Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech July 10, 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 NOTUS: Trump Has Kneecapped the FEC and Won’t Fix It By Dave Levinthal .....Former Republican FEC Chairman Bradley Smith, chairman of the nonprofit Institute for Free Speech, predicted the biggest immediate effect the FEC’s shutdown will have on political committees is the inability to issue what are known as “advisory opinions” — interpretations of federal rules law that help committees comply with them. For Lindenbaum, one of the three remaining FEC commissioners, she acknowledges that there’s a lot less to do these days given her agency’s loss of power. But she and her colleagues are still showing up. Basic agency functions such as processing thousands of campaign finance reports, which political committees must continue to file, remain. Supreme Court Election Law Blog: Major Supreme Court Campaign Finance Case, NRSC, Likely to Be Heard By Supreme Court at Its December Sitting By Rick Hasen .....See this letter from the court-appointed amicus. Daily Signal: Supremes to Decide Whether Political Parties Can Act Like Political Parties By Hans von Spakovsky .....Just before breaking for the summer recess, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case in its October term that, in essence, concerns whether Congress can limit political parties from doing what they are formed to do—i.e., support their candidates. That’s the issue at stake in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, an appeal from a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in a case originally filed by then-Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and former Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio. The Courts Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Douglass Mackey's Vote-by-Text Meme Conviction Reversed, Citing Insufficient Evidence of Conspiracy By Eugene Volokh .....A short excerpt from today's long decision in U.S. v. Mackey by Second Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston, joined by Judges Reena Raggi and Beth Robinson: Fox News: Conservative group takes on IRS over 'vague' rules silencing free speech By Cortney O'Brien and Kristine Parks .....A landmark case challenging the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) multifactor "facts and circumstances" test argues it is being used to silence speech by conservative nonprofits seeking tax-exempt status. Freedom Path, a Texas nonprofit group founded in 2011, was established with a focus on repealing Obamacare and the balanced budget amendment. The group maintains it was denied tax-exempt status as a social welfare organization after a nine-year administrative process because the IRS deemed it too political. Lex Politica CEO Chris Gober spoke to Fox News Digital about Freedom Path, Inc. v. IRS on Wednesday, hours before arguing on behalf of Freedom Path at its first hearing at a Washington, D.C. courthouse. He broke down their years-long fight and why it matters to other nonprofits. "We applied for tax-exempt status back in 2011," he told Fox News Digital. "Largely nothing happened for a long time. And then, all of a sudden, about a year and a half later, we got a request from the IRS to say, ‘We need more information, and we need you to disclose your donors to us.’ And it was just a very, very odd request. And we basically told them to pound sand. It wasn't too long afterward that the Lois Lerner scandal came to life." Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): "Israeli Spy" Allegations Against Consultant Involved in Examining Hunter Biden's Laptop May Be Defamatory By Eugene Volokh .....From yesterday's opinion by Judge Michael Nachmanoff (E.D Va.) in Apelbaum v. Bloom: Tallahassee Democrat: Judge blocks part of new Florida petition law, says noncitizens can gather signatures By Stephany Matat .....A federal judge upheld most of a new Florida law toughening regulations for petition gathering, but ordered that state officials couldn't enforce a provision for some petition groups that prohibited nonresident and noncitizen volunteers from gathering signatures. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in an order granting a preliminary injunction for this provision that Florida officials have great leeway in regulating the initiative petition process, but that prohibiting nonresidents and noncitizens from circulating petitions "impose a severe burden on political expression." Furthermore, Walker agreed that the petition groups are "substantially likely" to succeed in First Amendment claims challenging the residency and citizenship requirements of the law. "But here, the State has categorically barred entire classes of people from participating in the core political speech that is central to this process," Walker wrote. Free Expression Cincinnati Enquirer: I'm staying out of the endorsement business for my congregation's sake By Ari Jun .....Although the IRS now says we can endorse candidates, I won’t, and I hope other clergy don’t either… The last thing I want people to be thinking about while I provide pastoral care − at a hospital, on a deathbed, in moments of need − is whether our politics align. I don’t want a congregant who voted for a candidate my congregation did not endorse to feel aloof from the community. We may disagree, but we are still supposed to be family. International Wall Street Journal: Europe’s