Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech December 3, 2024 Click here to subscribe to the Daily Media Update. This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected]. The Courts Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Court Upholds N.J. Law That Lets "Certain Public Officials" Demand That Private Entities Stop Disclosing Their Home Addresses By Eugene Volokh .....From Tuesday's decision by Judge Harvey Bartle (E.D. Pa.) in Atlas Data Privacy Corp. v. We Inform, LLC (D.N.J.): ABC News: Idaho’s ‘abortion trafficking’ law mostly can be enforced as lawsuit proceeds, court rules By Associated Press .....The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the statute’s prohibition on helping a minor get an abortion by harboring and transporting them with the intent to conceal the procedure from the minor’s parents is likely to be found constitutional and can be enforced. Part of the law remains blocked, however. The court found that the law’s prohibition on “recruiting” pregnant youth violates the First Amendment. That means prosecutors, for now, will not be able to charge a person with “recruiting” or influencing a minor to have an abortion. "Encouragement, counseling, and emotional support are plainly protected speech,” the court wrote, even when that speech happens in the “context of deciding whether to have an abortion.” Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): "Beautiful," "Exceptional" "Design" Test for Sunset Strip Billboard Approval Violates First Amendment By Eugene Volokh .....From Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha (C.D. Cal.) in KBS Holdco, LLC v. City of West Hollywood, decided July 8 but just recently posted on Westlaw: International The Guardian: Government may cap UK political donations to limit foreign influence By Eleni Courea .....Caps on political donations are being considered by ministers as part of sweeping reforms to the UK electoral system. Labour is examining proposals to limit how much individuals and companies can donate to political parties as part of an effort to tighten the rules around money in UK politics. In a report to be published in the coming weeks, the Institute for Public Policy Research will recommend that ministers limit individual and corporate donations to political parties to £100,000 a year. The Guardian understands that officials have sought more detail on those proposals, though the work is still at a very early stage and would come in for the second half of this parliament. It comes amid speculation that Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X, could donate $100m (£79m) to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. Candidates and Campaigns Politico: Dems fear Harris’ continued fundraising ‘erodes trust’ By Jessica Piper and Lisa Kashinsky .....The 2024 election is over. But Kamala Harris’ fundraising emails keep coming — and sound as urgent as ever… The fundraising appeals may be necessary: Harris’ operation ended with around $20 million in debt, according to two people familiar with her campaign finances and granted anonymity to speak freely. And there are limited ways campaigns can pay that down under federal law. The emails themselves don’t mention debt, instead citing the organization’s support for recount efforts in close races and legal challenges... But the fundraising appeals have still continued, and some Democrats fear she may be compounding the party’s problems with the tone of some of her appeals — damaging relationships with online donors who have long powered the party...Now those same donors who helped her raise more than $1.4 billion are among the people being asked to give more. The emails still come two or three times a day. Online Speech Platforms Meta: What We Saw on Our Platforms During 2024’s Global Elections .....At the start of the year, many people were warning of the potential impact of generative AI on the upcoming elections, including the risk of widespread deepfakes and AI-enabled disinformation campaigns. From what we’ve monitored across our services, it seems these risks did not materialize in a significant way and that any such impact was modest and limited in scope. The Verge: Meta says it’s mistakenly moderating too much By Alex Heath .....Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, told reporters on Monday that the company’s moderation “error rates are still too high” and pledged to “improve the precision and accuracy with which we act on our rules.” “We know that when enforcing our policies, our error rates are still too high, which gets in the way of the free expression that we set out to enable,” Clegg said during a press call I attended. “Too often, harmless content gets taken down, or restricted, and too many people get penalized unfairly.” The States Courthouse News: Meta faces $35M judgment for campaign finance violations in Washington state By Monique Merrill .....The Washington state Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Meta intentionally violated the state’s campaign finance law a whopping 822 times, affirming a lower court’s $35 million judgment against the company. “This significant penalty is appropriate for a multinational corporation that intentionally violated our law and, instead of accepting responsibility, sought to gut our best-in-the-nation campaign finance law,” Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement... “Meta fundamentally mischaracterizes the two main aims of [Washington’s campaign finance laws,] namely, recordkeeping and disclosure,” Judge Michael Diaz wrote in a 75-page opinion, with Judges David Mann and Cecily Hazelrigg concurring. Specifically, the panel found Meta’s arguments failed because the disclosure law is “content-neutral and nonpartisan,” merely requiring the company to categorize its ads to facilitate inspection rather than “publish, withdraw, postpone or alter content.” The law narrowly focuses on ads related to campaigns and candidates, which the panel said allows the company to crosscheck identified political ads with “easily searchable lists” of candidates, elected positions and ballot initiatives. Fox News: New Jersey lawyer ejected from town council meeting for waving American flag to protest 'disgusting' new ban By Yael Halon .....A New Jersey resident was escorted out of a town council meeting for waving an American flag in protest of a new rule that bans such items, including the U.S. Constitution and other "props" from the public comment portion of town meetings. Last week, the Township of Edison, New Jersey, passed an ordinance that cuts down the time residents have to address the council and forbids them from using "props" in their remarks, including American flags, during public comments, MyCentralJersey.com reported. Residents immediately pushed back against the rule, arguing during a five-hour meeting on Nov. 25 that it was in violation of their First Amendment rights and a "disgusting" attempt to silence those looking to speak up for their community. "To consider the American flag and the Constitution a prop when someone raises it is an insult to what the flag is, what the flag stands for and what this country is," resident Maryann Hennessey told council members. "For you to consider the use of the American flag a prop is disgusting." Florida Politics: Lori Berman files bill to let candidates spend campaign funds on child care By Jesse Scheckner .....Boynton Beach Democratic Sen. Lori Berman hopes to make it easier for parents to run for public office, filing a bill (SB 72) to allow candidates to use campaign funds for child care costs. Thirty-eight states and Washington, D.C., already authorize the use of campaign funds for child care, according to the Vote Mama Foundation. Berman said Florida lawmakers should add the Sunshine State to the list. Tallahassee Democrat: State ethics board worried that lawsuit may upend key part of Florida open government law By John Kennedy .....The Florida Commission on Ethics is choosing to wait for a court ruling on a challenge to a new financial disclosure requirement that led to mass resignations of city and small town officials across the state last year. The commission, in a virtual meeting Tuesday, rejected a proposal to begin discussing a settlement with attorneys for 26 cities and 74 public officials who sued the state in February, arguing the new disclosure standard violates the constitutional right to free speech. A federal judge has blocked the law from being enforced. But before that happened, 125 municipal elected officials had quit rather than submit to the expanded disclosures. Some on the ethics panel said in Tuesday’s meeting that if the challengers are successful in court, a ruling could undermine Florida’s entire financial disclosure system, which stems from the 1976 Sunshine Amendment to the state constitution. Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. For email filters, the subject of this email will always begin with "Institute for Free Speech Media Update." The Institute for Free Speech is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and defends the political rights to free speech, press, assembly, and petition guaranteed by the First Amendment. Please support the Institute's mission by clicking here. For further information, visit www.ifs.org. 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