The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech March 21, 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 The Wilson Post: Lawsuit says Wilson County Schools board violated speaker’s First Amendment rights By Angie Mayes .....A group of Wilson County women have filed a federal lawsuit against the Wilson County Board of Education, saying their First Amendment right to speak at the board’s public meetings was violated. Robin Lemons was scheduled to speak to the school board last fall about how school officials ignored an allegation of sexual misconduct involving her fourth-grade daughter. According to a news release sent this month, “As soon as she started criticizing the school director during the October 3, 2022, meeting, Board Chairman Jamie Farough told Lemons to ‘stop talking.’ Farough cut her off because she had not announced her home address to the crowd — a widely ignored rule that the school board did not enforce against any other speaker last year. “Lemons complied with the request, but now is a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against the Wilson County Board of Education for violating her First Amendment rights. The Wilson County chapter of Moms for Liberty and its chair Amanda Dunagan-Price have joined her as plaintiffs in the case.” ... The group decided to file a federal case because the issue involves a First Amendment issue, defending the parents’ right to speak at board meetings and advocate in front of the school board, Dunagan-Price said. Reason: Is the Manhattan D.A. Upholding or Flouting the Rule of Law by Prosecuting Trump? By Jacob Sullum ....."The best interpretation of the law is that it simply is not a campaign expense to pay blackmail for things that happened years before one's candidacy—and thus nothing Cohen (or, in this case, Trump, too) did is a campaign finance crime," former FEC Chairman Bradley Smith wrote in a 2018 Reason essay. "But at a minimum, it is unclear whether paying blackmail to a mistress is 'for the purpose of influencing an election,' and so must be paid with campaign funds, or a 'personal use,' and so prohibited from being paid with campaign funds." Federalist: If Democrats Really Cared About Campaign Finance Laws, Hillary Clinton And Obama Would Have Felt Their Wrath Years Ago By Jordan Boyd .....A potential federal case against Trump about this payment was previously put to bed by the Department of Justice, and both Bragg’s predecessor and Bragg himself had previously decided not to pursue the case. Even then-chairman of the Federal Election Commission Bradley Smith agreed that while the payments to Daniels were “unseemly,” they were not necessarily criminal. Supreme Court Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Cert. Petition on the First Amendment and Coercive Government Threats in NRA v. Vullo By Eugene Volokh .....William Brewer, Sarah Rogers & Noah Peters of Brewer Attorneys & Counselors and I filed a petition earlier this month asking the Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit decision in NRA v. Vullo; I think many of our readers will find it interesting (my apologies for the delay in passing it along). I generally tend to agree with the NRA's ideological views, to a considerable extent, but I would have been glad to be engaged to argue a similar case on behalf of groups I disagreed with as well; it's a pretty important First Amendment question that can affect groups with all sorts of views. (Note that the ACLU filed an amicus brief on NRA's side in the District Court.) Here's our Introduction: The Courts New York Times: Trial of 2016 Twitter Troll to Test Limits of Online Speech By Colin Moynihan and Alan Feuer .....The images appeared on Twitter in late 2016 just as the presidential campaign was entering its final stretch. Some featured the message “vote for Hillary” and the phrases “avoid the line” and “vote from home.” Aimed at Democratic voters, and sometimes singling out Black people, the messages were actually intended to help Donald J. Trump, not Hillary Clinton. The goal, federal prosecutors said, was to suppress votes for Mrs. Clinton by persuading her supporters to falsely believe they could cast presidential ballots by text message. The misinformation campaign was carried out by a group of conspirators, prosecutors said, including a man in his 20s who called himself Ricky Vaughn. On Monday he went on trial in Federal District Court in Brooklyn under his real name, Douglass Mackey, after being charged with conspiring to spread misinformation designed to deprive others of their right to vote. “The defendant, Douglass Mackey, tried to steal people’s right to vote,” a prosecutor, Turner Buford, told jurors Monday morning during his opening statement. “He did it by spreading a fraud.” A few minutes later, a defense lawyer, Andrew J. Frisch, said that Mr. Mackey, “a staunch political conservative,” would testify in his own defense. Mr. Frisch added that his client had been trying only to attract attention to himself by posting memes, not carry out a clandestine conspiracy. Reason: Federal Appeals Court Stops the 'Stop WOKE Act' By David McGarry .....The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has rejected Florida's request to let it enforce the "Stop WOKE Act"—officially known as the Individual Freedom Act—while the state appeals a lower court ruling that partially enjoined the statute. The States New Jersey Monitor: New Jersey Senate approves campaign finance overhaul By Nikita Biryukov .....The Senate by a narrow vote Monday approved a controversial overhaul of New Jersey’s campaign finance system that could allow lawmakers to enact larger contribution limits and weakened oversight in advance of this year’s legislative elections. The bill, which cleared the 21-vote threshold needed to pass the Senate in a 23 to 12 vote that fell mostly along party lines, would increase the amount political donors can contribute to campaigns and parties, remove towns’ ability to enact their own pay-to-play laws, and allow the governor to appoint new commissioners to the state’s campaign finance watchdog without Senate approval... The bill would require independent expenditure groups — including some political action committees and certain nonprofits — to disclose which donors gave them $7,500 or more and reveal spending made “for the purpose of furthering an independent expenditure.” That language is intended to protect the bill from a legal challenge similar to the one that killed a separate law thrown out by a judge in 2020. That law, which would have required more public disclosures from certain nonprofits and political organizations, was challenged by groups, including the ACLU. Gazette: Colorado lawmakers consider caps on city race donations, as big money flows in Colorado Springs elections By Mary Shinn .....As Colorado Springs sees hundreds of thousands of dollars pour into the mayoral and City Council races, the General Assembly is considering a cap on donations from individuals and committees giving to candidates in municipal elections across Colorado. The bill introduced last week, HB23-1245, would cap donations from individuals to candidates at $250 and donations from small-donor committees to candidates at $2,500, among other requirements. The proposed caps are meant to help limit undue influence from single donors and encourage candidates to connect with more people in the community, said sponsor Rep. Jennifer Parenti, a Democrat who represents Erie, Firestone and surrounding communities. Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. 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