Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech June 26, 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 Daily Mail: Free speech fury after woke university censors professor for quoting a line every American learns in school By Luke Andrews .....Dr Bruce Gilley, a political scientist and climate change researcher, was 'blocked' on X by the University of Oregon after he posted 'all men are created equal.' Dr Gilley — who is employed by Portland State University — was responding to a post by the college which encouraged people to 'interrupt racism.' In response, he filed a lawsuit claiming the University of Oregon had violated his First Amendment Rights. The university un-blocked him after 60 days, but federal judges allowed the case to proceed — saying the professor raised legitimate claims that the university had violated his free speech rights, given it is a state-funded, public institution. The two parties have now reached an out-of-court settlement, revealed this month, that sees the University of Oregon pay out more than $730,000 and update its social media policy. Under the agreement, the University of Oregon will pay $191,000 to Dr Gilley to cover his legal costs and another $533,000 to cover its own legal costs. Indianapolis Star: Conservative activist and lawyer Jim Bopp will nourish free speech as IU trustee, he says By Cate Charron .....Terre Haute's Jim Bopp, one of Indiana Gov. Mike Braun's first university board appointments, is part of a new national wave of trustees who don't mind making contentious decisions as university politics are growing more high profile. Bopp told IndyStar that he will seek to "nurture" a respect for First Amendment freedoms that allows debate and expansive viewpoints — which conservatives say has not been the case. Braun said he tapped Bopp for that reason… University boards are increasingly evaluating and deciding whether their decision-making is proper and in line with the law, said Bradley Smith, founder and chairman of the Institute for Free Speech. Many boards don't understand their obligations to protect such rights, he said, so Bopp's extensive work defending the First Amendment will likely be a north star. "We're also in a period in which a lot of people express real misunderstandings about the First Amendment," Smith said. "In this day and age and more than there was decades past, Jim would be very valuable." Congress Politico: House GOP issues new subpoenas, ramping up ActBlue investigation By Jessica Piper and Hailey Fuchs .....House GOP committees have issued new subpoenas to ActBlue, intensifying their probe of the Democratic fundraising platform. The subpoenas are an attempt to force cooperation as ActBlue has pushed back on the congressional investigation, questioning its intentions and constitutionality after the White House launched a similar probe. Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who lead the committees investigating ActBlue, issued the subpoenas Wednesday to compel a current and a former employee to testify about the platform’s fraud prevention policies. The employees being subpoenaed had previously pushed back against voluntarily appearing before the committee, citing the White House’s investigation, and ActBlue sent the committee a defiant letter earlier this month criticizing the investigation as partisan. In subpoenaing the employees, the GOP lawmakers rejected ActBlue’s argument that the congressional investigation is being conducted at the behest of the White House probe. Washington Post ("Tech Brief"): Republicans’ bid to stop state AI laws heads for a crucial vote By Will Oremus .....A hotly contested, Republican-led bid to quash state AI regulations appears headed for a pivotal Senate vote after it cleared a major hurdle this week, albeit in narrowed form. The provision, which is part of President Donald Trump’s big tax and spending bill, would require states to freeze all regulations on artificial intelligence for the next decade or forgo certain federal funding. That’s a change from the version that the House of Representatives passed last month, which would have unconditionally outlawed the enforcement of existing state AI regulations and banned the passage of new ones. The revised language, authored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), survived a review by the Senate parliamentarian over the weekend, allowing it to remain in the broader bill, officially dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That surprised some insiders who had expected it to run afoul of a Senate rule meant to prevent lawmakers from slipping substantive policy changes into budget bills. Daily Signal: Exclusive: New Bill Would Aim to Brand Major Muslim Group a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization’ By Virginia Allen .....A member of Congress introduced a bill Tuesday asking the secretary of state to consider designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a foreign terrorist organization. The Council on American-Islamic Relations brands itself as a 501(c)(3) Muslim civil rights and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., but according to Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., the group is “a terrorist organization.” The Courts Wall Street Journal: The Paramount Risk in Settling Trump’s Lawsuit: ‘Bribery’? By The Editorial Board .....“Paramount appears to be trying to settle a lawsuit that it has assessed as ‘completely without merit,’” Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden said in a letter last month to Chairwoman Shari Redstone. “Under the federal bribery statute, it is illegal to corruptly give anything of value to public officials to influence an official act. If Paramount officials make these concessions in a quid pro quo arrangement to influence President Trump or other Administration officials, they may be breaking the law.” Key Biscayne Independent: Federal lawsuit challenges “unconstitutional” Key Biscayne media policy By John Pacenti .....The Key Biscayne Independent filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Village of Key Biscayne, claiming a media policy adopted last year is an unconstitutional infringement on the free press. In November, the Key Biscayne government issued a media policy that gagged its employees, prohibiting them from speaking to news media unless permitted by Village Manager Steve Williamson or government spokeswoman Jessica Drouet. The policy explicitly tells staffers that if they speak out of turn, they could face disciplinary action… In an editorial that is running separately today, Editor-in-Chief Tony Winton said the newspaper felt its newsgathering had been curtailed, calling it an “intolerable limit on free inquiry that we feel must be challenged.” Independent Groups The Hill: Joe Rogan shuts down Bernie Sanders, defends Elon Musk By Robby Soave .....This early part of the interview focused on the power of billionaires to influence public policy with their dollars — something the progressive left is obsessed with. Sanders attacked the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which he thinks is pretty much the worst thing that ever happened to our country, and the source of all our problems. Set aside for the moment the obvious problem that Sanders is complaining about a Supreme Court decision that allows you to, well, use your free speech to criticize Bernie Sanders — which to my mind is something that should obviously be permissible in a democracy. But here’s the next part, wherein Rogan reminded his viewers that it is not the case that one party receives tons of money from wealthy people, and the other does not. Both parties, and their candidates, are the recipients of huge sums of money. The reason is that the federal government has tremendous power to affect the bottom lines of wealthy people. That’s why they spend so much. The States OPB: Oregon lawmakers could push back campaign finance regulations by 4 years By Dirk VanderHart .....Landmark campaign finance rules approved by Oregon lawmakers in 2024 might be pushed back by four years, amid widespread concerns the state won’t be ready to enact them by their planned 2027 start date. The proposed delay, set to get a hearing Wednesday morning, would mean Oregon can expect another two gubernatorial elections with no limits on how much donors can funnel to candidates. The 2022 gubernatorial election included more than $70 million in contributions, the most expensive in state history. The change was put forward in an amendment filed by House Minority Christine Drazan, R-Canby, on Tuesday. That doesn’t guarantee success in a Capitol controlled by Democrats, but delaying campaign finance rules has support from some influential entities, including elections officials and the state’s largest labor union, SEIU Local 503. 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