January 30, 2025

The Courts

FEC: District Court issues Memorandum Opinion and Order in Campaign Legal Center, et al. v. FEC

.....The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order in Campaign Legal Center, et al. v. FEC (Case No. 19-2336), denying Plaintiffs’ motion to declare that the Federal Election Commission had failed to conform to a remand order.

Washington Post: Meta will pay $25 million to settle Trump lawsuit alleging censorship

By Naomi Nix and Cat Zakrzewski

.....Meta settled a 2021 lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump alleging the company’s suspension of his social media accounts after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol amounted to an act of censorship

Meta agreed to pay $25 million to resolve the legal dispute, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic terms of the deal. The bulk of the settlement, $22 million, will help fund Trump’s presidential library, while the rest will pay legal fees and be divided among other plaintiffs in the case, according to Meta spokesman Andy Stone.

The settlement is a major concession by Meta, which for years has maintained its right to determine which posts and accounts should be allowed to remain on its social networks.

Law360: 6th Circ. Doubts Free Speech Flouted By Deer Hunt Drone Ban

By Danielle Ferguson

.....Sixth Circuit judges sounded skeptical on Wednesday that a drone company can challenge a Michigan law barring drone use to hunt deer by claiming the law violates their free-speech ability to use the devices to locate and communicate about fallen game, with the judges suggesting the statute seems to regulate conduct rather than speech.

New York Times: Justice Dept. Is Said to Discuss Dropping Case Against Eric Adams

By Maggie Haberman, William K. Rashbaum, Devlin Barrett, and Jonah E. Bromwich

.....Senior Justice Department officials under President Trump have held discussions with federal prosecutors in Manhattan about the possibility of dropping their corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York, according to five people with knowledge of the matter.

New York Post: Feds agree to drop campaign finance case against former GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry one year after guilty verdict tossed

By Ryan King

.....Federal prosecutors moved Wednesday to throw out their case against former GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry over charges that he lied to the FBI about illegal campaign contributions, a prosecution that prompted the Nebraskan to resign from Congress in 2022.

Acting DC US Attorney Edward Martin Jr. and acting Los Angeles US Attorney Joseph McNally moved to dismiss the case “with prejudice” ...

President Trump, 78, cheered the news on Truth Social, writing: “It is great to see that the Department of Justice has dropped the Witch Hunt against former Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, a longtime proud and highly respected American public servant.”

Wall Street Journal: Former Sen. Bob Menendez Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison

By Corinne Ramey and James Fanelli

.....Former Sen. Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison Wednesday for promising to swap the power of his office for gold bars and other bribes, capping the New Jersey lawmaker’s extraordinary downfall after a half-century political career.

A federal jury last summer found Menendez, 71 years old, guilty of bribery, fraud and illegal foreign-agent offenses. The Democratic lawmaker, who until his indictment chaired the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced his resignation from the Senate after he was convicted.

Trump Administration

NPR: Trump order cracks down on antisemitism and could deport foreign student protesters

By Tovia Smith

.....An executive order signed Wednesday by President Trump outlines a broad federal crackdown on antisemitism in the U.S., especially on college campuses, and suggests foreign students who take part in prohibited activities like supporting terrorist organizations could be deported…

The order also suggests that some student protests could be considered a violation of federal law barring individuals from supporting terrorism, and it directs officials to encourage schools to monitor and report any such activities by foreign students so they could be investigated and possibly deported.

Trump's order refers to existing immigration law that authorizes the deportation of a non-citizen who "endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization." The U.S. government officially considers Hamas a terrorist organization…

But critics immediately denounced the move as an overreach and as unconstitutional.

"The revocation of student visas should not be used to punish and filter out ideas disfavored by the federal government," said Sarah McLaughlin, a senior scholar with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. "Students who commit crimes — including vandalism, threats or violence — must face consequences, and those consequences may include the loss of a visa." But McLaughlin said students must not be punished "for protest or expression otherwise protected by the First Amendment."

Congress

Fox Business: Senate committee plans hearing on debanking, reveals witnesses

By Eric Revell 

.....The Senate Banking Committee is planning to hold a hearing on financial institutions' decisions to debank clients over various regulatory concerns and is urging those who have been affected to contact the committee to report their allegations.

