Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech January 22, 2025 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]. In the News RFI: Trump blasts Biden ‘censorship’ in executive order ‘restoring free speech’ By Jan van der Made ....."Here in the United States, we don't see the government's job as just policing what is misinformation or disinformation," said David Keating, president of the non-profit organisation, the Institute for Free Speech, whose stated mission is to "promote and defend the First Amendment rights" and which represents plaintiffs in free speech cases. "The remedy here is more speech, not censorship," said Keating. Florida Today: Brevard school board switches gears on public comment after new order by judge in lawsuit By Finch Walker .....An hour and a half before Tuesday's school board meeting, a federal judge in Orlando issued a temporary restraining order in support of a Moms for Liberty-led lawsuit, stopping Brevard's school board from continuing to implement their public comment policy. In October, after a nearly four-year battle, the Eleventh Circuit court found that Brevard Public Schools' policy on public comment placed a prohibition on "abusive" speech and was "facially unconstitutional because it was view-point based and an 'undercover ban on offensive speech,'" according to Tuesday's order. New from the Institute for Free Speech Court Orders Brevard Schools to Stop Silencing Parents at Board Meetings—Again .....A federal judge today granted an emergency motion requiring Brevard Public Schools to immediately stop enforcing unconstitutional policies that restrict public comments at school board meetings. The order came after the school board continued enforcing speech restrictions that a federal appeals court struck down last October. The order specifically bars the board from enforcing or even reciting its restrictions on “abusive,” “personally directed,” and certain “obscene” speech at tonight’s meeting and future meetings. The TRO will remain in effect until February 4 unless extended by the court. Challenge to New Maine Campaign Finance Law Advances with Motion for Permanent Injunction .....The Institute for Free Speech and local counsel Joshua D. Dunlap of Pierce Atwood LLP have filed a permanent injunction motion in furtherance of their lawsuit challenging Maine’s new restrictions on contributions to independent expenditure groups. Question 1, passed by voters in November of last year, imposes a $5,000 limit on contributions to groups like plaintiffs Dinner Table Action and For Our Future, two Maine political action committees (PACs). The measure directly contradicts established U.S. Supreme Court precedent, as well as numerous subsequent decisions by multiple federal courts of appeal. The new injunction motion, filed on January 17th in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, argues that Question 1’s $5,000 limit on contributions to independent expenditure political action committees (PACs) violates First Amendment speech and association rights. The Courts Bloomberg Law: Tenth Circuit Probes Constitutionality of Donor Disclosure Law By Quinn Wilson .....New Mexico officials urged a federal appeals court Tuesday to uphold a law requiring donor disclosure of certain political messaging. The disclosure requirement was added to the state’s Campaign Reporting Act in 2019, which is triggered once donations exceed certain thresholds defined in the law. Judge Harris L. Hartz said the CRA appears to be constitutional under guidance from the US Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The CRA’s disclosure requirement applies to communications concerning: a candidate or ballot measure that expressly advocates for or against them; implicitly appeals for or against them; or refers ... Florida Phoenix: University DEI spending prohibition challenged by professors in federal court By Jay Waagmeester .....The ACLU of Florida filed suit this week against a 2023 law it argues curtails academic freedom and violates First Amendment rights. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of professors whose careers have been “disrupted” as a result of SB 266, a law mandating Florida schools not spend state or federal funds to promote or maintain programs that advocate for DEI “or promote or engage in political or social activism.” ... “The regulation’s definitions are ambiguous, inconsistent, and far too broad to provide any real guidance other than indicating the Legislature’s and the BOG’s intent to disfavor certain speech,” the plaintiffs argued in the 66-page complaint. Courthouse News: Federal lawsuit challenges Illinois nonprofit demographic reporting law By Dave Byrnes .....In a federal lawsuit filed in Chicago on Tuesday, a nonprofit group argues that a new Illinois diversity-affirmation law violates the First Amendment. The American Alliance for Equal Rights, a nonprofit group led by conservative legal activist Edward Blum, claims the law pushes nonprofits to "discriminate" when selecting their board members. "That discrimination is by design: The law’s sponsors drafted SB 2930 to 'encourage more diversity' in the nonprofit sector, and Illinois’ governor signed it for that very reason," the alliance writes in its 17-page complaint. The law, Senate Bill 2930 — which Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker approved at the end of last June — requires certain nonprofits to publicly list the aggregated demographic information of