The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech November 21, 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 Forsyth County News: Federal judge sided with Mama Bears of Forsyth, rules these school board policies unconstitutional By Sabrina Kerns .....A federal judge ruled Wednesday that parts of the Forsyth County Board of Education’s public participation policy are unconstitutional, temporarily banning members from enforcing the full policy. The ruling came as part of a lawsuit a group of local parents, called the Mama Bears of Forsyth County, filed in late July against Forsyth County Schools and members of the board alleging that their public participation policy and their decision to ban a parent, Alison Hair, from board meetings violated citizens’ First Amendment rights... “We are ecstatic about this ruling,” said Cindy Martin, chair of the Mama Bears. “The Forsyth County Board of Education can no longer ban parents or free speech from their meetings. This ruling upholds the right of every citizen to freedom of speech and freedom to petition our government. No matter what side of an issue you are on, this is a victory for all people.” Free Press: Federal Judge Rules Florida Non-Partisan Elections Statute A Violation Of Free Speech By Deborah Childress .....A U.S. District Judge has struck down as unconstitutional Florida Statute Article 9, Chapter 106, Section 143(3). The statute prohibits school board and other non-partisan election candidates from disclosing their political party affiliations during election campaigns... The Florida Elections Commission initially fined [Escambia County school board candidate Kells] Hetherington $500 for his party of choice disclosure. After Hetherington objected based on First Amendment rights, the charge was reduced to $200. But Hetherington decided to run for the school board again in 2022 which led to his lawsuit... Hetherington, legally represented by the Institute for Free Speech, spoke to The Free Press... Hetherington [said], “I thought the First Amendment protected my right to tell voters that I am a Republican and I’m pleased the Court agreed. It’s ridiculous that Florida fined me for giving truthful information to voters, and hopefully, this will never happen again to any other candidates.” New from the Institute for Free Speech Congress Must Prevent the Tax Code from Being Weaponized as a Speech Code By Alex Baiocco .....Elected officials are turning to tax laws in an effort to punish or restrict speech. At the same time, provisions omitted from the latest spending bills risk exacerbating and entrenching the improper use of the federal tax code to police political speech. Last month, the Arizona Attorney General’s office asked the IRS to look into the finances and nonprofit status of a group due to its claims, included in a film, of widespread voter fraud in Arizona. In April, Congressman Lance Gooden implored the IRS in a letter to investigate “environmental think tanks with political agendas” and nonprofits that “intentionally manipulate Americans’ opinions about pipelines, fossil fuels , and fracking while lobbying Congress for legislative action on targeted issues.” Last year, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse urged the IRS “to review whether it should revoke Turning Point USA’s tax-exempt status” after the student organization held an event where attendees didn’t wear masks. If the IRS opened an investigation into “potential violations of the Internal Revenue Code” every time an advocacy organization made controversial claims about a highly politicized issue, the agency would quickly turn into the Ministry of Truth. The Courts KTTN: Federal Election Commission to pay Josh Hawley campaign $23K to settle lawsuit over denial of public records By Jason Hancock, Missouri Independent .....The Federal Election Commission has agreed to pay U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley’s campaign $23,500 to settle a lawsuit alleging the agency illegally withheld public documents. In late 2021, Hawley’s campaign requested a series of records under the Freedom of Information Act from the FEC. AP News: Town amends march ordinance, settles suit with protest group .....A southeast Louisiana town has eased its requirement that a $10,000 bond be posted by groups wanting to stage protest marches, and it settled a lawsuit with community activists who said the requirement was unconstitutional. Reason ("Volokh Conspiracy"): Ninth Circuit Rejects Claims That YouTube's Blocking of Content Was Compelled by or "Entangled with" Government By Eugene Volokh .....From Doe v. Google LLC, decided yesterday by the Ninth Circuit (Judges Margaret McKeown, Consuelo Callahan, and Lawrence Vandyke): New York Post: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot