Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech January 7, 2026 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]. Supreme Court Cleveland.com: Larry Householder, Matt Borges ask U.S. Supreme Court to review cases at heart of their HB6 convictions By Jeremy Pelzer .....Imprisoned ex-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit two decades-old court rulings underpinning their corruption convictions in connection with the House Bill 6 bribery scandal. If successful, their requests would not only open the door to throwing out their convictions but rewrite decades-old legal precedent for what constitutes political bribery in America… In separate petitions filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, the two asked the court’s justices to rule that prosecutors’ cases against them relied on misinterpretations of two Supreme Court rulings from the 1990s… Householder and Borges are making arguments similar to those of former Cincinnati City Councilman PG Sittenfeld, who is asking the Supreme Court to overturn his 2023 federal corruption conviction even though he was pardoned by President Donald Trump last year. Ed. note: the Householder petition is available here; the Borges petition is available here. The Courts Washington Post: 350 Texas teachers targeted for posts about Charlie Kirk, lawsuit says By Molly Hennessy-Fiske .....The Texas chapter of the country’s second-largest teachers union sued on Tuesday in federal court to block state education officials from investigating educators’ comments about Charlie Kirk’s killing last year, alleging they violated free speech protections. The lawsuit filed by the Texas American Federation of Teachers in Austin appears to be the first to challenge a state policy investigating complaints about teachers’ comments in the wake of Kirk’s shooting, in part because Texas and Florida state superintendents were the only ones to solicit such complaints, said AFT President Randi Weingarten. The Oregonian: Shirt with civil rights message and racist slur leads to Oregon gov’t employee’s firing and federal suit By Zane Sparling .....Six-year-old Ruby Bridges is unbowed, her gaze steady despite the racist graffiti creeping into the frame of the iconic image. The painting — a true-to-life illustration of the fight to integrate New Orleans public schools in the 1960s — is considered one of Norman Rockwell’s best. Bridges, now 71, has long supported it. But the picture on Thursday spurred a federal civil rights lawsuit from an Oregon public employee, who says she was fired for wearing a T-shirt with the artwork, titled “The Problem We All Live With,” printed on it. The suit filed on behalf of Beth Schmidt in the U.S. District Court of Oregon acknowledges that the painting includes a racist slur, but says Rockwell painted it for “documentary and condemnatory” purposes. The suit doesn’t seek a specific amount of monetary damages. The litigation claims that Schmidt’s abrupt dismissal Nov. 17 from the Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments, a coordinating agency serving Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties, violated her First Amendment rights and constituted viewpoint discrimination. Jonesing for Nonprofits: The Ties That Should Bind: NRA, Inc. v. NRA Foundation, Inc. By Darryll K. Jones .....On Monday, the National Rifle Association, a social welfare organization under IRC 501(c)(4), filed suit in the DC District Court in an attempt to thwart its nearly 40-year-old fundraising subsidiary, the National Rifle Association Foundation, Inc., a (c)(3), from going its own way. And taking all of NRA’s tax-deductible money with it. The complaint is a fascinating read not only for its “palace intrigue,” but also because it presents an occasion to talk about “in tandem” or tiered relationships involving tax exempt organizations. “Tandem relationships” is a phrase used to describe a charity’s operation of a de jure or de facto subsidiary to accomplish a goal the charity could not itself accomplish. The easiest example is a 501(c)(3) that sets up a controlled, but nominally independent (c)(4) through which to carry on lobbying or campaign intervention that would otherwise jeopardize the parent’s tax-exempt status. Western Regional Advocacy Project: Jackson County Resident Files Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit After Being Removed by Police from City Council Meeting for Stating the Police Chief is “Fascist” .....Today, Jackson County resident Toren McKnight filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon alleging the Ashland Mayor and Ashland Chief of Police violated his First Amendment rights by silencing and removing him from an Ashland City Council meeting for engaging in protected political speech. Free Expression Washington Post (gift link): Where ‘hate speech’ censorship is even worse than on U.S. campuses By Greg Lukianoff .....Start with Britain, where “grossly offensive” communications can be a police matter. In 2023, British police made more than 12,000 arrests under two communications statutes. For comparison, during America’s first Red Scare, from 1919 to 1920, one of the worst crackdowns on speech in the nation’s history, the United States averaged about 2,000 arrests per year, when the U.S. population was more than 50 percent bigger than Britain’s today. Behind the numbers are stories like that of Elizabeth Kinney, a mother of four who was arrested for having called a man who assaulted her a homophobic slur — not to his face, but in a private message to a friend. After the two fell out, the now former friend sent the messages to law enforcement. Kinney’s attacker wasn’t punished, but she was, under the Malicious Communications Act. Told she potentially faced 10 years in prison, Kinney pleaded guilty. She was sentenced to the British equivalent of probation and community service, and fined the equivalent of nearly $500. The States Gothamist: Hochul backs ‘safety zones’ around houses of worship By Jimmy Vielkind .....New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is backing a proposal to restrict protests around houses of worship by creating buffer zones. She plans to offer more details about the plan in her State of the State message next week, the Democratic governor said Tuesday. Hochul is building on legislation introduced last month after a raucous protest outside the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan. “I'll be announcing safety zones around houses of worship where people can go freely, to go to a safe place without threats of violence or protests,” Hochul said. This is the second consecutive year that Hochul has pushed for a new law in response to public protest against Israel and Jews. The governor sought greater restrictions on wearing masks in public last year, but her proposal was pared back amid objections from civil libertarians... New York law already prohibits people from intimidating or blocking someone who seeks to enter a house of worship or an abortion clinic. During the November protest at the Park East Synagogue, dozens of people waved flags and held signs – one of which said “Israel has no right to exist” – behind metal barricades near the entrance. Ed. note: Also see this tweet regarding language in NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's second executive order. Fox 5 New York: NYS Senate bill would require 'paid for' disclosure on political ads By Briana Scalia .....A New York State Senate bill would require disclaimers specifying the top financial contributors for political advertisements. Senate bill S8445 What we know: NYS Senate bill S8445 was introduced by Sen. Patricia Fahy in June 2025. The bill would amend the current election law in the state, requiring the disclosure of major contributors on "independent expenditure communications" – in other words, a political ad. The bill in its entirety can be read below: Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. 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