their directors and officers online. This includes information on the directors' and officers' "race, ethnicity, gender, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation and gender identity." Congress Lawfare: FARA Is a Catchall Statute—and That’s a Problem By Nick Robinson .....At the beginning of January, the Justice Department proposed to materially revise the regulations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for the first time in almost 30 years. This capped an eventful year for FARA—a once-obscure law that has become both central to the United States’s efforts to combat foreign influence as well as increasingly feared as a tool that can be used by those in power to target politically disfavored voices within the country… Members of Congress also pushed forward their views on how FARA should be enforced. The 118th Congress saw a significant spike in congressional investigations against nonprofits, particularly by House Republicans. One of the most frequent justifications for investigations was that an organization should have registered under FARA. Common targets included prominent U.S. environmental organizations, groups advocating for Palestinian rights, and human rights nonprofits. The Verge: Lawmakers press Meta, Apple, Google, and others on massive Trump donations By Emma Roth .....Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) are putting pressure on big tech firms to explain their motives for donating to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. In letters to Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Uber, the lawmakers express concerns about the companies making contributions to “avoid scrutiny, limit regulation, and buy favor.” Biden Administration Kentucky Lantern: Biden pardons Kentuckian Jerry Lundergan for campaign finance conviction By Jack Brammer .....President Joe Biden has pardoned Lexington businessman and former state Democratic Party chief Jerry Lundergan for his conviction on federal campaign finance charges. The charges stemmed from Lundergan’s daughter’s unsuccessful 2014 campaign against Republican Mitch McConnell for U.S. Senate. In a statement released Monday by his attorney, J. Guthrie True, of Frankfort, Lundergan said, “I have taken responsibility for my actions, sought atonement, and am working to make a positive difference in the lives of the most vulnerable, including the homeless, those recovering from addiction, and those re-entering society. I am grateful for the president’s action; it offers healing to my family and confirms that our justice system is grounded in forgiveness.” Trump Administration USA Today: Why President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning government 'censorship' By Jessica Guynn .....President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order banning “federal censorship” of online speech, drawing praise from supporters who say the Biden administration illegally suppressed conservative voices and fire from critics who fear an unchecked wave of false and dangerous information on social media could endanger the American public. “Over the last four years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform or otherwise suppress speech that the federal government did not approve,” the executive order read. The order bans federal officials from any conduct that would “unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” It also prohibits taxpayer resources from being used to curtail free speech and instructs the Justice Department and other agencies to investigate the actions the Biden administration took and to propose “remedial actions.” FCC Radio+Television Business Report: New FCC Rules Let FM Stations Offer Geotargeted Political Ads .....New FCC rules that took effect on January 13, 2025, will now permit local FM radio stations to create geotargeted zones by originating content, including advertising for qualified political candidates. This change in rules means that local radio stations can become far more competitive as a means for political candidates to reach the voters they need in the media spaces where they spend their time. The States Baltimore Brew: Yearly campaign to bolster Maryland’s weak anti-SLAPP law gets a boost from a Baltimore story By Ferm Shen .....For more than a decade, every year, advocates for strengthening Maryland’s law to protect citizens from baseless intimidation lawsuits have come to Annapolis to point out who suffers because of them. Victims of intimate partner violence trying to get away from their abuser. Victims of harassment or sexual assault. “It’s the clients that we represent, mostly in the protective order cases and in the Title Nine investigations, that are the ones that are at risk” of these lawsuits, said Katie O’Malley, executive director of the Women’s Law Center of Maryland. Likewise, individuals who comment about a matter of public importance – or engage as citizens with their government – can also be victims of malicious, costly lawsuits, she and others told a Senate committee. In an unusual twist, this year’s sponsor had a high-profile case from Baltimore to make her case for strengthening Maryland’s law against SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) suits. 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. Follow the Institute for Free Speech The Institute for Free Speech | 1150 Connecticut Ave., NW Suite 801 | Washington, DC 20036 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice