October 31, 2022

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ICYMI

Daily Caller: Wrong Politics? No Bank Account

By Tiffany Donnelly

.....In one of October’s most alarming yet underreported stories, the nonprofit National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF) claims that Chase abruptly closed its new account with no explanation. It then demanded its donor list, a list of political candidates it intended to support, and a full explanation of their endorsement criteria before reconsidering.

Yes, you read that correctly. Wrong politics, no account. Won’t expose your supporters to additional threats to their own accounts? Forget about banking here.

Supreme Court

Attorney General of Texas: Paxton Stands With Florida in Fight Against Big Tech Censorship

.....Attorney General Paxton joined an Ohio-led cert-stage amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court defending a Florida law similar to Texas’s HB 20, which is designed to ensure that individuals aren’t silenced merely because Big Tech companies disagree with their opinion.

The coalition of states is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case after a lower court—the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit—ruled against Florida. The brief notes the alarming rate at which social media companies have engaged in censorship, often against conservatives, and the direct threat that poses to the First Amendment. It also argues that in light of social media’s growing presence as the predominant public square, where citizens engage in lively and necessary discourse, states have the constitutional right to protect Americans’ access to these platforms.

Reason ("Volokh Conspiracy"): Babylon Bee Files Amicus Brief in Support of Parody Rights—and Doesn't File an Amicus Brief Opposing It

By Eugene Volokh

.....Not to be outdone by The Onion's amicus brief in Novak v. City of Parma, The Babylon Bee filed an amicus brief in support of the parodist as well…

The Babylon Bee also did not file, but nonetheless published, a different amicus brief opposing the parodist (which I think is even funnier than the real brief). Here's the Summary of Argument of that one:

The Courts

Washington Post: The biggest and least known fight of the 2022 election

By Ruth Marcus

.....In Kentucky, Supreme Court candidate Joseph Fischer is backed by the Republican State Leadership Committee, which is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race, including paying for the ads castigating Biden and Pelosi. Fischer touts himself as “the conservative Republican” in the race and uses what he calls a “generic elephant” on his campaign materials. The state’s Judicial Conduct Commission is investigating — and Fischer is suing the body, claiming it violated his First Amendment rights.

Congress

Washington Times: Rubio calls out Chase CEO Jamie Dimon over concerns the financial giant is targeting conservatives

By Kerry Picket

.....Sen. Marco Rubio questioned JPMorgan Chase and Co. CEO Jamie Dimon Tuesday about “politically-motivated de-banking” after the country’s largest banking company terminated the account of a conservative nonprofit.

According to the office of the Florida Republican, JPMorgan Chase recently terminated the bank account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), a 501(c)4 political action nonprofit, but the bank offered no forewarning or justification for the termination, apparently failing to follow its regular notification and appeals process...

Mr. Rubio sent a letter to Mr. Dimon raising concerns over the circumstances and requesting the bank’s justification for terminating NCRF’s account.

Donor Privacy

Wall Street Journal: Targeting Campaign Donors in Arizona

By The Editorial Board

.....The Voters’ Right to Know Act, or Proposition 211, would require organizations that address political issues during an election season to disclose the identity of all donors who give more than $5,000, “regardless of whether the monies passed through one or more intermediaries.” The ballot language avers that the people of Arizona “affirm their desire” to stop “dark money.” ...

Transparency and sunshine are happy words, but in reality disclosure laws have become a weapon used by the left to intimidate conservatives from engaging in politics. Groups trawl records for names and then organize social-media campaigns to harass and discourage donors. Americans looking to participate in campaigns can, and often do, see their names dragged through the mud. Many donors decline to engage, and political speech is chilled before it even happens.

DHS

The Intercept: Truth Cops

By Ken Klippenstein and Lee Fang

.....The Department of Homeland Security is quietly broadening its efforts to curb speech it considers dangerous, an investigation by The Intercept has found. Years of internal DHS memos, emails, and documents — obtained via leaks, Freedom of Information Act requests, and an ongoing lawsuit, as well as public reports — illustrate an expansive effort by the agency to influence tech platforms.

DOJ

Washington Post: Garland stands up for the First Amendment — and our democracy

By Fred Ryan

.....The press is criticized — often correctly — for paying attention only when public officials do wrong. When leaders go to great lengths to right those wrongs, we must be just as vociferous in our praise. This is why the new protections for the news media announced Wednesday by Attorney General Merrick Garland deserve recognition and gratitude — not only from institutions like The Post, but from every American who benefits from the accountability and oversight that a free press provides.

IRS

Texas Tribune: Churches are breaking the law and endorsing in elections, experts say. The IRS looks the other way.

By Jeremy Schwartz and Jessica Priest, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica

.....At one point, churches fretted over losing their tax-exempt status for even unintentional missteps. But the IRS has largely abdicated its enforcement responsibilities as churches have become more brazen. In fact, the number of apparent violations found by ProPublica and the Tribune, and confirmed by three nonprofit tax law experts, is greater than the total number of churches the federal agency has investigated for intervening in political campaigns over the past decade, according to records obtained by the news organizations...

Trump’s opposition to the law banning political activity by nonprofits “has given some politically-minded evangelical leaders a sense that the Johnson Amendment just isn’t really an issue anymore, and that they can go ahead and campaign for or against candidates or positions from the pulpit,” said David Brockman, a scholar in religion and public policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

Free Expression

Reason: Yes, You Can Yell 'Fire' in a Crowded Theater

By Emma Camp

.....However, Alito is simply wrong that "shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater" is unprotected speech. The erroneous idea comes from the 1919 case Schenk v. United States. The case concerned whether distributing anti-draft pamphlets could lead to a conviction under the Espionage Act—and had nothing to do with fires or theaters.

Daily Beast: Sacrificing Free Speech for ‘Civility’ at UC-Berkeley

By Robert McCoy

.....The birthplace of the “Free Speech Movement”—the University of California-Berkeley—is having a free speech problem. But this isn’t about “woke” students shutting down what they consider offensive expression; it’s about an overabundance of administrative caution—that could end up chilling legitimate political dissent.

Link via MSN

Online Speech Platforms

Wall Street Journal: Welcome to Elon Musk’s Twitter Free Speech Zone

By The Editorial Board

.....A good first step would be to emphasize that dissenting views on political topics like Covid-19 or climate change won’t be throttled as “disinformation.” ...

The elephant in the room is Donald Trump, who was permanently banned from Twitter after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Mr. Trump bears responsibility for what happened that day, but he’s no longer President. Meantime, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is freely tweeting that “Zionists” have “always been a plague.”

The States and D.C.

Washington Post: Elissa Silverman’s unacceptable conduct was not some minor violation

By the Editorial Board

.....In a 15-page ruling issued Thursday, the office concluded that Ms. Silverman misspent public campaign funds on polls for a race in which she was not a candidate. “While [Ms. Silverman] is seeking Re-election in the November 8, 2022, General Election as an At-Large Member of the Council who is elected citywide, she chose to expend [public funds] on a poll regarding a Ward Primary,” the ruling read. “Clearly, this was not an acceptable expenditure of campaign funds.” It ordered her to repay the city $6,277.52.

This sounds minor. It was not.

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