This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact Luke Wachob at [email protected].  

.....The Institute for Free Speech is hiring a Senior Attorney with a minimum of seven years of experience. The location for this position is either at our Washington, D.C. office or remotely anywhere in the United States.

St. Louis Record: Federal judge rules against censoring conservative talk at Missouri school board meetings

By Juliette Fairley

.....A federal judge has ruled that a St. Charles County school district was engaging in viewpoint discrimination when it selectively enforced a no-advertising policy during a school board meeting’s public commentary.

Newsday: Brian Benjamin case shows that small-donor matching systems incentivize fraud

.....The bad news: Alleged schemers tried to swindle New York City taxpayers.

Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Profs. Adam Candeub & Philip Hamburger on "The Common Carrier Cure for First Amendment Uncertainty"

.....An interesting new twist on the argument, which particularly focuses on how social media quasi-common-carrier regulations can fight governmental pressure on platforms to censor certain material; it reminded me of Ian Samuel's The New Writs of Assistance, which similarly argued that some Big Tech companies should be legally required to limit the data they maintain about users, in order to fight governmental pressure on them to disclose it.

Committee on House Administration (Subcommittee on Elections): Hearing: A Growing Threat: How Disinformation Damages American Democracy

.....On Wednesday, June 22, 2022, the Subcommittee on Elections of the Committee on House Administration will hold a hearing titled “A Growing Threat: How Disinformation Damages American Democracy.” The Subcommittee hearing will take place at 2:30PM EDT in 1310 Longworth House Office Building and also remotely via Zoom video conferencing. This proceeding will be streamed live on https://cha.house.gov/.

Ed. note: Institute for Free Speech Senior Fellow Gary Lawkowski will testify.

Reason: Senators Want To Control Google Search Results About Abortion

...... . . 21 senators have sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai complaining that people who search for information about abortions may be led to websites for crisis pregnancy centers...

Washington Post:  Why Watergate-era campaign finance laws have failed

By Ellen L. Weintraub

.....Contributions to super PACs are required to be disclosed, but sophisticated and secretive donors know they can give to ideologically aligned nonprofit corporations that will pass along their money to the super PACs without revealing the donors to the public. (Politicians presumably know who their benefactors are.) This has contributed to more than $1 billion in dark money flooding America’s politics in 2020 alone.

Washington Examiner: Flustered FEC Democrats link Trump campaign to Watergate

.....Bitter Federal Election Commission Democrats this week expressed outrage that Republican commissioners didn’t agree to investigate former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign spending, calling it the “unmistakable stench of partisanship.”

In a five-page memo, Commissioners Ellen Weintraub and Shana Broussard accused the three GOP commissioners of running block for Trump and said their actions are undermining the reason the agency exists.

The Hill: If the FEC won’t protect voters, the courts should — but it might be up to Congress

.....The FEC’s structure requires four of the six commissioners to agree before an investigation of an alleged campaign finance violation can be opened. This means that three commissioners can paralyze the agency if they so choose. Unfortunately, that has happened consistently in recent years.

New York Times: Deceptive Mailings, False Billboards: Voting Disinformation Is Not Just Online

.....When it comes to elections, disinformation is not just a problem online.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin argue in a new report that disinformation targeting communities of color in three battleground states circulated as often through traditional sources of information, complicating efforts to fight it.

Reason: YouTube Deleted a January 6th Committee Video for Spreading Election Misinformation

.....YouTube removed a video uploaded by the January 6th Committee that showed footage of former President Donald Trump contesting the results of the 2020 election…

Axios: Lawsuit claims Fox News aided Georgia congressional candidate's campaign

By Julia Shapero and Emma Hurt

.....A former congressional candidate in Georgia filed suit on Thursday against Fox News and host Brian Kilmeade, claiming they conspired to help one of his political opponents win the Republican primary for Georgia's 2nd congressional district.

In the lawsuit first reported by WRBL, Wayne Johnson accused Fox News of violating election and campaign finance laws by allowing fellow Republican Jeremy Hunt to appear numerous times on its programs without offering the same benefit to other candidates.

The lawsuit claims Fox News gave Hunt more than $2.8 million worth of airtime on its programs and violated the Equal Time Act, which requires stations to provide equal time to political opponents who request it.

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