The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech November 17, 2022 Click here to subscribe to the Daily Media Update. This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected]. In the News Law Week Colorado: 10th Circuit Returns for Oral Arguments on Pandemic Insurance Coverage, CO Campaign Contribution Caps and More By Clara Geoghegan .....10th Circuit Judges Robert Bacharach, Allison Eid and Veronica Rossman on Nov. 17 will hear an appeal from two Colorado political candidates and a resident who say the state’s political contribution caps are unconstitutional. On Jan. 28, Greg Lopez, a 2022 Colorado governor candidate, Rodney Pelton, a 2022 Senate District 35 candidate and Adams County resident and donor Steven House sued the state alleging Article 28 of the Colorado constitution’s limits on individual political campaign contributions prevents candidates from running effective campaigns in violation of the First Amendment’s freedom of speech protections. U.S. District Court Judge John Kane in March declined a request to block the enforcement of Article 28 writing that the“record is inadequate to support plaintiffs’ contention that they are entitled to the extraordinary and disfavored relief they seek.” Appealing to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, the group of plaintiffs represented by conservative organizations Advance Colorado and Institute for Free Speech, say the lower court incorrectly denied their motion for a preliminary injunction... The plaintiffs are urging the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to find that Article 28’s places candidates in a position to either limit their political speech with the voluntary spending limits or give opponents a leg up in fundraising. They argue Article 28 violates First Amendment protections of speech and doesn’t actually advance the goal of preventing corruption or the appearance of corruption. The case is Lopez v. Griswold, 22-1082. ICYMI FEC Draft Rule on Internet Communications Disclaimers Needs More Work By Bradley A. Smith and David Keating .....While the latest Federal Election Commission “Draft Final Rule and Explanation and Justification for Internet Communications Disclaimers” is a big improvement over earlier FEC drafts, we believe it is not ready to become final. First, key portions of the draft are unclear. If it’s not clear, then how will speakers who can’t afford lawyers be able to follow something they can’t understand? As former Justice Kennedy wrote in the Citizens United v FEC opinion, the “[t]he First Amendment does not permit laws that force speakers to retain a campaign finance attorney … or seek declaratory rulings before discussing the most salient political issues of our day.” Second, the draft rule would effectively ban certain ad formats that are available to commercial speakers. That strikes us as both poor policy and unconstitutional. For these reasons, the draft rule would benefit from another round of public comment. Indeed, further comment may be required by the Administrative Procedure Act. PDF Supreme Court SCOTUSblog: Court allows Jan. 6 committee to obtain phone records of Arizona GOP chair By Amy Howe .....The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for a cellphone provider to turn over call records for Dr. Kelli Ward, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, to the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Ward had asked the justices to block a subpoena addressed to T-Mobile, arguing that there “could hardly be a starker example of seeking to punish people for having ties to political views regarding the outcome of the 2020 presidential election that many Americans regard as ‘dissident.’” But the committee countered that Ward had “aided a coup attempt,” and on Monday the justices turned down Ward’s request. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito indicated that they would have granted Ward’s request. FBI Wall Street Journal: The FBI and Disinformation By James Freeman .....U.S. citizens will not continue to enjoy foundational constitutional liberties if the FBI is permitted to abuse its powers as it did in targeting the 2016 Trump campaign and may have done in assisting the 2020 Biden campaign. A responsible defense of our First Amendment freedoms requires a thorough inquiry to determine to what extent the FBI and other federal agencies lean on social media companies to suppress government-designated “disinformation.” IRS Wall Street Journal: Did Trump Unleash the IRS on Comey and McCabe? By The Editorial Board .....[T]here’s one way the agency can regain trust that should appeal to President Biden and his bureaucrats: Prove or disprove the allegation that President Trump influenced audits of James Comey and Andrew McCabe. That claim resurfaced this week when former White House chief of staff John Kelly said Mr. Trump mulled siccing the IRS on the two former FBI officials between 2017 and 2018. Mr. Kelly told the New York Times that the President asked him to “get the IRS on” the two men as part of a pattern of using “his authority as president against people who had been critical of him.” Free Expression Wall Street Journal: The New Woke Discrimination Demands a New Law By Vivek Ramaswamy and Jed Rubenfeld .....Republican politicians often ask what they can do in office to combat “wokeness.” The best approach is to amend state and federal civil-rights laws to protect employees from discrimination on the basis of political beliefs. Corporate viewpoint discrimination is unfair and widespread, a driver of polarization, and a direct consequence of the way existing civil-rights laws have been interpreted—a legal mistake that demands a legal solution. Nonprofits Politico: Two anonymous $425 million donations give dark money conservative group a massive haul By Hailey Fuchs .....One of the biggest conservative dark money organizations in the nation was boosted last year by two separate anonymous gifts, each totaling more than $425 million dollars. The money sent to DonorsTrust, a 501(c)(3) charity that has become one of the most influential conduit of funds in Republican-leaning circles, was a huge chunk of the more than $1 billion the group brought in in 2021, according to a tax filing obtained first by POLITICO. They are among the largest ever donations to a politically-connected group. PACs OpenSecrets: Election objectors in Congress received more than $61 million from corporate PACs and industry trade groups in the 2022 cycle By Anna Massoglia and Keith Newell .....Corporate PACs and industry trade groups poured more than $61 million into the leadership PACs and campaigns of election objectors during the 2022 election cycle, a new OpenSecrets analysis found… In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, scores of private companies pledged to stop or reevaluate PAC giving to election objectors. But several corporations resumed PAC giving to Congress’ so-called “Sedition Caucus” within a month of the attack on the Capitol, and even started steering money to those members over the course of the 2022 election cycle. Candidates and Campaigns Roll Call: New election, same result: Most incumbents win 2022 rematches By Laura Weiss and Ariel Cohen .....House incumbents facing tough rematches with their 2020 opponents almost all prevailed again in this year’s midterms, with only one falling to a repeat challenger after redistricting made for a more challenging race. NewsNation: Trump’s proposed ‘National Greatness Agenda’ policies By Caitlyn Shelton .....Trump . . . announced plans to change legislation regarding campaign funding. He said he will ask for a permanent ban on taxpayer funding of campaigns and a lifetime ban on lobbying by former members of Congress and cabinet members. The States New Yorker: A Rare Win in the Fight Against Dark Money By Jane Mayer .....Last week’s midterm elections showed that the country remains deeply divided along partisan lines, but there was one exception that has been largely overlooked. Voters from both parties in all fifteen counties of the polarized state of Arizona came together and overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that will require large anonymous “dark money” political donors to reveal their identities. 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. Follow the Institute for Free Speech ‌ ‌ ‌ The Institute for Free Speech | 1150 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]