March 10, 2025

In the News

USA Today: When free speech champion Elon Musk threatens speech, we should take it seriously

By David Keating

.....When Elon Musk recently declared that “60 Minutes are the biggest liars in the world!” and that "they deserve a long prison sentence,” he may have been joking – and I thought he probably was. But without added context (or perhaps an "LOL" or emoji for those who understandably failed to see any humor), many reasonable people took his words literally...

We can quibble over the nature and scope of his DOGE duties. But what's not in dispute: Musk has highly influential access to the sitting president.

As such, remarks like his could intimidate not just journalists but any critic. Admittedly, CBS News is a major player and is unlikely to be intimidated, but what about smaller news outlets or nonprofits that have meager resources and no legal team?

Musk’s threat is particularly tone-deaf because of the public commitment to free speech expressed by both him and the president. One of Trump’s first executive orders stated, “Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.”

People United for Privacy: Justice Department’s ‘Foreign Agent’ Regulations Miss the Mark

By Luke Wachob

.....On March 3, People United for Privacy Foundation joined a diverse coalition of civil liberties, free speech, and privacy advocates urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to withdraw proposed amendments to regulations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The proposed changes threaten fundamental First Amendment freedoms by expanding the already vague and overbroad provisions in FARA…

DOJ’s proposed changes to FARA would exacerbate the law’s problems, as some commenters have separately noted. The Department’s proposed two-part test for determining exemptions “is vague and creates confusion about what activity qualifies for this important exemption,” the letter explains. Furthermore, the DOJ’s failure to define or clarify key terms such as “political consultant” or “agent of a foreign principal” leaves nonprofits and advocacy groups in a precarious legal position, unsure whether their work might trigger FARA’s heavy-handed requirements.

Supreme Court

NBC News:  Supreme Court takes up challenge to Colorado conversion therapy ban

By Lawrence Hurley

.....The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to a law in Colorado that bans “conversion therapy” aimed at young people questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The justices took up an appeal brought by Kaley Chiles, a Christian therapist, who argued that the restriction violates her free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment.

The Courts

Bloomberg Law: Parent Banned From School Gets Second Try at Free Speech Suit

By Quinn Wilson

.....An Arizona parent will get another try on her claims that her children’s principal defamed her and that the school district retaliated against her for exercising protected speech, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

A lower court erroneously entered judgment as a matter of law in favor of the Marana Unified School District, because a reasonable jury may conclude Rebecca Hartzell was unconstitutionally banned from school property, according to an opinion from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, reversing the district court’s ruling in part. The lower court also erred in granting Principal Andrea Divijak summary judgment ...

Courthouse News: Florida lobbying ban likely to survive 11th Circuit scrutiny

By Alex Pickett

.....An attorney for a Florida mayor and county commissioner asked an 11th Circuit panel Wednesday to strike down part of a state constitutional amendment that restricts lobbying by elected officials.

“The issue with this law is it treats lobbying in every jurisdiction in the state of the Florida the same,” said Scott Hiaasen, representing South Miami Mayor Javier Fernandez and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Rene Garcia. “The particular lobbying at issue here is that lobbying before a municipality hundreds of miles away is considered equal and likely to create the appearance of corruption.”

Trump Administration

Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): May Government Refuse to Hire Notre Dame Students, Because Notre Dame Teaches and Promotes Anti-Abortion Ideology?

By Eugene Volokh

.....Edward R. Martin Jr., the acting head federal prosecutor in D.C., wrote this letter to the dean of Georgetown law school Feb. 17 (though it apparently was re-sent Monday, and the Georgetown dean responded yesterday):

FCC

Federalist Society: Disinformation in Broadcasting and the Public Interest Standard

.....Tuesday, March 11 at 12:00pm

The Communications Act of 1934 requires that licensees operate consistent with the “public interest convenience and necessity.” Broadcast licenses, held by broadcast TV and radio stations as trustees of the public’s airwaves, must use the broadcast medium to serve the public interest and their local communities. In recent years, concerns have been raised about how broadcasters are fulfilling these obligations, particularly regarding the nature of their news programming. Complaints have been filed at the FCC against all of the major broadcast networks raising concerns about the quality and reliability of their coverage. Our panel will examine these issues, the role of government in policing broadcasters and the First Amendment protections afforded to broadcasters’ speech.  

