This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected].  

National Review: Why Are Leftist Academics So Thin-Skinned?

.....They hold power. Nobody threatens them. And still, we often see leftist academics trying to silence faculty members who dare to criticize the way they run things.

A new case has just been filed in Texas–Lowery v. Mills, et al.

Lowery is represented by attorneys from the Institute for Free Speech. In its press release, attorney Del Kolde stated, “Professors at public universities have the right to criticize administrators and speak to elected officials. The First Amendment protects such speech and, in a free society, DEI programs and UT’s president are not above public criticism.”

Bleeding Heartland: Iowa House votes to protect speech from frivolous lawsuits

.....Iowa House members voted overwhelmingly on February 9 to make it easier to counter lawsuits filed in order to chill speech.

House File 177 would create a path for expedited dismissal of meritless claims stemming from exercise of the constitutionally-protected "right of freedom of speech or of the press, the right to assemble or petition, or the right of association [...] on a matter of public concern." Such cases are sometimes called “strategic lawsuits against public participation” (SLAPP), because the plaintiffs' goal may be primarily to discourage speech or media coverage, rather than to prevail in court...

More than 30 states have enacted anti-SLAPP statutes. Iowa was among the states that received an "F" on a report card about this issue, which the Institute for Free Speech published in February 2022.

Iowa's bill adheres closely to model legislation drafted by the Uniform Law Commission. Under certain conditions, parties sued for defamation would find it easier to get the case dismissed quickly and recover court costs and attorneys' fees.

Politico: Appeals court backs N.C. attorney general in battle to avoid criminal libel prosecution

.....A federal appeals court has sided with North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein in his bid to avoid prosecution under a state law criminalizing “derogatory” statements related to political candidates.

New York Post: Twitter censorship is the modern-day red scare

.....The Red Scare is back and it is going blue.

I testified this week in Congress on the Twitter Files and how they suggest what I have called “censorship by surrogate” or proxy.

New York Times: Disinformation Researchers Raise Alarms About A.I. Chatbots

By Tiffany Hsu and Stuart A. Thompson

.....“This tool is going to be the most powerful tool for spreading misinformation that has ever been on the internet,” said Gordon Crovitz, a co-chief executive of NewsGuard, a company that tracks online misinformation and conducted the experiment last month. “Crafting a new false narrative can now be done at dramatic scale, and much more frequently — it’s like having A.I. agents contributing to disinformation.”

New York Post: Fetterman campaign may have violated finance rules by selling donor list

By Isabel Vincent

.....With just days left before the vote in one of last year’s most hotly contested midterm election races, John Fetterman’s senate campaign raked in nearly $2.5 million from multiple sales of its donor lists, at wildly divergent prices — a possible violation of campaign finance rules…

Issue One: The Congressional Fundraising Treadmill

By Amisa Ratliff

.....Here are 13 key numbers to know about congressional fundraising during the 117th Congress, based on an Issue One review of recently filed campaign finance reports that cover all of lawmakers’ activities between January 2021 and December 2022.

Arizona Capitol Times: Terry Goddard is hiding the ball on Prop 211

By Heather Lauer

.....Terry Goddard gave his latest initiative the moniker Voters’ Right to Know Act. Unfortunately, after reading the details it should have been named the Speech Czar Creation Act.

Throughout the campaign for Prop 211 and now as the law is challenged in court, the former Arizona Attorney General has insisted that his initiative “surgically focuses on disclosing large political contributions, knowingly given to be spent on media campaign ads, and nothing else.”

People United for Privacy: “I Need to Know Who My Enemies Are” says North Dakota Republican Championing Anti-Privacy Bill

.....Another day, another elected official admitting that the crusade against so-called “dark money” is really about shutting up their critics.

In North Dakota, a bill that would force many nonprofits to reveal their supporters’ names and home addresses died in 2021 after every Republican in the House voted against it. That changed when a group called the Brighter Future Alliance started criticizing the voting records of some of those very same Republicans.

ABC 15 News: Republicans push for partisan school board races to increase transparency

By Kristina Watrobski 

.....Florida is one of the 41 [states prohibiting partisan school board races], but Republican Governor Ron DeSantis argues that the state constitution's language has been misconstrued. As part of a multi-measured push for transparency, he is encouraging candidates to be upfront about their political affiliations.

"The reality is people should be able to run for office how they want to run for office," DeSantis said last month. "They have a First Amendment right to do that. They can identify with a party or not."

The voters, they just need more information,” Hertz said Wednesday. “And this fallacy that all of a sudden you put a designation behind your name and that all of a sudden that changes your philosophy in life in what you’re going to do on a board or in a judicial system? I just don’t believe that’s going to happen.”

[Ed. note: See also, "Judge strikes down Florida censorship of nonpartisan candidates" and "Declaring party in school-board races is welcomed".]

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