Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech July 9, 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 Washington Post: IRS says churches should be allowed to make political endorsements By Michelle Boorstein and Sabrina Rodriguez .....The IRS said in a new court filing that clergy and houses of worship should be allowed to make political endorsements, a potential move away from a 71-year-old tax policy that curtailed the fusing of religion and politics… There are still a lot of questions about the impact of the IRS’s interpretation of the Johnson Amendment, said David Keating, president of the Institute for Free Speech. Would sermons at churches with a large online audience qualify as having a “family discussion,” as the IRS described it? Would a church be allowed to take out paid ads? If the parameters aren’t clear, congregations or other nonprofits may censor themselves, Keating said. Washington Times: Will antitrust litigation really protect free speech? By Ashish Agarwal and Brad Smith .....The current crop of antitrust tech cases appears motivated, in part, by a desire to protect free speech. In April, after Google lost a case involving advertising technology, for example, Attorney General Pam Bondi said: “This is a landmark victory in the ongoing fight to stop Google from monopolizing the digital public square. This Department of Justice will continue taking bold legal action to protect the American people from encroachments on free speech and free markets by tech companies.” As a practical matter, however, it is unclear exactly how or whether these cases will advance the cause of speech. In particular, the aggressive remedy proposals to break up the biggest firms could result in some new companies having leadership that is less committed to free speech principles. Moreover, if courts adopt such proposals, a future administration might find it easier to jawbone (read: intimidate) numerous smaller companies rather than a few larger companies. Finally, by breaking apart our largest and most globally competitive companies, the breakup proposals might advantage Chinese rivals whose commitment to free speech is, at best, questionable. Ohio Capital Journal: Defamation suit offers early test of Ohio’s new anti-SLAPP statute By Nick Evans .....In Cambridge, Ohio attorneys have filed what may be the state’s first anti-SLAPP motion. The newly established legal procedure gives defendants a tool to dismiss frivolous lawsuits filed suppress their protected speech. According to the Institute for Free Speech, 38 states have now passed laws protecting against strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP. The Courts New York Times: Trial Over Free Speech on Campus, and Trump’s Student Crackdown, Begins By Zach Montague .....A federal judge in Boston on Monday took in the opening salvos of a trial expected to cut to the heart of several of the most divisive issues in U.S. politics, including President Trump, Israel and free speech on college campuses. The case, filed by a pair of academic associations in March, has become the foremost challenge to the Trump administration’s aggressive posture toward foreign students who espoused pro-Palestinian views. It contends that the government’s targeting of prominent noncitizen academics who have criticized Israel — such as Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi of Columbia University and Rumeysa Ozturk of Tufts — has already partially succeeded in chilling political speech across the country, and should be categorically stopped on First Amendment grounds. FEC Washington Examiner: FEC commissioner vacancies delay Musk’s America Party approval By Emily Hallas .....In order for Musk’s proposed America Party to formally become a national political party, the FEC must issue an advisory opinion approving the party, which will allow the entity to raise and spend money at the federal level. However, the six-member commission currently lacks the four-member minimum needed to conduct essential business. Allen Dickerson departed in April, Trump fired Ellen Weintraub in February, and Sean Cooksey resigned in January, leaving the FEC largely powerless and lacking a quorum needed to issue the opinion sanctioning Musk’s America Party. And Trump has yet to signal a move to nominate members to fill the FEC’s bench, putting Musk’s efforts to form a centrist alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties in an indefinite standstill. The nominees face the additional step of being confirmed by the Senate, adding another delay to Musk’s plans. Free Expression Rolling Stone: Inside the ‘Anti-Woke’ Literary Scene Growing in L.A. By John McDermott .....Matt Pegas neatly arranges stacks of books atop the red tablecloth at the reception table in the front yard of the house party. Surrounding the books is a tableau of candles, rose petals, a tarot deck, and packets of wildflower seeds, which guests are encouraged to take home and plant. Midnight will mark the spring equinox, and the pagan decor is meant to celebrate a rebirth, because, they say, after years of being tacitly driven underground, the “anti-woke” arts scene in Los Angeles is ready to blossom in full view. “We have been in hibernation. We have been in the cold. We’ve been hiding. Now we’re out in the open,” says party organizer and emcee Adem Luz Rienspects, clad in a white linen shirt and pants… Tonight is no mere house party, though — it’s a literary salon hosted by New Ritual Press, an independent publishing label founded by Pegas and fellow indie author Dan Baltic. New Ritual Press just released its first book, the short story collection An Odyssey of Dingbats by Omar King, one of several pieces featured in tonight’s readings. More generally, the event is an act of defiance against “wokeness,” which, these critics say, has for too long stifled free expression, at the expense of creating quality art.  The Free Press: He Was Falsely Accused of ‘Blackface.’ It Derailed His Life. By Frannie Block .....Throughout college, Hughes carefully guarded his secret—at first never mentioning it, then sharing it with a trusted few, then opening up a little more. Now, having just graduated, he’s ready to tell his story in public for the first time in The Free Press. That story starts with a photograph, casually snapped in 2017—when he was just 14—and promptly forgotten about. Online Speech Platforms  Washington Post: A Marco Rubio impostor is using AI voice to call high-level officials By John Hudson and Hannah Natanson .....An impostor pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio contacted foreign ministers, a U.S. governor and a member of Congress by sending them voice and text messages that mimic Rubio’s voice and writing style using artificial intelligence-powered software, according to a senior U.S. official and a State Department cable obtained by The Washington Post. The Atlantic: A New Era of Internet Regulation Is About to Begin By Alan Z. Rozenshtein .....At the end of June, in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, the Court upheld a Texas law requiring websites with sexually explicit material to verify the age of their users, despite the burden this imposes on adults who have a First Amendment right to view such content. The decision will make accessing online pornography harder for minors—a goal that even the Court’s liberal justices seemed to support. But this case’s true importance lies not in its effect on the adult-entertainment industry, but in the shift it demarcates in America’s willingness to regulate digital technology at all. The ruling marks a definitive end to the internet’s laissez-faire era, handing lawmakers a new child-safety tool that will be used to shape popular platforms, including social media and artificial intelligence. International New York Times: French Police Raid National Rally Offices Over Campaign Finances By Aurelien Breeden .....The police raided the headquarters of France’s far-right National Rally party on Wednesday as part of an investigation into its campaign finances, the Paris prosecutor’s office said… Jordan Bardella, the National Rally’s president, accused the authorities of harassment and called the raid a threat to “pluralism and democratic change.” About 20 armed officers from France’s financial brigade took part in the raid, which was led by two investigative judges, Mr. Bardella said… According to the prosecutor’s office, the investigation aims to determine whether those campaigns were financed through illegal loans from private individuals to the party or its candidates, or through inflated or fake invoicing for campaign expenses — which, under French law, are partly reimbursed by the French state. French law authorizes private loans to political parties, but under strict conditions. The States Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Anti-Israel/Anti-Zionist Speech Doesn't Violate School Board Members' Ethics Obligations, When Said in the Member's Personal Capacity as Professor By Eugene Volokh .....From yesterday's decision in Siegel v. Aziz (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div.) (by Judges Ronald Susswein and Lisa Perez-Friscia): Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. For email filters, the subject of this email will always begin with "Institute for Free Speech Media Update." The Institute for Free Speech is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and defends the political rights to free speech, press, assembly, and petition guaranteed by the First Amendment. Please support the Institute's mission by clicking here. For further information, visit www.ifs.org. 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