October 8, 2025

In the News

Law & Democracy: Campaign Finance at a Crossroads: Brad Smith on NRSC v. FEC

.....Brad Smith, former Chair of the Federal Election Commission and President of the Institute for Free Speech, joins the Election Law Program at The Ohio State University to discuss the pending Supreme Court case National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission. Smith outlines the arguments presented in the amicus brief he co-authored, which challenges the constitutionality of limits on coordinated party expenditures and questions the legal foundation of Buckley v. Valeo. The conversation covers:

• The legal issues at stake in NRSC v. FEC

• The role of political parties in campaign finance

• The definition and evidence of corruption under current law

• The impact of digital media on campaign practices

• Constitutional limits on Congress’s authority to regulate campaigns.

New from the Institute for Free Speech

Brevard Public Schools to Pay Over $567,000 in Fees after Losing Free Speech Case

.....Following a decisive legal victory that affirmed parents’ First Amendment rights to speak at school board meetings, Moms for Liberty – Brevard County and individual parents have secured a settlement requiring Brevard Public Schools to pay $567,990.19 in attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses.

The Brevard County School Board voted to approve the settlement last night, ending a case that began in November 2021, when Moms for Liberty – Brevard County and four parent plaintiffs—Amy Kneessy, Ashley Hall, Katie Delaney, and Joseph Cholewa—sued after the school board repeatedly silenced them at public meetings for criticizing board members and policies. With representation from the Institute for Free Speech and local counsel David Osborne of Goldstein Law Partners, the parents challenged the board’s use of vague and viewpoint-discriminatory speech restrictions.

Free Speech Arguments – Can States Censor Conversations Between Therapists and Clients? (Chiles v. Salazar)

.....Chiles v. Salazar, argued before the Supreme Court of the United States on October 7, 2025. Argued by James Campbell (on behalf of Kaley Chiles), Hashim Mooppan, Principal Deputy Solicitor General (on behalf of the United States), and Shannon Stevenson, Colorado Solicitor General (on behalf of Patty Salazar).

Case Background (from the Supreme Court question presented): 

Supreme Court

SCOTUSblog: Majority of court appears skeptical of Colorado’s “conversion therapy” ban

By Amy Howe

.....The Supreme Court on Tuesday morning appeared largely sympathetic to a Colorado licensed counselor who is challenging the state’s ban on conversion therapy – that is, treatment intended to change a client’s sexual orientation or gender identity – for young people. In Chiles v. Salazar, a majority of the justices seemed to agree with the counselor, Kaley Chiles, that the ban discriminates against her based on the views that she expresses in her therapy. But several justices suggested that, rather than striking the law down outright, the court should send the case back to the lower courts for them to take a closer look at whether the law passes constitutional muster.

The Courts

Politico: Chicago journalists, protesters sue Trump administration, alleging ‘extreme brutality’

By Faith Wardwell

.....A group of Chicago press associations, journalists, nonprofits and unions sued the Trump administration and its top officials Monday, saying federal agents had used “extreme brutality” at local protests to silence both the press and civilians.

The organizations — who were also joined in the suit by individual protesters — allege in the 52-page suit that federal agents acted to “intimidate and silence” civilians and members of the media who did not pose an imminent threat to law enforcement at protests outside a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility — posing a violation to protesters’ and journalists’ First Amendment rights.

Congress

Wall Street Journal: Ted Cruz Wants to Make It Easier to Sue the Government for Censorship

By Amrith Ramkumar

.....Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) is calling for changes to the legal system to better protect consumers from government censorship, a move that comes weeks after he criticized the Trump administration’s push to have late-night host Jimmy Kimmel taken off the air.

Cruz plans to introduce a bill in the coming weeks that would codify protections against government-driven censorship, and make it easier for consumers to win monetary damages in lawsuits, he said in an interview. Cruz, the head of the Senate Commerce Committee, said he also plans to focus on the topic in a series of hearings that are expected to include Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr…

The senator said his efforts had been in the works for months. The committee has been investigating claims that the Biden administration pressured social-media platforms to remove content flagged as disinformation during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.

The topic took on more urgency after Kimmel was suspended...

Winning enough votes in both chambers could still prove difficult. A 2023 bill that passed the House and would have banned federal employees from asking tech platforms to censor protected speech, didn’t get traction in the Senate—in part because of concerns that the bill would make it harder to target potentially harmful content and misinformation.

Wall Street Journal: The FBI, Senate Phone Records, and Jan. 6

By The Editorial Board

.....President Trump’s opponents often act as his biggest enablers, and now comes news that President Biden’s FBI went so far in its investigation of the Capitol riot as to obtain telephone call records of nine Republicans in Congress. Former special counsel Jack Smith has some explaining to do, and let’s hear from Democrats and media grandees who (now) want to stop the lawfare spiral.

The source of this revelation is Sen. Chuck Grassley’s inquiry into the FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation of Jan. 6. A bureau document he released on Monday says an FBI agent analyzed phone “tolls records” for GOP Rep. Mike Kelly, as well as Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Cynthia Lummis, and Marsha Blackburn.

Mr. Grassley said the FBI’s records request was approved by a grand jury, and according to his office the data obtained ran from Jan. 4 to Jan. 7, 2021. This does not include the contents of any phone conversations, but it shows who called whom, when, and for how long.

“There’s no predicate that we can find for the solicitation of these telephone records,” Mr. Grassley said at a news conference, “which I think emphasizes the political weaponization that was behind all this effort, and we’re still getting more information.”

Free Expression

Wall Street Journal: The Vulnerability of a Divided Nation

By William A. Galston

.....According to a recent New York Times/Siena survey, only 33% of registered U.S. voters believe that our political system can address the country’s problems, while 64% believe that it has become too divided to do so. This loss of faith in our political system crosses all lines of age, sex, race, ethnicity, education and partisan affiliation.

This belief has contributed to the country’s inward turn. In a recent survey conducted by pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson, only 22% of Americans said that “the biggest threats to the United States come from outside our country in the form of adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran.” By contrast, 74% said the biggest threats to the U.S. “come from within our country in the form of polarization, corruption in government or dysfunctional cultural trends.”