October 9, 2024

In the News

NH Journal: Partial Win for Bow Parents in ‘Pink Armbands’ Free Speech Lawsuit

By Damien Fisher

.....United States District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe gave a partial win Tuesday to parents suing the Bow School District after being punished over holding a silent demonstration in support of protecting girl’s sports.

Bow High School parent Kyle Fellers can now go to his daughter’s soccer games, but he can’t wear the pink “XX” wrist band that got him and three other parents in trouble last month. Fellers and Anthony “Andy” Foote were slapped with no trespassing orders by Bow school officials for engaging in a silent protest at the Sept. 17 game.

McAuliffe said while there are complex nuances to the case that need to be sorted out, it’s clear the school was violating the First Amendment rights of the four adults at the game.

“You can’t suppress free speech based on whether you think it’s appropriate,” McAuliffe said.

Fellers, Andy Foote, Nicole Foote, and Eldon Rush are seeking the right to keep wearing pink “XX” armbands to games, but McAuliffe said both Bow’s attorney, Brian Cullen, and attorneys for the parents need to show more evidence and legal arguments to make the case. An evidentiary hearing will be set for November…

Attorney for the parents Endel Kolde, with the nonprofit Institute for Free Speech, said school officials are punishing people who hold unpopular views.

“Everyone knows if they wore rainbow wristbands in support of trans students, or if they wore blue and gold wristbands in support of the war in Ukraine, nothing would have happened,” Kolde said.

Northern California Record: Supreme Court will let SF enforce campaign donor disclosure ordinance, despite speech concerns

By Jonathan Bilyk

.....The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to step in to take down a San Francisco city ordinance that forces campaign committees to disclose the identities of their donors, despite widespread concern the requirement tramples First Amendment free speech rights…

Tom Garrett, chief communications officer for the Institute for Free Speech, however, said the challengers were "very disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear this case," given its speech implications.

"... The Institute for Free Speech remains committed to challenging laws that compel speakers to carry government messages at the expense of their own speech. We believe San Francisco's advertising requirements continue to infringe on First Amendment rights, chilling political participation and distorting public discourse," said Garrett.

New from the Institute for Free Speech

Moms for Liberty and Florida Parents Win First Amendment Victory against School Board Censorship

.....Public school boards can’t muzzle moms.

A federal appeals court just sent that unmistakable and resounding message, striking down unconstitutional policies that silenced parents at Brevard County School Board meetings.

In a decisive and significant victory for free speech, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled in favor of Moms for Liberty’s Brevard County, Florida chapter and three concerned parents in their lawsuit against Brevard Public Schools. Institute for Free Speech attorneys represented the plaintiffs, aided by local counsel David Osborne of Goldstein Law Partners.

In the decision, the court found that multiple policies restricting speech at school board meetings violated the First Amendment rights of parents and community members. The case, Moms for Liberty – Brevard County, et al. v. Brevard Public Schools, challenged prohibitions on “abusive” and “personally directed” speech, as well as the school’s unusually restrictive application of its ban on “obscene” speech.

The Courts

Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Sixth Circuit Allows Enforcement of Ohio Law Barring Foreign Expenditures on Ballot Initiatives

By Jonathan H. Adler

.....Today a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit granted the state of Ohio's application of an emergency stay of a district court injunction barring enforcement of an Ohio law prohibiting foreign nationals from spending money to support or oppose a ballot initiative. The district court concluded that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in their challenge to the law. In OPAWL—Building AAPI Feminist Leadership v. Yost, a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit disagreed.

Judge Thapar wrote for the court, joined by Judge McKeague. Judge Davis dissented.

Writing for the panel, Judge Thapar rejected the plaintiffs' arguments that the prohibition is overbroad and that it unconstitutionally restricts the First Amendment rights of lawful permanent residents. While lawful permanent residents have First Amendment rights, Judge Thapar explained, the state also has a compelling interest in preventing foreign money from distorting domestic self-government.

Bloomberg Law: DeSantis Riot Law Beats Protesters' Free Speech Challenge

By Alex Ebert

.....Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ law imposing felony rioting penalties defeated a free speech challenge from Black Lives Matter protesters.

DeSantis (R) and the state’s beefed-up statute, passed in the wake of the George Floyd protests, was upheld in a federal decision Monday that received a boost from the state high court. However, the groups behind the case called it the opposite of a Pyrrhic victory—they said the loss gave them most of what they wanted.

