October 7, 2022

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

We're Hiring!

Senior Attorney – Institute for Free Speech – Washington, DC or Virtual Office

.....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.

This is a rare opportunity to work with a growing team to litigate a long-term legal strategy directed toward the protection of Constitutional rights. We challenge laws, practices, and policies that infringe upon First Amendment freedoms, such as speech codes that censor parents at school board meetings, laws restricting people’s ability to give and receive campaign contributions, and any intrusion into people’s private political associations. You would work to hold censors accountable; and to secure legal precedents clearing away a thicket of laws, regulations, and practices that suppress speech about government and candidates for political office, threaten citizens’ privacy if they speak or join groups, and impose heavy burdens on political activity.

In the News

The College Fix: Nationwide survey ranks New York worst for political free speech, midwestern states get top marks

By Dace Potas

.....The Institute for Free Speech, a First Amendment rights nonprofit advocacy organization, recently released a Free Speech Index, billed as “a first-of-its-kind analysis of laws restricting speech about government in all 50 states.”

“Very few know the full extent to which states now regulate and suppress speech about government,” according to an essay introducing the rankings.

The institute assessed states on multiple factors, including laws regarding campaign contributions, laws restricting the spread of “false information,” and the invasiveness of speech-restricting laws.

The index, released in August, ranks each of the 50 states as to how well each state supports the rights of individuals and groups in speaking freely about candidates, public policy, and other aspects of government, according to the website, adding it is a “comprehensive examination of state laws governing and regulating political engagement.”

Supreme Court

Washington Post: Musk poised to inherit standoff over whether Twitter ‘aids’ terrorists

By Cristiano Lima

.....The social media company is headed for a major showdown at the Supreme Court over whether it “aids and abets” terrorists on its platform, a bout Musk would inherit.

The high court on Monday announced it plans to take up two cases that could have massive implications for how social networks moderate content on their services.

While both raise questions about whether platforms can be held liable for “aiding and abetting” terrorists on their services, the cases focus more squarely on different parts of federal law.

The Courts

The Atlantic: Deleting the Right to Record the Police

By Adam Serwer

.....In July, [Arizona's] Republican governor, Doug Ducey, signed into law a measure making it illegal to record video within eight feet of where “law enforcement activity is occurring.” In other words, the law allows police to arrest you for taking video of them, even if you’re videoing them as they break the law. Although there has been prior litigation over the First Amendment right to record police, this appears to be the first time a state has sought to directly criminalize the act…

Media organizations...sued over the law, and a federal judge blocked it from being enforced in September. The lawsuit, which was filed by attorneys from the Arizona ACLU, argued that by “criminalizing the recording of police officers from a certain distance,” the law “creates a new risk of arrest and prosecution for activity that is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

The States

Newton Daily News: Newton man critical of city and police arrested at council meeting

By Christopher Braunschweig

.....A 22-year-old Newton man was criticizing the city government and the local police department during the citizen participation portion of the council meeting on Oct. 3 when we was cut off by the mayor, asked to leave and when he refused was arrested by the police chief for disorderly conduct.

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