June 12, 2026

Ed. note: The Media Update will publish on a M/W/F schedule for the month of June.

In the News

USA Today: Hawaii law challenges Citizens United. Why it faces a lawsuit

By Angele Latham

.....A leading free speech group has filed a federal lawsuit against a new law in Hawaii which seeks to limit the influence of money in politics.

Act 11, passed in Hawaii on May 14, is a first-of-its kind effort by a state legislature to deny entities like corporations the power to spend in political campaigning.

The law effectively neuters the power in the state of the landmark 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allowed corporations and other groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections as part of their First Amendment protected speech.

The Institute for Free Speech, a nonprofit free speech legal group, filed the lawsuit on June 5 in federal court for the district of Hawaii on behalf of the Grassroot Institute, a Hawaiian nonprofit public policy think tank. The lawsuit argues that the law is a “substantial threat” to the First Amendment.

Reason: Two Senators Offer a Bipartisan Solution to Censorship by Proxy

By Jacob Sullum

.....Sens. Ted Cruz (R–Texas) and Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) have teamed up to offer a more consistent and principled response to the dangers of "jawboning," a form of indirect censorship that operates via government pressure on third parties such as social media platforms and TV networks. On Thursday, Cruz and Wyden introduced the JAWBONE Act, which would allow Americans affected by such pressure to seek damages from officials who exert it...

The JAWBONE Act has been endorsed by a bunch of civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Knight First Amendment Institute, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Institute for Free Speech, Public Knowledge, Americans for Tax Reform, the Internet Accountability Project, and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

The Courts

Courthouse News: Judge halts Ken Paxton's 'retaliatory' ActBlue fundraising lawsuit

By Erik Uebelacker 

.....A federal judge on Thursday blasted Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s “well-known history of filing retaliatory lawsuits” when blocking his fraud case against Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue.

In a scathing 15-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns granted ActBlue a preliminary injunction barring Paxton from continuing to litigate the case.

Stearns suggested the probe was merely brought to kneecap Paxton’s political opponents — specifically Democratic state representative James Talarico, who is running against Paxton to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate and has raised record-breaking sums in doing so.

“The truth is plain and captured in Paxton’s own declarations: The lawsuit was filed in retaliation for (and in an attempt to suppress) ActBlue’s efforts to fund Talarico’s campaign,” Stearns ruled.

FEC

Washington Post (gift link): With two Dan Sullivans in Alaska’s Senate race, Republicans cry foul

By Matthew Choi

.....There are two Dan Sullivans running for Senate in Alaska.

One is Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, a two-term Republican incumbent. The other is Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg who filed to run as a Republican candidate three days before the deadline.

Republicans are not buying it. They have accused the lesser-known Sullivan of entering the race to confuse voters and help Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman trying to flip the seat. The newcomer Sullivan and Peltola have denied any coordination, but the fight is now the focus of a new complaint filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission and an investigation by Alaska election officials.

Congress

Washington Post (gift link):Why I will use my Fifth Amendment rights before Congress today

By Regina Wallace-Jones

.....I am not going to Congress looking for a fight. And yet, when I testify today before members of the House, I will invoke my Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Invoking the Fifth Amendment is not an admission, or even an insinuation, of guilt. It is not a retreat. It is the only reasonable response to a proceeding that from the beginning has been about harassing a political opponent’s fundraising platform, not genuine oversight. Now it has become something far more dangerous.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: Whitehouse, Reed Join Fellow Ranking Members Urging Trump & Thune to Stop Gutting Independent Agencies, Blocking Democratic Nominees, and Handing Bipartisan Watchdog Posts to Blatant Trump Loyalists

.....As the Democratic leaders of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) and the Senate Armed Services Committee respectively, U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Jack Reed (D-RI) teamed up with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and fellow Senate Ranking Members Ron Wyden (D-OR), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Alex Padilla (D-CA) in urging the White House and their Senate Republican counterparts to fill Democratic positions on key bipartisan commissions and boards and reinstate fired officials.

In a letter to President Trump and Senate Republican Majority John Thune (R-SD), the Democratic Ranking Members outline how the unjust firings and unfilled posts undermine the autonomy of independent agencies, citing the removal of Democratic leaders and the administration’s refusal to nominate Democratic replacements to bipartisan leadership positions as required by statute.

Rep. Harriet Hageman: Rep. Hageman Introduces Preventing AI Censorship Act

.....Congresswoman Harriet Hageman (R-WY) introduced the Preventing AI Censorship Act to give American citizens the right to sue federal employees who violate their First Amendment rights through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

The Preventing AI Censorship Act extends the framework of Rep. Hageman's First Amendment Accountability Act to the future threat of AI-driven federal censorship. The Biden-Harris administration colluded with social media companies to suppress constitutionally protected speech, and current law left Americans with almost no recourse. As AI becomes the dominant platform for information, federal employees who pressure AI providers to filter content, distort outputs, or surveil users based on their views pose the same constitutional threat through a far more powerful tool.