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit paused the protesters’ case last year and asked the Florida Supreme Court for its opinion on the clarity of the law. On Monday, the three-judge federal panel used the state court’s stamp of approval to uphold the criminal statute against the First Amendment challenge that had argued the law was too vague.

Free Expression

New York Times: Campuses Are Calmer, but They Are Not Normal, Students and Faculty Say

By Sharon Otterman

.....While the stricter rules are meant to ensure that Jewish students feel safer from rising antisemitism on campus, free speech advocates believe the impulse by university administrators around the country to deter protests through discipline and more restrictive rules will not be effective in the long run.

“There’s been a massive clamp down on faculty speech, staff speech and student speech,” said Todd Wolfson, the national president of the American Association of University Professors, which supports academic freedom. “And it’s sad. It undermines the core values of higher education around critical thinking and being the bedrock of democracy.”

At the University of California, Los Angeles, administrators created new rules for demonstrations, banning encampments and making it possible to hold groups liable for the security costs of their demonstrations, which some students say have chilled protests. There is also an increased presence of armed police on campus.

Wall Street Journal: Hillary Clinton Is Worried

By James Freeman

.....Look around the world at governments that have denied the right to free speech and review a catalog of human deprivation and misery. Now consider how our generally open marketplace of ideas has enabled the exposure and defeat of falsehood, prejudice, superstition and, to use the politically fashionable term, misinformation. Sunshine remains the best intellectual disinfectant.

So perhaps it’s no coincidence that today the politicians who are most zealous in demanding the power to silence misinformation promoted by others have been peddling a great deal of it themselves. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was the client for a project that created perhaps the most poisonous misinformation in the history of presidential politics, continues her campaign to empower the federal government to censor communications.

FCC

Florida Politics: FCC warns Florida: Threatening TV stations over abortion ad violates First Amendment

By Gabrielle Russon

.....It's a free speech fight.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is sending a stern message to the state after the Department of Health (DOH) sent cease and desist letters to TV stations for playing ads backing a ballot initiative to protect abortion rights.

“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”

Rosenworcel’s response comes after DOH took issue with an Amendment 4 ad that tells the story of a Tampa woman who was diagnosed with terminal cancer when she was 20 weeks pregnant. She had an abortion to extend her life, something she says wouldn’t be possible now under the state’s current abortion rules.

The Media

AP News: Deadspin loses bid to toss defamation suit over article accusing young Chiefs fan of racism

By Randall Chase

.....A Delaware judge has refused to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against sports website Deadspin over an article accusing a 9-year-old NFL fan and his family of racism because of his game-day attire.

Candidates and Campaigns

New York Times: Trump Holds Up Transition Process, Skirting Ethics and Fund-Raising Rules

By Ken Bensinger

.....Mr. Trump’s team has missed two key deadlines to sign agreements with the administration that are set by federal law and has also failed to sign an ethics plan that is required to jump-start the process of planning for a new administration. Mr. Trump’s representatives did attend a meeting at the White House last month, but they otherwise have had little communication with the Biden administration about the handoff and have skipped the opportunity to receive national security briefings.

Mr. Trump’s approach is a clear, although not wholly unexpected, departure from how previous presidential candidates prepared to take control of the vast federal bureaucracy. It appears to be guided, at least in part, by the candidate’s deep suspicion and mistrust of the government he is running to lead.

Experts note Mr. Trump may also have other incentives. His refusal to sign the documents allows him to circumvent fund-raising rules that put limits on private contributions to the transition effort, as well as ethics rules meant to avoid possible conflicts of interest for the incoming administration.

The States

AP News: Colorado’s Supreme Court dismisses suit against baker who wouldn’t make a cake for transgender woman

By Matthew Brown

.....Colorado’s Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed on procedural grounds a lawsuit against a Christian baker who refused to bake a cake for a transgender woman. Justices declined to weigh in on the free speech issues that brought the case national attention.

Fox 56: Kentucky elections chief urges penalties for AI-generated impersonations of officials

By Bode Brooks

.....As Kentucky lawmakers begin to consider new legislation for 2025, Secretary of State Michael Adams is putting out a warning for what’s to come from generative artificial intelligence. He urged lawmakers not to start regulating the technology, but to penalize those who would use it to impersonate government officials.

“There’s a periphery out there that’s a little untested, and we just won’t know until we pass some laws and see what the courts say,” Adams told lawmakers.