The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech January 30, 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 Reason ("Volokh Conspiracy"): Lawsuit Over Blocking of Portland State Prof. Bruce Gilley from @UOEquity Twitter Feed Can Go Forward By Eugene Volokh .....From Gilley v. Stabin, decided yesterday by Judge Marco Hernández (D. Ore.): Indianapolis Business Journal: More big donors want to be anonymous By John Russell .....In 2012, California, New York and Florida required not-for-profit organizations to file copies of federal tax returns, including Schedule B attachments, which list names and addresses of contributors who gave over $5,000. They said the lists were needed to protect against possible fraud. Two conservative advocacy groups—the Thomas More Law Center and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation—challenged the requirement, saying they had a right to keep their membership and donor lists private... The case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where dozens of groups on both sides of the issue filed amicus briefs, strenuously arguing for what they said were long-established principles. The not-for-profit sector stood firmly in favor of donor privacy. The Institute for Free Speech, a nonpartisan group that defends the right to free speech, assembly, press, and petition wrote: “This Court has issued ruling after ruling re-affirming that cardinal principle, repeatedly striking down donor disclosure regimes.” The American Civil Liberties Union, a group that defends civil liberties, wrote that the California requirement “risks undermining the freedom to associate for expressive purposes. That freedom, in turn, is fundamental to our democracy, and has long been protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.” FEC Washington Post: Justice Department asks FEC to stand down as prosecutors probe Santos By Isaac Stanley-Becker, Jonathan O'Connell and Emma Brown .....The Justice Department has asked the Federal Election Commission to hold off on any enforcement action against George Santos, the Republican congressman from New York who lied about key aspects of his biography, as prosecutors conduct a parallel criminal probe, according to two people familiar with the request. Politico: Campaign finance regulator asks Santos to clarify who's in charge of his political accounts By Jessica Piper .....The Federal Election Commission lobbed questions at Rep. George Santos over his latest campaign finance filings on Friday, saying five committees affiliated with the embattled congressman may have “failed to include the true, correct, or complete treasurer information.” The letters — the latest in a long series of correspondence between the FEC and Santos’ campaign — follow the campaign’s apparent attempt to hire a new treasurer amid intense scrutiny. Washington Post: Santos campaign briefly reported $254,000 in payments to ‘anonymous’ By Emma Brown and Isaac Stanley-Becker .....In the spring of 2022, George Santos’s congressional campaign submitted a handful of filings to the Federal Election Commission that did something unheard of in campaign finance: The campaign reported spending a total of $254,000 — in more than 1,200 small payments — to recipients identified only as “anonymous.” A month later, in amended reports, those listed expenditures were gone. Campaigns generally are not required to itemize payments under $200, so the removal of the “anonymous” payments reverted, in a way, to customary practice. But their brief inclusion stunned experts, several of whom told The Washington Post that they had not seen filings for expenditures to recipients listed as “anonymous.” A review of other federal candidates’ 2022 filings by The Post found only a dozen such instances, most of which appeared to involve money returned to donors who had attempted to give anonymously. PACs OpenSecrets: Business interests spent $3.5 billion on federal political contributions during the 2022 cycle By Taylor Giorno .....Business PACs made $341.3 million in federal contributions, five times the total contributions labor PACs reported through post-general reports filed with the FEC. “Business PACs” — as defined and designated by OpenSecrets — includes not only PACs associated with for-profit corporations, but also cooperative and trade association PACs that receive dues from businesses with a stake in these influential industries… More members of the 118th Congress pledged to refuse corporate PAC money than ever before, but the massive influence of business interests in the political process persists. The campaigns of 428 U.S. House members reported receiving a total of $291.7 million from business PACs during the 2022 election cycle, a new OpenSecrets analysis found. During the same period, seven House campaigns reported receiving no money from business PACs – Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and John Sarbanes (D-Md.). Free Expression Daily Mail: Army spied on lockdown critics: Sceptics, including our own Peter Hitchens, long suspected they were under surveillance. Now we've obtained official records that prove they were right all along By Glen Owen .....A shadowy Army unit secretly spied on British citizens who criticised the Government's Covid lockdown policies, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Military operatives in the UK's 'information warfare' brigade were part of a sinister operation that targeted politicians and high-profile journalists who raised doubts about the official pandemic response. They compiled dossiers on public figures such as ex-Minister David Davis, who questioned the modelling behind alarming death toll predictions, as well as journalists such as Peter Hitchens and Toby Young. Their dissenting views were then reported back to No 10. Documents obtained by the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, and shared exclusively with this newspaper, exposed the work of Government cells such as the Counter Disinformation Unit, based in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and