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 excited to announce that Alec Greven is joining the organization as a Research Fellow.

Alec’s most recent research at the Institute documents the existing literature on the Supreme Court’s appearance of corruption legal standard from the Buckley v. Valeo decision.

ABC News: Federal grand jury probing Trump PAC's formation, fundraising efforts: Sources

By Katherine Faulders and John Santucci

.....A federal grand jury investigating the activities leading up the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the push by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the result of the 2020 election has expanded its probe to include seeking information about Trump's leadership PAC, Save America, sources with direct knowledge tell ABC News.

Reason ("Volokh Conspiracy"): Extra Discovery Allowed in States' Lawsuit Claiming Government "Colluded with and/or Coerced Social Media"

.....Judge Terry Doughty's opinion yesterday in Missouri v. Biden (W.D. La.) discusses various matters that came out in various ways, but has this to say about perhaps the highest-profile question:

Breitbart: Glenn Greenwald Slams Corrupt, Pro-Censorship Corporate News Industry

.....Journalist Glenn Greenwald recently took to Twitter to outline how he believes leftists are methodically and systematically stifling dissent through coordination with various elements of the state and media.

The Atlantic: The Right-Wing War on Free Speech Could Backfire

By Adam Serwer

.....Overturning Times v. Sullivan would undoubtedly have a chilling effect on free speech. We can infer this simply from the era before Times v. Sullivan, during which public officials—many of them segregationists—used libel law to stifle criticism of their official conduct, a practice that weighed heavily on the unanimous majority in Sullivan. Fox News’s chief executive is currently suing an outlet in Australia that has been critical of the network’s coverage of the 2020 election, taking advantage of the absence of speech protections it is eagerly availing itself of in the United States. This is how good legal representation works, but it also reflects an approach to free speech that is more mercenary than principled.

National Review: Columbia, UPenn among Worst Colleges for Free Speech, Report Finds

.....Several of the most selective universities in the U.S., including two Ivy League schools, rank among the worst colleges in the country for free speech, according to a recent assessment that factored in student responses, guest-speaker disinvitations, incidents of faculty sanctioning, and restrictive-speech policies.

The collaborative survey, released Wednesday by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and College Pulse, put Columbia University in last place for free speech and the University of Pennsylvania in second to last. Georgetown University was determined to be the fourth most hostile campus to free speech.

Axios: Scoop: Dems' accidental GOP data mine

By Lachlan Markay

.....A slip-up by social media giant Snap allowed leading Democratic campaigns and party committees to unwittingly tap into a vast repository of Republican voter data to hone their midterm ads, Axios has learned.

Los Angeles Times: California aims to shut up bullies and other bad actors so democracy can thrive

By Mark Z. Barabak

.....The result is a new California law that will make it easier to conduct the public’s business by spelling out just how and when bullies, bad actors and dangerous belligerents can be ejected so that school boards, city councils and other local government entities can do their work.

The recently enacted legislation, Senate Bill 1100, amends the 69-year-old Brown Act, which requires local governments to convene their meetings in public and guarantees the right of people to attend and participate.

Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. For email filters, the subject of this email will always begin with "Institute for Free Speech Media Update."  

The Institute for Free Speech is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and defends the First Amendment rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government. Please support the Institute's mission by clicking here. For further information, visit www.ifs.org.