February 27, 2025

In the News

Union Leader (via Yahoo): Plaintiffs in 'pink wristband' protest lawsuit ask judge to expedite ruling

By Paul Feely

.....Attorneys for the plaintiffs in a First Amendment lawsuit filed against the Bow School District are asking a federal judge to rule on the matter as soon as possible because one of the families has a student set to graduate this spring, effectively rendering their request for a preliminary injunction moot.

Wednesday's filing in U.S. District Court in Concord was the latest in the lawsuit filed by parents who claim their rights were violated when they were barred from school grounds following a silent protest of a transgender athlete playing in a girls soccer game in September.

Attorneys from the Institute for Free Speech and attorney Richard J. Lehmann filed the lawsuit in September on behalf of Kyle Fellers, Anthony "Andy" Foote, Nicole Foote and Eldon Rash.

Original article (paywalled)

Supreme Court

Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Has Hill v. Colorado Already Been "Abandoned" Like Lemon?

By Josh Blackman

.....[T]he Supreme Court denied yet another case that sought to overrule Hill. In Coalition Life v. City of Carbondale, Justice Alito would have granted the petition, and Justice Thomas wrote a lengthy dissent from denial. Thomas repeated his usual refrain that Hill distorted First Amendment principles, and it is difficult to see what is left of Hill after Dobbs: "Hill's abortion exceptionalism turned the First Amendment upside down."

But Justice Thomas added a new spin on things. He explained that Hill has been eroded by recent cases, including McCullen v. Coakley, Reed v. Town of Gilbert, City of Austin, and (of course) Dobbs. Thomas writes, "If Hill's foundation was 'deeply shaken' before Dobbs, see Price, 915 F. 3d, at 1119, the Dobbs decision razed it." (Price v. City of Chicago was a Seventh Circuit decision by Judge Sykes, that then-Judge Barrett joined).

Thomas then draws an analogy between Hill v. Colorado and Lemon v. Kurtzman:

The Courts

Reuters: US judge says Trump Media, Rumble need not follow Brazilian order they deem censorship

By Jonathan Stempel

.....A U.S. judge on Tuesday sided for now with President Donald Trump's media company in a dispute over whether a top Brazilian judge illegally censored right-wing voices on social media in the United States.

In a case brought by Trump Media & Technology Group and the video-sharing platform Rumble, U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven said Rumble need not comply with the Brazilian judge's order that it remove U.S.-based accounts of a leading supporter of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Congress

Fox News: Dem senator's 'dark money corruption' hypocrisy revealed in ethics complaint, expert says

By Julia Johnson 

.....Legal experts are pointing out what they say is hypocrisy as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., faces an ethics complaint over a potential conflict of interest that resulted in millions of dollars in federal grants for a nonprofit associated with his wife. 

"Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who has made his political career accusing others of dark money corruption, appears to be throwing stones in his glass house," said Mike Davis, the former chief counsel for nominations to former Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

"This is the height of hypocrisy," Brett Tolman, former U.S. attorney and executive director of Right On Crime, told Fox News Digital. "Sen Whitehouse is a former U.S. attorney and the self-proclaimed watchdog of dark money." …

Whitehouse voted for legislation that ultimately provided millions of dollars in funding for grants to environmental nonprofit group Ocean Conservancy, which works with his wife, Sandra Whitehouse, and pays her through a consulting firm. 

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), an ethics watchdog, wrote to Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chair James Lankford, R-Okla., and Vice Chair Chris Coons, D-Del., this week, asking them to investigate Whitehouse "to determine whether he violated the Senate ethics rules on conflicts of interest." The group works primarily to draw attention to potential Democrat lawmaker ethics violations. 

The Media

New York Times: Washington Post Opinion Editor Exits as Bezos Steers Pages in New Direction

By Benjamin Mullin

.....The Washington Post’s opinion editor, David Shipley, is exiting as the newspaper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, said the section’s focus would narrow to defend “personal liberties and free markets.” …

Will Lewis, The Post’s chief executive, said in a memo to staff that changes to the opinion section were “not about siding with any political party.”

“This is about being crystal clear about what we stand for as a newspaper,” Mr. Lewis wrote. “Doing this is a critical part of serving as a premier news publication across America and for all Americans.”