Crackdown on Speech Goes Far and Wide By Natasha Dangoor, Bertrand Benoit, and Max Colchester .....Lucy Connolly, a 41-year-old nanny in central England, has been in jail now for more than 330 days because of a message she posted on X. Last July, Connolly was at her home, where she runs a small daycare, when news broke that three girls in the town of Southport—aged 6, 7 and 9—were murdered by a knife-wielding man at a dance workshop. False rumors soon spread online that the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker—he had been born in the U.K. to Christian immigrants from Rwanda. Connolly, who is mother to a 12-year-old girl and a boy who died as a toddler years ago, and whose husband was then a conservative councilor for their county, tapped out an angry message to her 6,000 followers that evening: “Mass deportation now. Set fire to all the f—ing hotels full of the bastards for all I care. While you’re at it, take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it.” A few hours later, after cooling off and walking the family dog, she deleted the post. It had been retweeted 940 times. In the days that followed, anger over the attack and online misinformation led to days of riots, including several instances where protesters tried to set fire to hotels used by asylum seekers. Courthouse News: Google wins free speech case over massive Russian fines and takedown orders By Eunseo Hong .....Europe’s top human rights court ruled Tuesday that Russia violated Google’s rights to freedom of expression and a fair trial. The judgment centers on a series of heavy fines and coercive court measures imposed after Google refused to remove political YouTube content and suspended the accounts of a Russian TV channel linked to sanctions. Candidates and Campaigns AZ Mirror: They’re calling her an influencer. She’s calling it campaign strategy. By Jessica Kutz, the 19th .....But while Foxx doesn’t have the backing of “the establishment,” as she refers to it, or the name recognition of Grijalva, she’s created her own buzz by using her social media platforms to speak directly to her generation. Over the past month, her stories have been viewed almost 30 million times on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. She also has thousands of followers on Substack. That support and the donations that followed afforded her television advertisements, something that was out of reach when she started. Her social media savvy has allowed her to bypass the need for big donors, build her own following, and capitalize on national support that’s percolated from the ground up. Along the way she’s making the argument that her social media skills aren’t just part of a campaign strategy, but necessary to communicate the politics of the party as the electorate grows younger and more disillusioned. “We saw people in the party, in the traditional media, wringing their hands, ‘How did we lose young people in this last election? Why did they move toward apathy and the other side? … And it’s because we’re failing to compete in social media and new media spaces,” Foxx said. “If we want to win in 2028, I promise you that it is going to require electing leaders in this party who can be effective messengers.” The States Center Square (North Carolina): Nonprofit donor legislation vetoed by North Carolina governor By Alan Wooten .....Saying it created “more opportunity for dark money in our politics,” North Carolina first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein on Wednesday vetoed legislation tied to decisions on the First Amendment, transparency and privacy in donations to nonprofits… The Personal Privacy Protection Act, says it “prohibits public agencies from collecting, disclosing, or releasing personal information about members, volunteers and financial and nonfinancial donors to 501(c) nonprofit organizations, except as permitted by state or federal law or regulation.” There is no change to campaign-finance disclosure requirements at both the state and federal level. Responses to the IRS and the North Carolina State Board of Elections are also not changed. Bloomberg Law: Michigan Courts’ Anti-Bias Proposal Faces Significant Opposition By Eric Heisig .....The Michigan Supreme Court received dozens of letters urging it to reject proposed anti-bias-focused changes to conduct rules for judges and lawyers, with some citing free-speech issues and others saying it’s a solution in search of a problem. The letters—which the court received between early May and July 1, when the comment period closed—came from a variety of groups, attorneys, and members of the public. And while some of the 57 letters supported the proposal, most didn’t. “Both the current Canon and Rule governing conduct of attorneys mandate that lawyers and judges treat everyone courteously and respectfully,” a letter from the State Bar of Michigan’s Religious Liberty Law Section stated. “It is neither appropriate nor, in this instance, constitutional, to fix something that is not broken.” The proposal, which follows the lead of the American Bar Association, says lawyers and judges can’t express bias or prejudice “by words or conduct” based on an extensive list of characteristics, including race, sex or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, ethnicity, disability, physical appearance, familial status, political affiliation, and socioeconomic status. 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