the Rapid Response Unit in the Cabinet Office. Online Speech Platforms Reason: Twitter Files: Employees Knew the Media's Favorite Russian Bots List Was Fake By Robby Soave .....The Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) is a nonprofit organization that leverages the purported expertise of former U.S. national intelligence officials to identify Russian influence on social media. Its advisory council includes the neoconservative writer Bill Kristol, Hillary Clinton campaign official John Podesta, and various former employees of national security agencies. ASD maintains Hamilton 68, a dashboard that monitors the accounts of 600 Twitter accounts alleged to be Russian bots. The dashboard was highly regarded by the mainstream media: Favorable coverage of ASD's work appeared in Politico ("The Russian Bots Are Coming. This Bipartisan Duo Is On It."), The Washington Post ("Russia-linked accounts are tweeting their support of embattled Fox News host Laura Ingraham"), and elsewhere. But according to new revelations uncovered by independent journalist Matt Taibbi as part of the Twitter Files, the accounts on ASD's list weren't Russian bots. Moreover, Twitter content moderators knew the list was inaccurate but were reluctant to criticize it due to fears of bad press. Indeed, Taibbi published screenshots of several emails that show Twitter's former trust and safety czar, Yoel Roth, discovering the list was wrong. The dashboard "falsely accuses a bunch of legitimate right-leaning accounts of being Russian bots," he wrote. "I think we need to just call this out on the bullshit it is." The States Washington Post: In Atlanta, a deadly forest protest sparks debate over ‘domestic terrorism’ By Tim Craig .....The dispute over the training facility has also sparked a heated debate over the state’s application of a relatively new law being used to charge over a dozen protesters with the crime of “domestic terrorism.” The 2017 state law can be used against those who “disable or destroy” critical infrastructure, “intimidate” civilians or “affect the conduct of the government.” Free-speech advocates and civil liberties leaders say the law is so broad it in effect can be used to stifle even peaceful forms of dissent. It also carries a harsh penalty: a maximum sentence of 35 years behind bars. The controversy highlights the broad mistrust that exists between conservatives and liberals in Georgia. Many states now have their own domestic terrorism laws, and critics say they could be wielded along ideological lines in places like the Peach State. “They should not be charged with this law, because this law should not be on the books in Georgia,” said Christopher Bruce, policy and advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. “This law is overly broad, and it could actually quell political speech, which is what every American should be concerned about.” Fox Chattanooga: No more social media bans based on political views? Tennessee bills target platforms By Adrian Mojica .....HB0682/SB0111 is sponsored by Representative Dennis Powers (R-Jacksboro-D36) and Senator Bo Watson (R-Hixson-D11). The bill would designate social media platforms as common carriers and require they obtain certificates from the Tennessee public utilities commission. In essence, the designation would mean social media platforms would move from being a private carrier to public and available for anyone who requests their services. As the bill states, this would mean social platforms are unable to deplatform or ban users for political ideology, viewpoint, or discrimination based on race, creed, color, religion, sex, age, or national origin. Dallas Morning News: Ex-legislator tests lobbying revolving door law by repping big energy companies By Lauren McGaughy .....A former Texas representative is testing a state law meant to crack down on the revolving door between the Legislature and lobbying firms. Chris Paddie, a Republican who represented parts of far East Texas for a decade, chaired one of a House’s powerful committee that held hearings to demand answers from energy firms after 2021′s deadly winter storm. Now, he has registered to lobby for a handful of the same power companies he was previously tasked with scrutinizing. Paddie has 11 clients, including Irving-based firms Vistra Corp. and TXU Energy, which have pledged to pay him up to $622,000 to advance their interests this session. Last month, he filed his first spending report, confirming he is now officially lobbying on behalf of his clients. His activities come despite a law that bans state legislators from becoming lobbyists within two years of using their own campaign cash to donate to other politicians. Cleveland.com: Corporate jets, bribes and dark money: Householder trial spotlights weaknesses in Ohio ethics laws By Andrew J. Tobias .....Catherine Turcer, executive director of the good-government group Common Cause Ohio, said it’s “astonishing” that lawmakers have yet to take up any reforms in response to the Householder scandal. “It’s clear to me that the people in power like the structure that we have right now, and that they’re benefitting from the lack of transparency,” Turcer said… David DeVillers, the former U.S. attorney who initially brought the HB6 case, has called 501c4s “the perfect entity to launder money.” Lawmakers have proposed reforms to crack down on dark money, like requiring greater real-time disclosure of political spending in Ohio, including on ballot issues. Those proposals have gone nowhere… Turcer...said campaign-finance laws won’t prevent future scandals. But they could discourage them, she said. “I look at them like guardrails,” Turcer said. “If we have a speed limit that’s 55, 65, 70. You have people who might go 72. They might even go 80. But they aren’t going 120.” House Minority Leader Allison Russo, an Upper Arlington Democrat, said she’s willing to work with Merrin to advance the bill, but hasn’t heard from him about it. 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]