November 26, 2024

In the News

NH Journal: Bow Official Who Banned Pink ‘XX’ Wristbands Says Gay Pride Symbols Welcome

By Damien Fisher

.....Bow High School superintendent Marcy Kelly rejects the claim that she opposes freedom of expression at school events. She told a federal judge on Friday that flags and symbols are welcome — as long as she agrees with their message.

Specifically, Kelly told United States District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe that, while she stands by her decision to ban parents from wearing pink wristbands in support of girls-only sports, she would welcome the waving of Gay Pride flags and other symbols at the same events.

AP News: New Hampshire courts hear 2 cases on transgender girls playing girls sports

By Kathy McCormack and Holly Ramer

.....Kyle Fellers and Anthony Foote sued the Bow school district after being banned from school grounds for wearing the wristbands at their daughters’ soccer game in September. The no-trespass orders have since expired, but a judge is deciding whether the plaintiffs should be allowed to wear the wristbands and carry signs at upcoming school events, including basketball games, swim meets and a music concert, while the case proceeds.

Testifying at Thursday’s hearing, both men said that they did not view the wristbands as a protest against Parker Tirrell, a transgender girl on the opposing team, but rather as a show of support for their daughters and their teammates. U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe questioned whether there is a meaningful distinction and whether their intentions matter.

Supreme Court

Washington Examiner: Supreme Court sidesteps First Amendment fight over graphic tobacco warnings

By Kaelan Deese

.....The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a First Amendment challenge brought by tobacco companies against federally mandated graphic warning labels on cigarette packs, leaving in place a lower court ruling that upheld the regulations.

R.J. Reynolds, ITG Brands, Liggett, and other tobacco companies had argued that the Food and Drug Administration‘s requirement to include visually disturbing health warnings violated their constitutional rights by forcing them to promote the government’s antismoking message.

The images, which include depictions of amputated toes, cancerous tumors, stunted fetal development, and erectile dysfunction, were described by the companies as “exaggerated” and misleading representations of smoking’s risks, according to the petition to the high court.

FEC

Daily Caller: Trey Trainor: It’s Time To Move The FEC Out Of Washington

By Trey Trainor

.....As a commissioner of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for the past four and a half years, I have had a front-row seat to the inefficiencies and fiscal excesses that have become all too common within our federal bureaucracy.

One of the most pressing issues is the high cost of maintaining operations in Washington, D.C. For an agency that is supposed to embody transparency in elections and government processes, it is time the FEC leads by example and demonstrates true fiscal responsibility. A solution that I propose is relocating the FEC’s headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Odessa, Texas. This move would be both a financially sound and logistically feasible step to address taxpayer waste while improving the agency’s efficiency.

Free Expression

Floyd Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression (Yale Law School): The Press Clause: The Forgotten First Amendment

By Floyd Abrams, Sandra Baron, Lee Levine, and Jacob M. Schriner-Briggs

.....Today's press is in peril, endangered by legal restrictions on newsgathering, subject to harassment, and beset by economic woes that have caused newspapers to shutter as journalistic jobs vanish at alarming rates. The Floyd Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression’s report, “The Press Clause: The Forgotten First Amendment,” is the product of two years of research into strengthening freedom of the press. Drawing on the insights of scholars and legal practitioners who met in five workshops to discuss the future of journalism and its relationship to the First Amendment, the report proposes measures to revitalize and empower the Press Clause, an often-overlooked part of the First Amendment.

Wall Street Journal: Britain Polices Speech but Not Much Else

By Dominic Green

.....British police last Thursday dropped their investigation of journalist Allison Pearson for a year-old tweet that offended an anonymous complainant. If she had been convicted of speech “likely or intended to cause racial hatred,” she could have been sentenced to up to seven years in jail. Ms. Pearson is a columnist for the Daily Telegraph (for which I occasionally write). Her defense attracted international support and an outcry that caused the police to back down. But hers is only one among thousands of similar cases, most of which receive scant attention. The British “bobby”—or police officer—previously armed with only a nightstick and common decency has become an Orwellian snooper. Britain, the font of law and liberty, has become a lawless place where a “two tier” justice system fails to prosecute criminals but takes Kafkaesque liberties with law-abiding citizens.

