The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech February 28, 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 Daily Mail: Moms hit woke school board where it hurts! Conservative 'Mama Bears' force Georgia school board to pay their $100k legal fees after banning them from reading X-rated book at meeting - even though it's available in school library By Will Potter ....A group of Georgia moms have won $100,000 from a school board that banned them from reading an X-rated book at a meeting - even though the same tome is available in its libraries. The 'Mama Bears' group sued Forsyth County School District after one of its members, Alison Hair, was barred from school board meetings for defiantly reading passages from controversial book 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'. The Courts Reason ("Volokh Conspiracy"): Misdemeanant / Senate Candidate Don Blankenship Loses Appeal Over News Outlets' Calling Him "Felon" By Eugene Volokh .....From Blankenship v. NBCUniversal, LLC (4th Cir.), decided Wednesday by Chief Judge Roger Gregory, Judge Paul Niemeyer, and District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles (E.D. Va.): EFF: EFF Files Amicus Brief to Protect the Speech Rights of Immigrants and Immigrant Rights Advocates By Karen Gullo .....Should it be a federal crime to encourage an undocumented immigrant to remain in the country? In a friend of the court brief filed today with the U.S. Supreme Court, we argue that such a prohibition is facially unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds that it would sweep up and prohibit constitutionally protected speech. Bloomberg Law: Trademark Office Suspends ‘Critical’ Mark Registrations for Now By Riddhi Setty .....The US Patent and Trademark Office is suspending action on pending registration applications for trademarks that are critical of government officials or public figures, such as former President Donald Trump, in the absence of US Supreme Court guidance. The agency announced in Feb. 22 guidance that it will be holding off on processing such applications after a US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling allowing registration of a trademark on “Trump Too Small”. The Federal Circuit said that to restrict such marks would be unconstitutional restrictions of free speech. The agency has asked the Supreme Court to review ... AP News: Appeals court pulls back on N. Carolina “ag-gag” law ruling By Gary D. Robertson .....A federal appeals court on Thursday scaled back a lower-court ruling that threw out portions of a North Carolina law designed in part to prevent undercover employees at farms and other workplaces from taking documents or recording video. A majority on the panel at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, said the trial judge went too far in 2020 when striking down four provisions related to the potentially secretive activities, saying they violated the First Amendment. Congress U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar: Klobuchar, Graham, Warner Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Improve Transparency and Accountability of Online Political Advertising .....U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Mark Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, reintroduced bipartisan legislation to improve the transparency and accountability of online political advertising. The Honest Ads Act would require online political advertisements to adhere to the same disclaimer requirements as TV, radio, and print ads, so Americans can know who is purchasing advertisements to influence our elections. The legislation would also bolster election security by closing loopholes that allow foreign individuals or entities to fund political advertisements on digital platforms. Center Square: FBI has until March 1 to turn over information of probe targeting parents By Bethany Blankley .....U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona have until March 1 to turn over documents to the House Judiciary Committee about alleged FBI investigations into parents attending school board meetings in response to a memo Garland issued 17 months ago. Since October 2021, Republican members of the committee have sent over 100 letters to Biden administration officials “requesting answers about how the Administration used federal counterterrorism resources against American parents,” the committee said in a news release earlier this month. “Whistleblowers have disclosed how, shortly after Attorney General Garland formally directed the FBI to take action, the FBI’s Counterterrorism and Criminal Divisions created a specific threat tag for school board-related threats and even opened investigations into parents simply for speaking out on behalf of their children,” the committee said. Online Speech Platforms YouTube: Concerns about draft EU political ad rules and freedom of expression By Leslie Miller .....[This] week, policymakers will start finalizing the EU’s new Regulation on Political Ads. While we share the overall goal of helping to build people's trust in the political ads they see online, we’re concerned that the law could go far beyond what many people would consider as a political ad. In fact, it could end up covering a wide range of political speech and content online - even videos from people just expressing their opinions without payment or sponsorship. Whether this happens depends on a choice facing EU policymakers about how to define a “political ad” in the new law. The wide definition on the table could include any video that touches on societal issues and debate — from commentary on the energy crisis, human rights, to a discussion of the economy. The States Center Square: 'Ministry of Truth': Critics warn Washington extremism bill targets free speech By TJ Martinell .....As the Washington State Attorney General’s Office continues work on a database for police use of force incidents, a House bill would set up a 13-member commission within that same office to develop a data collection process on incidents of “domestic violent extremism,” or DVE. Although the term DVE is not defined in the bill, under State Attorney General Bob Ferguson's description it would include noncriminal activities or speech. HB 1333 sponsored by Rep. Bill Ramos, D-Issaquah, creates a Domestic Violent Extremism Commission to develop ways to combat “disinformation and misinformation,” though the two words are not defined in the bill. Also not defined is the term DVE. The legislation is derived from a recommendation by the Attorney General’s Office own 2022 “Domestic Terrorism” study, which cautioned that “effective State intervention to address these threats has the potential to implicate speech or association that may be protected by the First Amendment, or the individual right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment.” NM Political Report: Bill to end gag on ethics complainants clears committee By Susan Dunlap .....The Senate Rules Committee passed a bill that will, if enacted, allow a complainant who files an ethics complaint to speak publicly by a vote of 9-1 on Friday. HB 169, Disclosure of Legislative Ethics Complaints, would fix a constitutional issue in a law enacted in 1993, bill sponsor state Rep. Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe, said. The current law prohibits both the complainant and committee staff from speaking publicly about a complaint even though the respondent to a complaint can speak publicly, she said. Szcepanski said the current law has “an uneven requirement,” and that passing HB 169 would make the law more equitable and restore the complainant’s constitutional right to free speech. The bill generated a discussion around the constitutional right to free speech. Expert witness Matthew Beck, an Albuquerque attorney, said that members of the government, including legislators when they are acting as a member of a committee, do not have the same constitutional right to free speech because the government can “prohibit itself from speaking.” 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. 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