February 13, 2025

In the News

Legal Theory Blog: Knowles-Gardner on NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson

By Lawrence Solum

.....Helen J. Knowles-Gardner (Institute for Free Speech) has posted Forming an Opinion: The Collegial Crafting (and Co-Authoring) of NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson (1958) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Congress

Sen. Padilla: Padilla Leads Effort Demanding Trump Reverse Illegal Firing of Independent FEC Chair

.....Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration with oversight over federal elections, led 10 Democratic Senators to demand President Trump rescind his unprecedented and illegal firing of Federal Election Commission (FEC) Chair Ellen Weintraub. The Senators also urged Trump to pursue the lawful process of consulting with the Senate on nominating a replacement for both Weintraub and former Republican Commissioner Sean Cooksey, who recently resigned for a role in the Trump Administration, and future vacancies…

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Racket News: My Statement to Congress

By Matt Taibbi

.....Two years ago, when Michael and I first testified before your Weaponization of Government Subcommittee, Democratic members called us “so-called journalists,” suggested we were bought-off “scribes,” and questioned our ethics and loyalties. When we tried to answer, we were told to shut up, take off our tinfoil hats, and remember two things: one, there is no digital censorship, two, if there is digital censorship, it’s for our own good.

I was shocked. I thought the whole thing had to be a mistake. No way the party I gave votes to all my life was now pro-censorship. Then last year I listened to John Kerry, whom I voted for, talk to the World Economic Forum. Speaking about disinformation, he said “our First Amendment stands as a major block” to our ability to “hammer it out of existence.”

Ed. note: Further reading from Taibbi is available here.

The Courts

CBS News: X reaches $10 million settlement with Trump over prior suspension of his Twitter account

By Jennifer Jacobs

.....The social media platform X will pay President Trump $10 million to settle a lawsuit over the nearly two-year-long suspension of his account in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, a person familiar with the matter told CBS News Wednesday.

KSHB: Missouri AG, Christian counselors aim to overturn conversion-therapy bans in Jackson County, Kansas City

.....A group of Christian counselors and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey have filed a lawsuit against the city of Kansas City and Jackson County over their conversion-therapy ban policies.

In 2023, the Jackson County Legislature passed an ordinance banning the practice but not before a heated back-and-forth among members.

The county's ordinance makes it illegal to perform conversion therapy on minors in the county.

California Policy Center: On Behalf of California Policy Center, The Liberty Justice Center and California Justice Center Challenge Employer Censorship Law

.....On February 11, the Liberty Justice Center and California Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit challenging a California law that violates employers’ First Amendment rights by prohibiting companies from discussing any “religious or political matters” at mandatory meetings. 

On September 27, 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 399 (SB 399) into law. Although labeled the “California Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act,” SB 399 does not actually address intimidation—rather, it bans California employers from communicating with their employees about political or religious matters during any mandatory meetings, such as all-staff calls.  

Candidates and Campaigns

Time: The Rise of America’s Broligarchy and What to Do About It

By Lawrence Norden and Daniel I. Weiner

.....While the corrupting influence of big money over our government is not new, the specifics of this danger are different today than perhaps at any other time in our nation’s history. Tech billionaires, who already had enormous power, helped underwrite a winning presidential campaign in ways that would have been illegal just a few elections ago. And there are now fewer restraints than ever before on their ability, or the president they helped elect, to break through the checks and balances of our political system. This system, President Joseph Biden recently warned, can best be described as an “oligarchy.” Or, as others have dubbed, a “broligarchy.”

Wall Street Journal: How Steve Bannon Fleeced MAGA Donors

By The Editorial Board

.....Listeners to Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast might want to know why he pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding donors who gave money to try to build a private border wall. Yes, this case was in blue New York. But the feds hit Mr. Bannon with similar charges in 2020. Mr. Bannon received a pardon in the last hours of President Trump’s first term.

Mr. Bannon’s plea deal includes no jail time if he keeps his nose clean for three years. The indictment, announced in 2022 by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, alleged that a group called We Build the Wall had raised millions by promising that “100% of your money goes towards the wall,” and that its leadership would “not take a penny of compensation from these donations.”

In reality, according to the indictment, “Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1 received over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in secret salary payments.” Some of that cash was allegedly routed through “entities controlled by Bannon,” it said. “Bannon was informed in a text message from Unindicted Co-Conspirator 2 that Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1 would be stating publicly that he would not be taking a penny from the donations. Bannon responded ‘[Unindicted Co-Conspirator Entity 1] can pay him.’”

Online Speech Platforms

Washington Post (Tech Brief): Meta’s Oversight Board should just quit, critics say

By Will Oremus

.....A coalition of advocacy groups from around the world is calling on Meta’s quasi-independent Oversight Board to resign en masse to protest the social media giant’s recent pullback on content moderation.

In an open letter shared with the Tech Brief ahead of its publication Thursday, the Global Coalition for Tech Justice says Meta “has abandoned any pretense of oversight” after the five-year-old board was reportedly blindsided by some of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s January policy changes.

The coalition, which says it represents more than 250 organizations and experts from 55 countries, criticizes the board for not publicly pushing back on changes that it says will foster lies, degrade discourse and fuel attacks on women and LGBTQ+ people.

The States

AZ Mirror: Appeals court nixes $75K fee award in GOP Jan. 6 defamation case

By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy 

.....The Arizona Court of Appeals reversed an earlier decision to award attorney fees to a former Democratic state lawmaker who was sued by GOP elected officials who said she had defamed them by connecting them to the violence of the Jan. 6 insurrection. 

State Sen. Mark Finchem, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar and former state legislator Anthony Kern were ordered in 2022 to pay $75,000 in attorney fees to former Yuma Democratic legislator Charlene Fernandez, But in a ruling Tuesday, the Arizona Court of Appeals reversed that decision. 

13 Action News: Ohio Senate passes bill ‘ending campus cancel culture,’ addressing DEI, strikes, civics lessons

By Josh Croup

.....Ohio GOP senators advanced a bill on Wednesday that supporters say is aimed at “ending campus cancel culture.”

Senate Bill 1 enacts sweeping reforms at Ohio’s college and universities.

Formally called the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, it looks to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices on campuses across Ohio.

Among other things, the bill also prohibits full-time faculty from striking, requires professors to remain neutral on “controversial beliefs or policies, requires each course syllabus to be posted online for the public to see, requires students to pass a civics class, and bans donations from China.

The Senate passed the legislation 21-11 on Wednesday, mostly along party lines.