stripped my press credentials—I’m suing to get them back By William J. Kelly .....It’s been three months since Chicago Mayor Lightfoot stripped me of my Chicago media credentials. I’m still waiting for a federal judge — an Obama appointee and former co-worker of Lightfoot — to restore my First Amendment rights. FEC Ballot Access News: No Labels Party Becomes Qualified in Florida By Richard Winger .....On November 4, the Secretary of State of Florida granted recognition to the No Labels Party. Therefore, in 2024, it is free to run nominees for any partisan office, except for the only office for which the party is interested, President. Even though No Labels Party is qualified, it isn’t recognized by the Federal Election Commission, so under a law passed in 2011, it can’t be on for President unless it submits a petition of 145,040 signatures. The petition need not carry the name of the presidential candidate. It is believed that No Labels is circulating this petition. The 2011 law is probably unconstitutional. The FEC does not grant national committee recognition based on voter support for the party. It grants it to any party that has already run nominees for president and congress in several states. The FEC will never grant national committee recognition to a new party. Therefore, the law discriminates against new parties, relative to old ones. Online Speech Platforms New York Times: Elon Musk Reinstates Trump’s Twitter Account By Ryan Mac and Kellen Browning .....Elon Musk said on Twitter on Saturday that he would reinstate former President Donald J. Trump to the platform as part of a shake-up of the social media service, with Mr. Trump’s account quickly showing up again on the site. TK News by Matt Taibbi: "Election Denial" for Me, But Not for Thee: YouTube Censors TK-Produced Videos, Again, Despite Factual Accuracy .....In late September videographer Matt Orfalea made a pair of videos for TK. One, Memory Holed: “The Election Was Hacked,” seen above, was a simple montage of Democratic politicians, media officials, and enforcement officials saying the 2016 election was, among other things, “illegitimate,” “rigged,” “hacked,” and a “cyber 9/11.” The second, Memory Holed, Part II: The “Rigged” Election, was a similar exercise, with one exception: it compared the post-2020 statements of Donald Trump to the post-2016 statements of Democratic partisans. When Trump tells Chris Wallace, “I have to see,” when asked if he’d concede an election, Orfalea shows Hillary Clinton saying, “No, I would not,” when asked in 2017 — after her loss — if she’d contest the results. He shows Trump later saying he’ll of course respect the results, “if I win,” and Hillary Clinton saying Joe Biden should not concede “under any circumstances,” essentially exact analogs. Candidates and Campaigns Bloomberg: It Was A Brutal Election Year for Self-Funding Candidates By Eric Fan and Bill Allison .....In an election where Republicans flipped the House and Democrats narrowly held onto the Senate, the biggest losers in 2022 were self-funding candidates. Of the eight congressional contenders who loaned or contributed $10 million or more to their campaigns this year, only one heavy spender will be seated in January. Democratic Representative David Trone of Maryland was the only top spender to win his race as he scored a narrow victory. Trone, co-founder of Total Wine & More and the sole incumbent among the self-funders, invested more than $12 million of his own money into the contest. That’s nearly 15 times the amount raised by his Republican opponent Neil Parrott, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign finance. But other heavy spending candidates, like celebrity physician Mehmet Oz and Missouri Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine, were defeated. The States AL.com: Alabama Supreme Court reverses dismissal of campus free speech lawsuit By Savannah Tryens-Fernandes .....The Alabama Supreme Court ruled unanimously Friday to allow a campus free speech lawsuit to proceed despite a circuit court’s dismissal of the case. Young Americans for Liberty and University of Alabama in Huntsville student Joshua Greer filed a lawsuit in July 2021 against UAH and the UA system to challenge a campus policy that requires students to request a permit in advance for many free speech events and restricts most events to certain areas. The students claimed UAH’s grounds use policy violates the 2019 Alabama Campus Free Speech Act that requires students at public institutions of higher education to be free “to engage in protected expressive activity in outdoor areas of the campus, and to spontaneously and contemporaneously assemble, speak and distribute literature.” 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. 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