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

Newsweek: Ron DeSantis Faces Florida Lawsuit Over Anti-Woke Law

.....Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is being sued over his "STOP Woke ACT," over claims the law violates free speech and hinders "professors' ability to teach and students' ability to learn."

A professor and student group from the University of South Florida has filed a suit against DeSantis arguing the legislation the Republican signed in law in April (full name Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act) will "impermissibly chill" free expression and promote "unconstitutional censorship" in higher education...

Bangor Daily News: $40K settlement with Hampden activist shows balancing act between free speech and school board decorum

By Lia Russell

.....A Hampden-based school district’s agreement to pay a far-right activist $40,000 to resolve a federal First Amendment lawsuit shows that school boards have to clear a high legal bar if they want to ban people they deem disruptive from their meetings.

Daily Caller: Biden Admin Must Produce Docs About Alleged Collusion With Social Media Giants, Court Rules

By Trevor Schakohl

.....A U.S. district court Tuesday ordered the Justice Department (DOJ) to produce communications between National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and social media companies.

Republican Attorneys General Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Jeff Landry of Louisiana filed a lawsuit against the administration in May for allegedly colluding with social media companies or coercing them to suppress disfavored content on platforms using “disinformation,” “misinformation” and “malinformation” labels in violation of the First Amendment. District Judge Terry Doughty mandated as part of the case Tuesday that communications between the companies and Fauci and Jean-Pierre be provided based on Schmitt and Landry’s requests.

National Taxpayers Union Foundation: IRS Again Fails to Protect Taxpayer Data

By Tyler Martinez

.....In a pre-Labor Day news dump, the IRS admitted to publishing 120,000 taxpayer forms in a public database. Names, contact information and financial information were all available for search and download on the IRS website. The Wall Street Journal reported it was able to find at least some of the information before government staff pulled it down. Bloomberg reports that the IRS knew the information was there since August 26, but there was no indication how long the information was available to the public. 

This is just another example of the IRS playing fast and loose with taxpayer data. ProPublica generated a lot of debate when it got its hands on taxpayer data, which NTUF criticized — both in getting the data and how the data is used to push a narrative.

Washington Post: Politico’s new German owner has a ‘contrarian’ plan for American media

By Sarah Ellison

.....A newcomer to the community of billionaire media moguls, Döpfner is given to bold pronouncements and visionary prescriptions. He’s concerned that the American press has become too polarized — legacy brands like the New York Times and The Washington Post drifting to the left, in his view, while conservative media falls under the sway of Trumpian “alternative facts.” So in Politico, the fast-growing Beltway political journal, he sees a grand opportunity.

Washington Post: It’s time for Democrats to act on a dark money ban in primaries

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

.....When the Democratic National Committee gathers in Washington this week, Judith Whitmer, chair of the state party in Nevada, and more than 30 DNC members will support DNC Resolution 19, calling on the party to ban dark money in Democratic primaries...

7 News: New Mexico judge disqualifies Cowboys for Trump founder from public office

.....A New Mexico state district court judge on Tuesday disqualified county commissioner and Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin from holding public office for engaging in insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Washington Post: Steve Bannon faces state indictment in N.Y., will surrender Thursday

By Shayna Jacobs, Jacqueline Alemany and Josh Dawsey 

.....Stephen K. Bannon is expected to surrender to state prosecutors on Thursday to face a new criminal indictment, people familiar with the matter said, weeks after he was convicted of contempt of Congress and nearly two years after he received a federal pardon from President Donald Trump in a federal fraud case.

Wall Street Journal: California’s Latest Gift to Big Labor

By Maxford Nelsen

.....Aaron Tang is a University of California, Davis, law professor who specializes in brainstorming ways to “outmaneuver the court and avoid the consequences of a ruling.” He has called on states to use government funds to replace union revenue lost to Janus directly. Troublingly, this might even pass constitutional muster. While Janus recognized that “compelled subsidization of private speech seriously impinges on First Amendment rights,” the Supreme Court concluded in Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association (2005) that Americans “have no First Amendment right not to fund government speech.”

First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh considers direct taxpayer funding of unions constitutionally permissible as government speech. ”Nothing forbids the government from funding controversial causes like Planned Parenthood . . . the National Rifle Association or the American Civil Liberties Union,” he has written. Presumably this means that government can constitutionally fund political parties themselves. But the high court cautioned in Matal v. Tam (2017) that the government-speech doctrine is “susceptible to dangerous misuse,” especially if “private speech could be passed off as government speech.”

New York Daily News: Big lessons learned on campaign finance dollars

By Amy Loprest

.....When I took the helm of NYC’s Campaign Finance Board in 2006, people weren’t talking about copying our matching funds program. That all changed after Citizens United. Local governments from Washington, D.C. to Denver to Seattle have erected financing programs that put more power in the hands of everyday people. We’ve even seen action at the state level, notably here in New York where a statewide matching funds program will start next year...

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