Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech August 21, 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 The Hill: We follow the money in politics, and the trail just keeps getting longer By Hilary Braseth .....That leaves the judiciary as the only branch of government considering changes to campaign finance laws. All eyes are on Maine, where voters overwhelmingly approved a 2024 ballot measure setting caps on contributions to super PACs. Opponents have sued to overturn the measure, and the case has been teed up for a federal district court’s review. It is likely to end up before the Supreme Court in the next couple years, in what will likely be the most significant ruling on money in politics since Citizens United. Supreme Court Wiley: Michael Toner Joins Amicus Brief in SCOTUS Case with Far-Reaching Implications for Campaign Finance and Government Ethics .....dMichael E. Toner, chair of Wiley’s Election Law & Government Ethics Practice and former Federal Election Commission (FEC) Chairman, has joined a group of former FEC Commissioners as an amicus in a brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the petitioner in P.G. Sittenfeld v. United States. The brief urges the Court to overturn a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that upheld a public corruption conviction with significant implications for government ethics and campaign finance law. The August 14 brief argues that the Sixth Circuit’s decision improperly expands the scope of federal bribery law by conflating lawful political conduct and illegal activity. The amici warn that the ruling threatens to criminalize routine interactions between political candidates and their supporters, which are essential to maintaining a democratic system. Ed. note: IFS Chairman Bradley A. Smith and former IFS Legal Director Allen Dickerson also joined the brief. The Courts Reason: West Texas A&M Drag Ban Defeated in Court By Emma Camp .....After a yearslong legal battle, West Texas A&M University students can finally host a drag show. On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reversed a lower court's decision allowing the university to block an LGBT student group from hosting a charity drag show on campus. "This is a victory not just for Spectrum WT, but for any public university students at risk of being silenced by campus censors," J.T. Morris, an attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment group that filed a lawsuit on behalf of the student group, said in a Monday press release. Congress New York Times: Amy Klobuchar: What I Didn’t Say About Sydney Sweeney By Amy Klobuchar .....There’s a centuries-old expression that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” Today, a realistic deepfake — an A.I.-generated video that shows someone doing or saying something they never did — can circle the globe and land in the phones of millions while the truth is still stuck on a landline. That’s why it is urgent for Congress to immediately pass new laws to protect Americans by preventing their likenesses from being used to do harm. I learned that lesson in a visceral way over the last month when a fake video of me — opining on, of all things, the actress Sydney Sweeney’s jeans — went viral… The A.I. deepfake featured me using the phrase “perfect titties” and lamenting that Democrats were “too fat to wear jeans or too ugly to go outside.” Though I could immediately tell that someone used footage from the hearing to make a deepfake, there was no getting around the fact that it looked and sounded very real. Trump Administration New York Times: Gabbard Plan Would Shrink Intelligence Center Focused on Election Threats By Julian E. Barnes .....Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, announced on Wednesday that she would reorganize her office, eliminating the National Defense University and shrinking the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which tracked efforts by adversarial countries to manipulate U.S. elections… The Foreign Malign Influence Center, created by Congress in 2022, coordinates efforts across intelligence agencies to monitor threats to elections and public debate. During the last election, intelligence officials held regular briefings to warn of attempts by Russia and other countries to manipulate the vote in the United States. The center also issued warnings about deepfake videos that spread false information about Vice President Kamala Harris, and about videos from Russia that sought to spread false claims about damaged ballots and illegal voting. Political Parties People United for Privacy: DNC Still Behind the Times with Anti-“Dark Money” Proposal By Luke Wachob .....Donald Trump changed a lot of things about American politics. When it comes to so-called “dark money,” however, Democratic Party leaders appear stuck in the Obama era. According to CNN, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin plans to introduce a resolution at the party’s August meeting this week directing a panel to study ways to eliminate corporate spending and “dark money” in the 2028 presidential primary elections. What does that mean? In the short term, probably not much. As the draft resolution recognizes, the DNC lacks the power to actually ban corporate spending or “dark money” in its primaries. That would require changes at the U.S. Supreme Court or a constitutional amendment. The DNC can take actions to encourage or discourage these forms of spending, but they can’t prohibit it. Free Expression The Center Square: Book: Foreign countries pose greatest threat to free speech on college campuses By Tate Miller .....A senior scholar at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression argues in her new book that the greatest threat to free speech in higher education is from foreign countries, with many American schools “compromising their values for financial gain and global partnerships.” Author Sarah McLaughlin told The Center Square she decided to write her work Authoritarians in the Academy “to draw much-needed attention to a free speech crisis on campus that has escaped notice for too long: authoritarian influence on campus and its deleterious effects on higher education's most vulnerable dissidents and academics.” The Telegraph: US warns UK abortion buffer zones put ‘shared values’ at risk By Dominic Penna .....The US has warned the UK that the enforcement of buffer zones around abortion clinics puts the “shared values” of the two countries at risk. Last year, guidance came in that means people face unlimited fines if they engage in silent prayer or protest within 150 metres of a clinic or hospital providing abortion services. Donald Trump’s White House intervened to support Livia Tossici-Bolt, a 64-year-old woman in Bournemouth who was convicted for protesting outside a clinic in April. At the time, the US said it was monitoring the case and emphasised the importance of free speech and religious liberty. The US state department has now gone further, accusing Downing Street of an “egregious violation of the fundamental right to free speech”. A spokesman for the department said: “The United States is still monitoring many ‘buffer zone’ cases in the UK, as well as other acts of censorship throughout Europe. New York Post: UK free speech crackdown sees up to 30 people a day arrested for petty offenses such as retweets and cartoons By Chadwick Moore .....Her story is one repeated almost hourly in the UK, where data suggests over 30 people a day are arrested for speech crimes, about 12,000 a year, under laws written well before the age of social media that make crimes of sending “grossly offensive” messages or sharing content of an “indecent, obscene or menacing character.” Washington Examiner: Macron points out perceived free speech hypocrisy over Candace Owens lawsuit By Brady Knox .....French President Emmanuel Macron weighed in on his lawsuit against right-wing influencer Candace Owens for the first time on Tuesday, appearing to take a shot at the MAGA movement over perceived free speech hypocrisy… Responding to Owens’s complaint that his lawsuit was an attack on free speech, Macron said, “Those talking about so-called freedom of speech are the same ones banning reporters from the Oval Office.” The States Gainesville Sun: State education board puts Alachua County School Board on notice: Protect free speech By Elliot Tritto .....The Florida State Board of Education on Aug. 20 voted to automatically implement sanctions — withholding funds equal to the salaries of Alachua County School Board members — if the Alachua County board violates a parent's First Amendment rights. The moves comes a few weeks after the Alachua County board temporarily acted to remove a parent from a school board meeting after he spoke. That removal was quickly halted. New York Times: Adams Adviser Suspended From Campaign After Giving Cash to Reporter By Bianca PallaroJay Root and Emma G. Fitzsimmons .....A close adviser to Mayor Eric Adams was suspended from his re-election campaign on Wednesday after giving a journalist cash tucked inside a potato chip bag. LAist: Public funding for elections? The idea is back in California By Frank Stoltze .....A group of legislators is seeking to lift the ban on public financing for elections in California, a move to counter the ever-increasing amount of money spent on campaigns in the Golden State. Supporters say the California Fair Elections Act could be a game changer for underfunded candidates facing well-financed opponents and make races more competitive… If passed, SB42, would place the measure on the November 2026 ballot. Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Anaheim) and Sen. Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside) are sponsors. 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. Follow the Institute for Free Speech The Institute for Free Speech | 1150 Connecticut Ave., NW Suite 801 | Washington, DC 20036 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice