October 23, 2024

In the News

The Tennessean: Free speech law in Tennessee takes a blow from state Supreme Court

By Angele Latham

.....A ruling by the Tennessee Supreme Court this month has dealt a blow to a prominent free speech law in Tennessee, First Amendment experts say.

In a unanimous decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that defendants alleging they are victims of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — often known as a “SLAPP-suit” — are not entitled to have their litigation costs covered if the plaintiff dismisses the lawsuit at the last minute…

David Keating, president of the Institute of Free Speech, a First Amendment advocacy organization, said the ruling was “disappointing,” but not unique.

According to Keating, the state of Oregon had a similar law on the books, before amending the law in 2023 to close the loophole.

“(Oregon’s) new, amended law ensures that a plaintiff cannot avoid paying attorneys’ fees and costs for the defendant by voluntarily dismissing the litigation after an anti-SLAPP motion,” Keating said. “So if someone filed a SLAPP suit, and then just withdraws it at the last minute after the other person has already spent money hiring a lawyer, then they're subjected to the penalty of having to pay the attorney fees they'd otherwise have to pay.”

This ruling — among other anti-SLAPP rules — are what marks Oregon as an “A+” state on the Institute for Free Speech’s Anti-SLAPP report card, one of the only projects in the nation tracking anti-SLAPP efforts.

According to the institute's annual anti-SLAPP report card, Tennessee is currently the 12th best in the nation for the anti-SLAPP protections created in the 2019 law — one of only 17 states with an "A" rating on the subject.

Common Sense: XX Marks the Offense

By Paul Jacob

.....These parents and a grandparent attended a girls’ soccer game while non-disruptively wearing wristbands labeled XX to protest a policy allowing a boy to play on the opposing team. The “XX” refers to the sex chromosomes of females.

Because Fellers, Foote, Foote, and Rash wore the wrong apparel, school officials and a police officer told them to remove the wristbands or leave. When they refused, the school scolders threatened them with arrest for “trespassing.”

For attending a game where their kids were playing?

The school later banned two of the wristband-wearers from school grounds and events, among other things making it harder for them to pick up their kids after a game.

“The idea that I would be censored and threatened with removal from a public event for standing by my convictions is not just a personal affront — it is an infringement of the very rights I swore to defend,” says Andy Foote, who has a long career in the Army under his belt.

Now, with the help of the Institute for Free Speech, the renegade wristband-wearers are suing the school in hopes that it will, on First Amendment grounds, be enjoined from restricting “nondisruptive expression of political or social views at extracurricular events.…”

FEC

The Hill: Trump campaign files FEC complaint over Labour staff campaigning for Harris

By Ashleigh Fields and Sarakshi Rai

.....Former President Trump’s campaign team filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, labeling the U.K. Labour Party’s efforts to support Vice President Harris as “election interference.”  ...

The group offered to send 100 current and former Labour Party staff to battleground states such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina to campaign for Harris, the complaint states.

It also cites a LinkedIn post from Sofia Patel, Labour’s head of operations, in which she said she would sort out the volunteers’ housing.

Fox News: Texas AG opens investigation into 'suspicious donations' made to Harris campaign through Democratic group

By Stepheny Price

.....With Election Day only 15 days away, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is sounding the alarm about a popular progressive fundraising platform that he says is interfering in the presidential election.

"Our investigation into ActBlue has uncovered facts indicating that bad actors can illegally interfere in American elections by disguising political donations," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a statement on X.

"It is imperative that the FEC close off the avenues we have identified by which foreign contributions or contributions in excess of legal limits could be unlawfully funneled to political campaigns, bypassing campaign finance regulations and compromising our electoral system," he continued.

Online Speech Platforms

New York Post: Meta’s Oversight Board restores meme showing Harris and Walz as ‘Dumb and Dumber’ — after Facebook ban

By Thomas Barrabi

.....Meta’s Oversight Board on Wednesday overturned Facebook’s decision to remove a meme that poked fun at the Democratic presidential ticket as characters from the hit film “Dumb and Dumber.”

Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook — which famously censored The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop coverage — took down a post in August that photoshopped the faces of Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz onto those of the 1994 movie’s stars, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels.