Candidates and Campaigns

Bloomberg: Billionaire Steyer Spends $215 Million in Failed Bid for California Governor

By Eliyahu Kamisher

.....Tom Steyer, the hedge fund billionaire turned climate activist, has committed to giving away his money. Over the past seven months, he pared down his vast fortune by spending more than $215 million on an unsuccessful bid for California governor.

With ballots still being counted on Wednesday, Steyer had won just under 23% of the vote, trailing Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton, who will advance to the November general election, according to Decision Desk HQ...

Steyer’s spending spree made California’s gubernatorial contest the most expensive in history, according to AdImpact. His geyser of cash flowed to local television stations, social-media influencers and a small army of consultants, including the political campaign group founded by Morris Katz, the strategist behind Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign in New York City.

Albany Times-Union via Archive Today: Across U.S., nonprofits are making potentially illegal campaign donations

By Emilie Munson

.....Across the U.S., hundreds of nonprofits in the last decade made donations to political candidates, parties and committees through contributions which may have violated federal law, a Times Union investigation found.

Large and small, the organizations include churches, museums, colleges, healthcare entities, private foundations and other charitable groups. The list includes nonprofits with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual income and well-known names like the American Heart Association. Their money flowed to right- and left-leaning candidates and special interest groups...

The Times Union identified at least 500 nonprofits that made contributions in state elections that could violate federal law. Some nonprofits contacted by the newspaper claimed the expenditures were allowable for various reasons, while others declined to answer questions about their payments.

Original

National Review: The Left’s Citizens United Dishonesty Continues

By Christian Schneider

.....Last week, 39-year-old Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia gave a speech in which he decried the amount of money in politics...

Nevertheless, for liberals, the words “Citizens United” have become shorthand for everything wrong with government, leading shameless populists like Ossoff to cite the case even when it’s irrelevant. That’s because even Democratic bigwigs don’t know what the Court actually ruled. Actor and political operator George Clooney once called Citizens United “one of the worst laws passed since I’ve been around,” evidently unaware it was a matter settled by the judicial system, not Congress.

But imagine what America would look like if McCain-Feingold were still fully the law of the land. Liberals, confident that the government has our best interests at heart, rarely stop to consider what happens when malign forces control the opposition. Yet go ask a group of progressives whether they think Donald Trump should be in charge of regulating the timing and content of their political speech leading up to federal elections.

NOTUS: Sex, Drugs and Debt: Treasurers Keep Fleecing Their Political Committees

By Taylor Giorno and Dave Levinthal

.....On Thursday, a federal judge will decide how much time — if any — Murphy will spend in prison for embezzling more than $1 million from the trade association’s political action committee between December 2023 and June 2025. Murphy, who pleaded guilty in December, said he regrets his actions, which he described as driven by fear of losing that relationship, according to a letter he wrote last month to Judge Emmet Sullivan.

Murphy’s case is hardly a one-off embezzlement binge. Rather, it’s one in a yearslong string of cases in which trusted political treasurers, consultants and advisers embezzled millions from campaigns and committees often plagued by shoddy financial protections and controls.

New York Times: We Can’t Let My Former V.C. Colleagues Buy Off Our Democracy

By John O’Farrell

.....As the A.I. industry’s political spending is exposed, candidates who accept it run the risk of being seen by voters as being in the industry’s pocket. (I should disclose that I’ve been approached by people interested in more aggressively exposing the A.I. lobby’s attempts to buy political influence, and I may contribute my own money to these public awareness efforts.)

The States

Courthouse News: Montana Supreme Court certifies ballot measure on corporate election spending

By Alan Riquelmy

.....The Montana Supreme Court this week certified a ballot statement for a voter initiative that, if passed, would prohibit corporations from spending money to influence elections.

The decision by the state’s high court is the latest development in a legal struggle seeking an end run around the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which held that laws preventing corporate political spending violated free speech rights.

The Transparent Election Initiative and Jeff Mangan, a former state commissioner of political practices, want the measure on the November ballot. They passed one hurdle in April, when the state’s high court rejected Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s attempt to disqualify it.

Ordered to prepare a ballot statement, Knudsen wrote one that the group and Mangan said failed to truly and impartially explain the initiative. Additionally, they called it argumentative and prejudicial.

The Center Square: Free speech issues raised as calls come for Pritzker to veto social media safety bill

By Sean Reed

.....Since the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill aiming to increase protections for children online, concerns have been raised by industry groups about the measure’s constitutionality.

One group opposed, NetChoice, urged the governor to veto the legislation when it arrives at his desk – but he already said he intends to sign it.

NetChoice is a trade association representing internet giants like Google, Meta, TikTok and X.

Officially dubbed the “Child Social Media Safety Act,” House Bill 5511 was sponsored by state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, and state Sen. Willie Preston, D-Chicago.