"This hearing will provide an important opportunity to hear directly from Americans who operate federally legal businesses and have been debanked," Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., said in a statement.

"It will also allow the Banking Committee, and the American public, to learn more about whether there was improper influence by financial regulators. Debanking is unacceptable and un-American – this hearing is the first step in our efforts to hold bad actors accountable," Scott said.

The committee released an initial list of witnesses which includes Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of Anchorage Digital; Evan Hafer, founder and executive chairman of Black Rifle Coffee Company; and Stephen Gannon, partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP…

The panel's hearing titled "Investigating the Real Impacts of Debanking in America" is scheduled for Feb. 5 at 10:00 a.m. ET. 

Free Expression

RCFP: RCFP reviews Pam Bondi’s record on newsgathering, First Amendment issues

.... After President Donald Trump tapped Pam Bondi to serve as the next U.S. attorney general, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press surveyed Bondi’s prior work and positions that implicate the First Amendment and press freedom. 

While we do not grade nominees or make recommendations for or against their confirmation by the U.S. Senate, we summarize the records of certain nominees to offer information relevant to newsgathering and the legal rights of journalists. Bondi appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 15 and 16, and a vote on her confirmation is expected in the near future. 

FIRE: POLL: Conservatives more optimistic, liberals more concerned about free speech in 2025

.....A new poll finds that confidence in the future of free speech in America and belief in Donald Trump’s commitment to the First Amendment both saw an uptick, at least among conservatives. (Liberals are not so sure.)

The newest edition of the National Speech Index — a quarterly barometer of free speech from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — found that Americans are still mostly pessimistic about the state of free expression in America, with only 41% saying the country is headed in the right direction. 

But those numbers represent an all-time high since FIRE began asking the question last year, and a 10-point jump from the 31% who said the country was headed in the right direction in July.

International

New York Times: Trudeau Government Left Canada Vulnerable to Foreign Interference, Report Finds

By Norimitsu Onishi

.....Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was “insufficiently transparent” about foreign interference in Canadian politics and sometimes took “too long to act” against attempts to meddle in the country’s past two general elections by foreign powers including China and India, a government commission said on Tuesday.

“Trust in Canada’s democratic institutions has been shaken, and it is imperative to restore it,” the commission said in its final report, which summarized 18 months of hearings, testimony and examination of classified intelligence documents.

Online Speech Platforms

Governing: Concerns About AI Election Impacts Are Overblown (So Far)

By Chris McIsaac, R Street Institute

.....As I've outlined before, lawmakers at both the federal and state levels primarily focused on the risks presented by AI and responded by proposing new laws and regulations aimed at mitigating potential harms to the information environment. These proposals gained traction, particularly in state capitals, and 20 states now have laws on the books restricting the use of AI in certain political communications.

Now that the election has passed, many experts agree that AI’s negative impacts were far less extreme than originally feared. This article explores lessons learned, with a particular focus on key factors that minimized AI’s effectiveness as a tool for disruption.

The States

Kansas City Star: Missouri leaders falsely confuse criticism of Israel’s government with antisemitism

By Haidee Clauer

.....House Bills 746 and 937 would adopt a definition of antisemitism that has been widely criticized, including by one its original authors, as a dangerous conflation of antisemitism and criticism of Israel. If adopted, Missouri educational institutions would be required to add the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of the term into codes of conduct as a basis for investigating suspected acts of antisemitism. Alarmingly, this includes so-called “examples” of antisemitism, most involving criticism of Israel. Under these bills, the discussion of Palestinians’ lived experiences, academic findings critical of Israel’s government or even quotes from Israelis that condemn their nation’s actions could all be considered “prohibited conduct as it relates specifically to antisemitism.” They could lead to student suspensions and loss of scholarships, faculty denial of tenure, loss of research funding, or firing or defunding student organizations — all while doing nothing to make Jewish communities safer, as the bills claim to do.

AP News: Louisiana environmental activist loses freedom of speech lawsuit against parish officials

By Jack Brook

.....Louisiana parish officials who threatened to arrest and imprison an environmental activist as she attempted to speak during a public meeting did not violate her right to freedom of speech, a unanimous civil jury ruled Wednesday.