The Media

Reason: Cable News Is Over

By Peter Sudernman

.....As Dylan Byers noted on X, just a week after the election, [CNN] saw the lowest ratings in the all-important 25–54 age group—what broadcasters refer to as "the demo"—since June 2000 (not counting last year's July 4th holiday). This was at a moment when political news was breaking and developing at a hectic pace, when an incoming president was putting together a new cabinet, when elections results and their meanings were still sinking in. It was a moment, in other words, when CNN should have been at the top of its game. Instead, it was warming the bench. 

Viewers had tuned out. And it wasn't just CNN. After the election, MSNBC also suffered similarly low ratings in the demo. And this all comes on top of years of decline for both networks, as younger consumers cut the cord on cable TV, which is now the ancient, stagnant technology that broadcast was when CNN launched. Like the broadcast networks of the 1980s, CNN and MSNBC still throw off a lot of revenue, and can afford to pay well for top talent. Their anchors and commentators are still well known in the world of media. But it's clear that they are on their way out. 

The era of cable news is over. 

Washington Examiner: News outlets push pro-union stories while taking undisclosed cash from organized labor

By Robert Schmad

.....A trio of liberal publications has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from teachers unions over the past couple of years, a fact that is not disclosed in their positive coverage of those same unions.

The New Republic, American Prospect, and Courier Newsroom have collectively accepted $905,000 since 2022 from the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, according to the unions’ financial disclosures. After accepting funds from the two largest teachers unions in the nation, each of these outlets went on to publish pieces painting them in a positive light without disclosing the funding arrangement.

For instance, Courier Newsroom, which runs a dark money-funded network of left-leaning publications operating out of 11 swing states, received $500,000 from the NEA and $35,000 from the AFT between 2022 and 2024. Following the donations, Courier’s outlets in Arizona, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Texas all published stories portraying the NEA favorably.

The States

Georgia Recorder: Legislative policy watchdog challenges Georgia conservative nonprofit over lobbyist filing dispute

By Ross Williams

.....The Frontline Policy Council is an conservative Christian nonprofit that holds a lot of sway around the Georgia Capitol.

In 2024, Frontline representatives testified in state committees around 60 times, supporting legislation on issues like school vouchers, limiting transgender participation in girls’ sports and banning controversial school library materials.

But Frontline’s president and founder Cole Muzio and general counsel Chelsea Thompson have come under fire for allegedly lobbying Georgia elected officials without properly registering with the state, according to a complaint filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center last week. The Center’s complaint to the state ethics commission alleges that Muzio has not registered as a lobbyist since 2022 and Thomspon has never registered. Another Frontline employee, Taylor Hawkins, has registered to lobby on Frontline’s behalf.

The complaint cites photographs, social media posts and promotional material describing Muzio and Thompson’s efforts to influence legislation, including a section on the organization’s website that describes Muzio as having registered as a lobbyist. The SPLC designates Frontline as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.

OregonLive: State urges Marion County judge to dismiss lawsuit challenging Oregon’s anti-terrorism fusion center

By Maxine Bernstein

.....A lawyer for the state Thursday urged a Marion County judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Oregon’s anti-terrorism center that collects and shares intelligence with police.

The suit filed on behalf of environmental justice activists wants to shut down the center based on speculation of future harms, Special Assistant Attorney General Jon W. Monson argued.

Election Law Blog: Pennsylvania appeals court finds Democratic election observers’ “Voter Protection” badges violated state electioneering statute

By Derek Muller

.....From the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania’s decision In re: General Election, 2024, a unanimous three-judge decision (lightly revised):