The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech January 17, 2023 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 Florida Politics: Sunburn — The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics — 1.11.23 By Peter Schorsch .....“Judge strikes down Florida censorship of nonpartisan candidates” via Tiffany Donnelly for The South Florida Sun-Sentinel — You’ve probably heard Florida has what some call a “Don’t Say Gay” law. But did you know it had a “Don’t Say Political Party” law? Until recently, Florida prohibited candidates in nonpartisan races from telling voters true information about their party affiliation. When Escambia County School Board candidate Kells Hetherington chose to describe himself as a “lifelong Republican” in his candidate statement on a county website in 2018, Florida officials fined him. He wanted to make a similar statement when he ran for the same office in the last election but refrained because he didn’t want to get fined again. Supreme Court Reason ("Volokh Conspiracy"): S. Ct. Agrees to Decide: Is Negligently Threatening Constitutionally Unprotected? By Eugene Volokh .....The Supreme Court has long recognized that "true threats" of illegal conduct are excluded from First Amendment protection. But what mental state does the government have to show to prove that something is a true threat? The Courts Reuters: U.S. judiciary loses bid to revive bar on staff's political speech By Nate Raymond .....A federal appeals court on Friday declined to reconsider a ruling that declared the judiciary's policy of barring administrative staffers from engaging in political activities outside of the office unconstitutional. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a request by the judiciary to have the full court rehear the case after a 2-1 panel in August held the rules violated the free-speech rights of employees of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts… The rules, which were adopted in 2018, barred the 1,100 employees of the Administrative Office from attending campaign events, making contributions to candidates or engaging in other off-duty political activities. Courthouse News: Judge refuses to block California from sharing gun owner data with researchers By Sam Ribakoff .....A federal judge has declined a request to temporarily block a California law that allows the state to share personal information about gun owners with gun violence researchers. Assembly Bill 173 amended California firearms laws to authorize the state attorney general to disclose gun owners’ personal information to the California Firearm Violence Research Center at UC Davis, Stanford University, and any other “bona fide research institution” meeting certain requirements who study firearm-related crime, suicide and accidents. Five California registered gun owners sued the state, claiming the law irreparably harmed gun owners' First Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge Larry Burns rejected the argument, finding the gun owners failed to state a claim. He granted state Attorney General Rob Bonta's request to dismiss the lawsuit... The gun owners had argued the disclosure of their information, including the addresses of their personal residence and business, could make them “subject to attack” burglars or people opposed to gun ownership. Burns rejected the argument, noting about 18 people work at the research center and not all of them have access to the personal information. Congress Breitbart: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Introduces Bill Criminalizing ‘Conspiracy to Commit White Supremacy,’ Criticism of Non-White People By Joshua Klein .....The legislation, H.R.61 “Leading Against White Supremacy Act of 2023,” introduced last Monday by Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, seeks to “prevent and prosecute white supremacy inspired hate crime and conspiracy to commit white supremacy inspired hate crime.” The congressional bill, which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, states that someone engages in a white supremacy inspired hate crime “when white supremacy ideology has motivated the planning, development, preparation, or perpetration of actions that constituted a crime or were undertaken in furtherance of activity that, if effectuated, would have constituted a crime.” Accordingly, “conspiracy” to engage in white supremacy inspired hate crime entails the publishing of material “advancing white supremacy, white supremacist ideology, antagonism based on ‘replacement theory’, or hate speech that vilifies or is otherwise directed against any non-White person or group.” ... In response, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) accused Democrats of “making a mockery of the First Amendment.” Forbes: George Santos Will Be Booted From House If He Broke Campaign Finance Laws, GOP Oversight Chair Says By Siladitya Ray .....Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.)—who has refused to resign despite admitting to fabricating significant parts of his resume—will be ousted from Congress if he is found to be in violation of campaign finance laws, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) told CNN on Sunday, though Comer stopped short of calling for Santos to resign. Candidates and Campaigns Intelligencer: The Luckiest Liar in Politics How George Santos outran the truth. By David Freedlander .....[Santos] was, in the words of another consultant who met with him, “a walking campaign-finance violation,” allegedly coming up with schemes about how to circumvent campaign-finance law, including one that involved getting donors who had maxed out their donations to him to give to the political action committees of other candidates, who would then funnel the donation back to Santos. NBC News: Lax campaign finance rules likely to survive Bankman-Fried scandal By Alex Seitz-Wald and Allan Smith ....."I don’t think [the Sam Bankman-Fried scandal is] going to change anything in Washington," said Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law professor and activist who ran for president in 2016 as a protest candidate to push for campaign finance reform. "The reality is Congress likes to have access to large amounts of money. It’s an insider’s game that they’re all happy to play." Even money-in-politics critics accepted Bankman-Fried's checks, including a major campaign finance watchdog group and progressive lawmakers allied with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. For example, the Campaign Legal Center, a leading Washington group that has pushed for reform for two decades after its founding by a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, took $2.5 million from Bankman-Fried, which it now says it will return because “Bankman-Fried’s alleged actions ... betray CLC’s mission.” The States Star Tribune: Stop silencing public input By Editorial Board .....Public forums can get heated. We've all seen examples of emotional, sometimes angry constituents showing up at local government meetings to object to an action or proposal. Heated or not, their input is part of the public record and should be broadcast or recorded so those watching a meeting live or replaying it later have access. That's why the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information (MNCOGI) has wisely raised concerns about government entities that have excluded public comments from meeting broadcasts. The open-government nonprofit rightly believes that citizen feedback often serves to inform public policy. The issue is in the news because in recent months both the Hennepin County Board and the Roseville Area School Board voted to eliminate the public comment periods from meeting broadcasts. During a news conference last week, MNCOGI representatives and citizens urged the Legislature to require government entities to share public input. 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." 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