida have co-sponsored legislation that they say aims to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars from "from flowing to progressive non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are promoting Brazil’s escalating crackdown on free speech." 

The bill comes in response to Brazil’s top Supreme Court justice shutting down Elon Musk's X in the country in August, amid ongoing legal battles the social media company decries as censorship…

HR 9850 – or the No Funding or Enforcement of Censorship Abroad Act – "would cut off U.S. foreign assistance to any entities that promote censorship and prohibit U.S. law enforcement agencies from cooperating with foreign countries to promote censorship against speech that would otherwise be protected if the speaker was located in the United States," Smith's office said. 

Free Expression

Euractiv: Assange tells Strasbourg assembly he ‘pleaded guilty to journalism’ to gain freedom

.....Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday he was released after years of incarceration only because he pleaded guilty to doing "journalism", warning that freedom of expression was now at a "dark crossroads".

"I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pleaded guilty to journalism," Assange told the Council of Europe rights body at its Strasbourg headquarters in his first public comments since his release.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) had issued a report expressing alarm at Assange's treatment, saying it had a "chilling effect on human rights".

Online Speech Platforms

Washington Post (Tech Brief): Why Threads is opening up to other social networks

By Will Oremus

.....Meta is trying something different with its newest social network, Threads: letting its users connect with people who use other social networks.

On Tuesday, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri announced that Threads — Meta’s answer to Elon Musk’s X — has taken another small step toward linking up with a group of mostly small, independent social apps that has come to be known as the “fediverse.”

Candidates and Campaigns

Federalist: Vance Calls Out Democrats’ First Amendment Crackdown: ‘Harris Is Engaged In Censorship On An Industrial Scale’

By Breccan F. Thies

.....Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, called out Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., for wanting to implement a mass censorship regime, blocking Americans from practicing their First Amendment rights.

“I believe we actually do have a threat to democracy in this country. Unfortunately, it’s not the threat to democracy that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want to talk about. It is the threat of censorship,” Vance said at Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate. “It’s Kamala Harris saying that rather than debating and persuading fellow Americans, she would like to censor people who engage in misinformation. That’s a bigger threat to democracy than anything we’ve seen in the last four years or 40 years.”

Politico (Digital Future Daily): An Indiana senator faked an ad. Now what?

By Adam Wren

.....A Democrat standing at a podium while her supporters hoist signs declaring “NO GAS STOVES!” is a potent political message—particularly in a barn-red state with a libertarian bent like Indiana.

But that scene, which debuted in the first ad of a $1 million buy for Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) in Indiana’s increasingly competitive gubernatorial race, never happened.

The ad was digitally altered, without any disclosure. It was unclear what editing technique was used, or whether it literally involved AI. But at a moment of rising anxiety about AI-fueled disinformation, the campaign is now blowing up as a rare example of a high-profile candidate using digital trickery to falsely attack an opponent.

Braun’s campaign and admaker Jamestown Associates took a photo from the South Bend Tribune where his Democratic opponent, Jennifer McCormick, was speaking at a campaign rally with her own campaign signs behind her, and digitally altered them. (The campaign didn’t answer questions about how it made the ad.) In the altered ad, the supporters weren’t holding up campaign signs, but signs that featured a picture of a gas stove inside a red “no” symbol. Gas stoves were never talked about at the event.

There’s no federal campaign law about deepfake images — but Indiana has one. The Braun ad is testing a relatively new state law, passed in March, mandating that deepfake images, audio or video, as part of a campaign message needed to have a disclosure, or else the target of them could sue. Indiana is one of 20 states with similar laws.

Even if they don’t, however, the ad crisply highlights the complexity of regulating such material.

The States

Louisiana Illuminator: Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signs executive order on college campus free speech

By Piper Hutchinson

.....Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order Tuesday asking the Board of Regents to make recommendations for improving freedom of expression policies on the state’s college campuses. 

“Students should be able to freely engage in discussions and talk about ideas and the things that they believe in because that is how we grow,” Landry said at a news conference on LSU’s campus. “That is how we are educated, rather than indoctrinated.” 

“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen in college campuses around the country is where, again, as I said, one voice seems to be quieted while another seems to yell,” Landry said. 

The executive order also includes aspects of a 2018 state law that requires colleges and universities to submit annual reports to the Legislature and the governor’s office “regarding any barriers to or incidents against free expression that occurred at the institution.” It also calls on the Board of Regents to work with schools to develop free speech policies. Read the full executive order below. 

Virginia Mercury: Va. school board to pay $575K to fired teacher who refused to use transgender student’s pronouns

By Nathaniel Cline

.....The West Point School Board agreed to pay Peter Vlaming, a former high school French teacher, $575,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees after he declined to refer to a transgender student by his requested pronouns.

The agreement came several months after the Virginia Supreme Court reinstated Vlaming’s case, which the King William Circuit Court dismissed. The lower court did not believe Vlaming had any valid reasons for the law to accept his suit.

However, the Supreme Court determined in December that the school board violated Vlaming’s rights.

Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Criminal Conviction Based on "Only Women Can Be Mothers" and "'Transing' Kids Is Abuse and Homophobia" Signs, …

By Eugene Volokh

.....Last Wednesday's decision of a Pennsylvania appellate court in Commonwealth v. Balcom (by Judge Alice Beck Dubow, joined by Judges Deborah Kunselman & Carolyn Nichols) involved a dispute between neighbors. O'Donnell and Collier, a gay couple, lived with their sons "and their daughter, K.H., who is transgender"; Balcom lived next door, "and she and Victim's [O'Donnell's] family have had an acrimonious relationship for several years. Appellant's backyard abuts Victim's backyard, with a fence along the shared property line."

Tampa Bay Times: Former Florida state senator found guilty in ‘ghost candidate’ case

By Charles Rabin, Miami Herald

.....Former Florida Sen. Frank Artiles, an ex-Marine who more recently has shaped political campaigns as a lobbyist and consultant, was found guilty Monday of campaign finance and voter registration violations in a trial that showed the underbelly of Florida politics.

It took a Miami-Dade jury just over six hours to reach a unanimous verdict in a case built around political operatives and a “ghost candidate” who likely tipped a tight election. Sparked by a scheme to help Senate Republicans flip a seat in 2020, the two-week trial engrossed Florida’s political establishment from Miami to Tallahassee.

Daily Pilot: New law closes campaign finance loophole exploited by convicted ex-Anaheim mayor

By Gabriel San Román

.....California politicians convicted of a crime will no longer be able to use campaign funds to cover legal expenses.

On Sept. 26, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2803 into law, which closes a campaign finance loophole that former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu used last year to pay his criminal defense attorney amid an FBI political corruption probe.