Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech February 3, 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 Salt Lake Tribune: Independent reporter sues Utah Legislature to obtain press pass By Sean P. Means .....Senior staffers of the Utah Legislature are defending their denial of press credentials to an independent reporter, arguing in a court filing that doing so doesn’t violate the reporter’s First Amendment right to cover lawmakers. They responded, in a filing late Friday night, to a lawsuit reporter Bryan Schott and the company he started, Utah Political Watch, filed in U.S. District Court for Utah on Jan. 22 — the second day of the 2025 legislative session. In his lawsuit, Schott demands state officials issue him a credential to cover this year’s Legislature — and that they no longer prohibit other journalists who write outside of “established” news outlets from receiving those same credentials. Schott argues he was denied a credential because of his reporting, to which the Legislature’s Republican leadership objected. Union Leader: Bow schools argue 'silent' pink wristband protests create 'hostile' environment By Paul Feely .... In a post-hearing brief, Attorney Endel Kolde of the Institute for Free Speech argued that "even a symbolic, relatively innocuous expression" like wearing a pink wristband adorned with XX is "according to Bow school officials, dangerous 'hate speech' that cannot be expressed or viewed on school property." "The very idea that girls' sports should be reserved for biological girls — a view that many, if not most New Hampshire residents share — is too 'dangerous,'" Kolde wrote in his brief. "What Bow school officials enforce is textbook viewpoint discrimination, which is prohibited in limited public fora. And no case has ever upheld a school's authority to censor adult speech in a limited public forum based on the sociopolitical viewpoint expressed." USA Today (Forum): I always thought the far left would infringe on my free speech. Now, I'm not so sure. .....In the same way that we might condemn a private club that discriminates against a certain race, we should also reject the idea of destroying a person’s life purely because they hold different views than we do. Thankfully, I believe the high tide of cancel culture has begun to recede. The thing about the tide, though, is that it inevitably gets high again. What I would like to see isn’t a question of more legal protection, although that certainly doesn’t hurt. I would like to see a greater cultural belief in free speech as an idea, particularly in universities, and as a principle we all embrace and practice. That may seem self-evidently good to most Americans over a certain age, but the reason it’s my top concern is that polling data consistently indicates that younger Americans do not embrace this principle, opting in larger and larger numbers instead to believe notions like “speech can be as damaging as physical violence.” - Tom Garrett, Alexandria, VA Trump Administration ABC News: Federal employees told to remove pronouns from email signatures by end of day By Selina Wang, Dr. Mark Abdelmalek, Anne Flaherty, and Will Steakin .....Employees at multiple federal agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures by Friday afternoon, according to internal memos obtained by ABC News that cited two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office seeking to curb diversity and equity programs in the federal government. "Pronouns and any other information not permitted in the policy must be removed from CDC/ATSDR employee signatures by 5.p.m. ET on Friday," according to one such message sent Friday morning to CDC staff. The Courts Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Ban on Town Employees' Displaying Thin Blue Line American Flag Imagery on Town Property Violates First Amendment By Eugene Volokh .....From Tuesday's decision in Fraternal Order of Police v. Township of Springfield, decided by Judge Paul Matey, joined by Judge Anthony Scirica, concluding that the policy was unconstitutional: Courthouse News: Federal judge dismisses former Israeli hostage’s claims against pro-Palestinian newspaper By Monique Merrill .....A federal judge in Seattle dismissed on Friday a former Israeli hostage’s complaint accusing a pro-Palestinian, U.S.-based media company of assisting Hamas by employing one of its agents and publishing his articles. U.S. District Judge Tiffany Cartwright determined that Almog Meir Jan didn’t prove the company knew its employee was a Hamas operative involved in human rights violations and his articles published by the Palestine Chronicle are protected by the First Amendment. “Because Jan’s complaint does not allege actual knowledge, his compensation allegations must be dismissed,” Cartwright wrote in a 24-page order. The States The Oregonian: Appeals court shoots down Oregon candidate’s defamation suit against U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas By Zane Sparling .....After losing twice to Democraitc U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas at the ballot box, Republican businessman Mike Erickson has suffered another defeat, at the Oregon Court of Appeals. The appellate court ruled Wednesday that Salinas, who represents Oregon’s 6th Congressional Distict, didn’t defame the Republican candidate in a television spot claiming he was “charged with felony drug possession” when pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving in Hood River in 2016. It’s true that Erickson was never prosecuted for drug possession, but the ruling noted that jailers found an opioid pill in Erickson’s wallet following his arrest and an Oregon State trooper had suspected him of unlawfully possessing the pain pill. Erickson didn’t have a prescription for the pill but said he had “gotten it from his wife,” according to the ruling. He pleaded guilty to DUII and entered a diversion program. The appellate court said the word “charged” is regularly used as a synonym for “accused” and agreed that Erickson had, at least briefly, faced a drug possession accusation. WVTF: Full Virginia Senate to debate the state's campaign finance laws today for first time in decades By Michael Pope .....Members of the Virginia Senate are about to debate campaign finance reform. Is the General Assembly for sale to the highest bidder? Critics of Virginia's lax campaign finance laws worry that big money from big corporations has undue influence over politicians. But banning money from corporations might have unintended consequences, warns Republican Senator Glen Sturtevant of Colonial Heights. "Lots of very, very small entities are corporations," Sturtevant explains. "A local pizza parlor that opens up to allow the local Republican committee in Powhatan to come meet at is a corporation, and if they provide them with free food and drink, is that potentially running afoul of the law?" The bill prohibiting campaign cash from corporations is expected to be on the agenda for the Senate floor on Monday. It was introduced by Senator Danica Roem, a Democrat from Manassas, who says usually these kinds of bills don't get out of committee. Kau'i Now: Hawaiʻi Constitution amendment proposed as protest of unlimited campaign spending By Brian Perry .....A proposed Hawaiʻi Constitution amendment that would be at odds with the controversial 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision that took the brakes off campaign spending limits has passed unanimously out of the Hawaiʻi Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Senate Bill 311 would advance a proposed amendment to the Hawaiʻi State Constitution to provide that its freedom of speech protection does not include the expenditure of money to influence elections. CalMatters: California blesses political donors’ strategy to multiply their influence By Alexei Koseff .....After more than two years, California’s political ethics watchdog has closed its investigation into a controversial campaign donor network, concluding that the group followed legal advice from the state and therefore did not violate contribution limits. The decision clears the way for a bold new approach to raising and spending money in California elections. Political committees now have state regulators’ blessing to create an unlimited number of affiliated committees with different leaders, and then closely coordinate fundraising and candidate donations among them. That could exponentially increase their influence on campaigns. Govern For California — a 16-chapter nonprofit that aims to counter the influence of organized labor at the state Capitol and which aggressively backed the rise of Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas — declared “vindication” to its supporters. 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