Online Speech Platforms

Engadget: The Oversight Board will weigh in on Meta’s new hate speech policies

By Karissa Bell

.....But the Oversight Board is already working to address Meta’s rewritten “hateful conduct” policy, according to board member Paolo Carozza, who spoke to Engadget. When Zuckerberg announced the changes in early January, the board already had four open cases involving Meta’s hate speech rules. The board now plans to use those cases to examine the new policies, which were rewritten to allow people to use dehumanizing language to describe immigrants and accuse LGBTQ people of being mentally ill.

“We deliberately delayed the decision of those cases after January 7, precisely so that we could go back to Meta again and ask a new round of questions,” Carozza, a law professor at Notre Dame who joined the Oversight Board in 2022, told Engadget. “We're trying as much as possible to use the tools that we have to find out more information, bring more transparency and more certainty to how it's going to play out in practice.”

The States

South Dakota Searchlight:  Government ‘Election integrity’ activists speak out against labels for political deepfakes

By John Hult

.....A half dozen people spoke out against mandatory labels for deepfake political messaging on Monday at the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre, citing concerns that such a law could be used to suppress free speech.

The activists weren’t able to convince a panel of lawmakers to defeat the legislation, however.

Senate Bill 164 targets a narrow class of deepfakes, a term tied to phony images, audio or video of a person that are manipulated, typically with artificial intelligence programs, to appear real. The bill would require labels on deepfakes depicting candidates that appear within 90 days of an election “with the intent to injure” the depicted candidate.

People who disseminate or contract with another to disseminate such an unlabeled deepfake within the 90-day window would be subject to a class one misdemeanor, which carries up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. They could also be subject to civil liability…

SB 164 passed 8-1, with Sen. Tom Pischke, R-Dell Rapids, casting the lone no vote. It now heads to the full Senate.

The Federalist: Bills Keeping Foreign Money Out Of Ballot Measure Campaigns Pick Up Steam In Republican States

By Shawn Fleetwood

.....On Monday, the Missouri Senate Local Government, Elections and Pensions Committee advanced legislation (SB 152) designed to restrict noncitizens’ ability to affect the outcome of ballot measures considered by voters. Specifically, the bill includes provisions prohibiting foreign nationals from “directly or indirectly” giving monies to such causes with the intent to “influence a ballot measure.”

SB 152 will now head to the full Missouri Senate for consideration.

While federal law bans the acceptance and use of foreign money in candidate elections, such safeguards are not in place in many states when it comes to ballot initiative campaigns.

Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): 69PWNDU License Plate PWN'd by Tennessee Supreme Court

By Eugene Volokh

.....A short excerpt from today's long decision by Justice Sarah Campbell in Gilliam v. Gerregano (note that Sarah Martin and I co-filed an amicus brief on the other side in this case, on behalf of Simon Tam of Matal v. Tam fame):

Middletown Press: Probe of anonymous letter targeting CT Democrat on eve of election ensnares Southington officials

By Paul Hughes

.....An election complaint over a poison pen letter targeting Southington Democrat Chris Poulos in his 2022 campaign for state representative turned into a bit of a political whodunnit.

Investigators for the State Elections Enforcement Commission did some sleuthing to identify three people they believed were behind the anonymously written letter that was circulated under the name “Southington Concerned Citizens” on the eve of the 2022 statehouse elections that stridently advocated for the defeat of Poulos and the Democratic Party.

A Republican member of the Southington Police Commission and the town’s Republican Party chairman have paid fines totaling $1,600 to settle complaints of election violations against them. The third complaint against another Republican police commissioner is pending.

Bangor Daily News: Maine House censures Republican for posts on student that drew Donald Trump’s eye

By Billy Kobin

.....Democrats who run the Maine House of Representatives voted Tuesday to censure a Republican for posts that singled out a student and led to President Donald Trump threatening to ax funding if Maine keeps allowing transgender students in girls’ sports.

The effort to censure Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, came after she made social media posts that have since gone viral about a transgender student at Greely High School who won an indoor track and field title last week. Word made it to Trump, who mentioned Maine during a speech and then sparred Friday with Gov. Janet Mills during a White House event with other governors.

After concluding work on a short-term budget that still awaits final approval, the Democratic-led chamber passed the censure resolution Tuesday night in a 75-70 vote. Libby refused to apologize to the chamber for her actions, leading House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, to invoke a House rule stripping Libby of her speaking and voting privileges.

“I will not apologize for speaking up for Maine girls who are having their voices silenced and who do not have anyone speaking up for them,” Libby told reporters after the vote, vowing to keep that posture indefinitely.