The doctored movie poster, showing Harris and Walz “grabbing each other’s nipples through their clothing,” was flagged for violating Facebook’s policy against bullying and harassment, which bars “derogatory sexualized photoshop or drawings,” according to the Oversight Board’s review.

The user appealed to the Oversight Board, which reviews Meta’s content moderation decisions. After being approached by the board, Meta restored the post.

Candidates and Campaigns

Racket News: Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"

By Paul D. Thacker and Matt Taibbi

.....In an explosive leak with ramifications for the upcoming U.S. presidential election, internal documents from the Center for Countering Digital Hate—whose founder is British political operative Morgan McSweeney, now advising the Kamala Harris campaign—show the group plans in writing to “kill Musk’s Twitter” while strengthening ties with the Biden/Harris administration and Democrats like Senator Amy Klobuchar, who has introduced multiple bills to regulate online “misinformation.”

The States

Alaska Beacon: Alaska Lt. Gov. Dahlstrom approves campaign-finance ballot measure for 2026 vote

By James Brooks

.....On Thursday, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom approved a ballot measure that would reimpose financial limits on political candidates and donors. The measure now faces a statewide vote in 2026...

If voters approve the measure in 2026, an individual person could donate up to $2,000 to a candidate in each election cycle, or up to $5,000 to a political party. For a joint governor-lieutenant governor ticket, they could give up to $4,000.

Political parties could give $4,000 to candidates and $5,000 to other parties or political groups. Those limits would rise with inflation every 10 years, beginning in 2031…

Alaska has been without campaign finance limits since 2021, when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the state’s prior limits as unconstitutional. The state of Alaska declined to appeal the decision, and both the 2022 and 2024 elections have taken place without limits on the amount of money that an individual can give a candidate.

Gothamist:  Stricter new rules for campaign cash could deal blow to Mayor Adams' reelection bid

By Brigid Bergin

.....As New York City mayoral candidates tout their most recent fundraising tallies, the city’s campaign finance watchdog is poised to clamp down on who is eligible to receive matching funds from taxpayers — with potentially lethal consequences for Mayor Eric Adams’ reelection campaign.

Under proposed rule changes, the city Campaign Finance Board would be required to withhold the public financing program’s generous $8-to-$1 matching funds from candidates who violate specific rules. Those include the failure to submit required disclosure statements or provide documents or records, which Adams’ 2021 campaign repeatedly failed to do. Until now, the board has largely been able to use its discretion to determine a candidate’s eligibility for matching funds, despite most compliance concerns.

Willamette Week: A Canvassing Group Knocking on Doors Has Helped City Candidates Unlock Hundreds of Thousands in Taxpayer Dollars

By Sophie Peel

.....For the past six months, a squadron of canvassers has been appearing on Portland doorsteps, clipboards in hand, to collect small donations for nine candidates seeking city office.

The canvassers are organized by a nonprofit called the Portland Clean Air Fund. The candidates typically pay the nonprofit $40 an hour, with the expectation that canvassers will collect at least two $5 donations or one $20 donation in that hour.

The math doesn’t appear to make sense. Why would a candidate pay $40 for $10 in campaign donations?

Enter the city of Portland’s public campaign financing program, Small Donor Elections…

Nick Caleb, an environmental lawyer who regularly appears before the City Council, says nonprofits shouldn’t be allowed to profit from the city’s program. He calls it a “foreseeable moral hazard.”

“The public financing system is a treasure for the community that we all have a responsibility to steward. If the community loses confidence in the system, we all lose,” Caleb says. “The City Elections Division should adopt an administrative rule clarifying that the public financing system is in no way intended to serve as a subsidy for nonprofits.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Michael Berry: Saving the First Amendment from the bullies

By Michael Berry

.....For many years, powerful public figures have sought to use lawsuits as a weapon to squelch speech on important public issues. They do so by filing baseless complaints against their critics, recognizing that the cost of defense can be crippling and the threat of a large verdict can deter others from speaking out.

These SLAPP suits — strategic lawsuits against public participation — chill citizens from exercising their First Amendment freedoms and stifle public debate. We are blessed to live in a country with strong First Amendment freedoms. Thanks to bipartisan legislation the Pennsylvania state legislature enacted this summer, the people of the Commonwealth now have even more protection when they exercise those freedoms.