Featuring: 

• Bob Corn-Revere, Chief Counsel, FIRE
• David Gibber, Executive Vice President/Chief Legal Officer, Sinclair Broadcast Group
• Daniel Suhr, President, Center for American Rights
• Moderator: Patricia J. Paoletta, Partner, Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP

Nonprofits

MinistryWatch: Study Finds Nonprofits are Engaging in Less Policy Advocacy

By Kim Roberts

.....Nonprofits are engaging in less policy-oriented advocacy than they did 20 years ago, according to a study in 2023 by Independent Sector…

Another barrier to engaging in advocacy, according to the study, is a lack of understanding of the rules related to nonprofit advocacy. One nonprofit leader told Independent Sector, “I know that there could be a line between what we can do and what we can’t do because of our nonprofit status. And I’m not sure that I necessarily understand where that line is.”

The complex nature of the policy process, including the rapid pace of legislative sessions, the inability to react quickly enough to proposals, and the difficulty in getting personnel to the capitol to speak with legislators leaves some nonprofits feeling ill-equipped to engage in policy advocacy.

Less frequently cited was that nonprofit leaders are unaware of legislation and regulations that affect their organizations, making it difficult to know when to engage in advocacy.

Free Press: Inside the Trump Resistance, Funded by the Ultra-Wealthy

By Gabe Kaminsky

.....In fact, like a surprising number of Trump 2.0 resistance pop-up groups, Families Over Billionaires owes its existence not to small-dollar donations from ordinary Americans, or to grassroots organizers, but to a single entity: the consulting firm Arabella Advisors, which oversees a massive “dark money” network bankrolled by the super-rich and aligned with the Democratic Party.

The network relies on support from billionaires like Bill Gates, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Democratic megadonor George Soros. In other words, it’s not Families Over Billionaires so much as it’s billionaires over other billionaires.

“The Resistance is almost pure astroturf, not grassroots,” said Scott Walter, the president of the Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank that investigates left-leaning philanthropies. “It’s a plaything of megadonors uninterested in ordinary Americans’ money.”

Candidates and Campaigns

Election Law Blog: “Darker Blue: How Small Donors Drive Congressional Polarization”

By Richard Pildes

.....At Good Authority, the political scientist John Sides has a good summary of the findings in this important new study that’s received a lot of attention. The study, by Stanford’s Chenoa Yorgason, has the title above. Here is from Sides’ summary:

“There is indeed evidence that small donors are not moderates. They tend to give more to ideologically extreme candidates. But maybe small donors are simply supporting candidates whose views they already share. The question is whether small donors are truly changing how politicians behave.

According to new research by Stanford’s Chenoa Yorgason, the answer is yes. Yorgason focuses on the adoption of ActBlue, the most prominent online fundraising platform for Democratic candidates and liberal groups…”

The States

Iowa Capital Dispatch: Bill would strip state funds from public libraries based on association membership

By Kathie Obradovich 

.....Lawmakers in the Iowa House gave initial approval Monday to a bill that would strip state aid from public libraries that are “dues-paying members” of a state or national nonprofit organization that lobbies government such as the Iowa Library Association or American Library Association.

House File 284 would change library eligibility for Enrich Iowa funds provided through the State Library of Iowa to exclude members of a nonprofit organization that “promotes federal and state legislation related to libraries and engages in advocacy efforts at the federal, state or local level.”

Spectrum News 1: Part of pro-Palestinian student art exhibit at UNT removed amid complaints by state lawmakers

By Associated Press

.....Students who created pro-Palestinian artwork now on display at the University of North Texas said they removed a piece of their exhibit two days early. State Republican lawmakers had complained about it and an upcoming lecture, calling them antisemitic. 

The action comes as conservatives who have historically championed free speech are now showing interest in policing it in the wake of student protests of the Israel-Hamas war.

It also happened during a session of the Texas Legislature in which university officials across the state are under pressure to eliminate any offerings that could be seen as divisive or lose critical funding.