Supreme Court
Wall Street Journal: Trump Asks Supreme Court to Restore His Ability to Block Twitter Followers
By Jess Bravin
The White House asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to restore President Trump’s power to block individual Americans from following his Twitter account, an act that lower courts found violated citizens’ First Amendment rights.
The case involves seven individuals who the president in 2017 blocked from following @realDonaldTrump after they posted critical replies to his tweets. They sued to restore their access to Mr. Trump’s account, arguing that they were entitled to follow it because the president uses it to make official announcements and comment on public affairs.
The Justice Department, in its Supreme Court petition, argued that Mr. Trump had the same right as any other user under Twitter’s rules to block individuals from following his account. The brief observed that Mr. Trump established the account in March 2009, long before his presidential campaign, and had used it “to tweet about a variety of topics, including popular culture and politics.”
While Mr. Trump had maintained the account after assuming the presidency and operated it with the assistance of White House aide Dan Scavino, the department argued that it remained a personal account that no American necessarily had a constitutional right to follow.
The Courts
Courthouse News: Judge: Federal Agents Lack Authority to Clear Portland Streets
By Karina Brown
Federal agents sent by President Donald Trump to protect federal buildings in Portland are now under an injunction barring them from assaulting journalists and legal observers. The government says it will appeal.
Congress
Sludge: New Bill Seeks to Bring Lobbying Out of the Shadows
By Donald Shaw
To increase transparency of [“soft power” tactics by lobbying organizations,] freshman Reps. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and Ben Cline (R-Va.) last week introduced a bill-the Lobbying Disclosure Reform Act of 2020-that would require companies, trade groups and other entities that employ lobbyists to begin disclosing information about the “strategic lobbying services” they employ in support of their lobbyists. The bill would require reporting of individuals employed in strategic planning, earned media and press strategy, polling, production of public communications, and encouraging people to take action to support or oppose a legislative or regulatory action through the formation of formal or informal coalitions.
FEC
Politico: Conservative think tank asks FEC to probe tech bans on Laura Loomer
By Cristiano Lima
A conservative think tank on Thursday called for the Federal Election Commission to investigate whether tech companies including Facebook, Twitter and Uber are violating campaign finance laws by keeping far-right activist and congressional candidate Laura Loomer off their platforms…
In a letter to the FEC, the right-leaning American Principles Project says the companies’ right to ban Loomer should be reevaluated due to her primary win.
“Under normal circumstances, it would arguably be well within those companies’ rights to take this action,” wrote Jon Schweppe, director of government affairs at APP. “But given that Loomer is now a major party nominee for U.S. Congress, a reassessment may be warranted.”
Schweppe asks the agency to look into whether the tech companies can “legally grant a material benefit to one political candidate, but not another” and whether denying one political candidate access to their services amounts to “an in-kind contribution to the favored candidate.”
Twitter and Facebook said Wednesday they do not plan to reinstate Loomer after her primary win.
Nonprofits
Center for Responsive Politics: Steve Bannon indictment highlights loopholes in political spending transparency
By Anna Massoglia and Karl Evers-Hillstrom
Federal prosecutors charged former White House strategist Steve Bannon and three others with fraud Thursday for allegedly siphoning money from an online fundraising effort meant to build a wall on the southern border for President Donald Trump.
The indictment alleges Bannon, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea routed crowdfunded money for the “We Build The Wall” campaign to their personal accounts using a number of nonprofits and shell companies.
The group raised $25 million on GoFundMe, but never disclosed how it was spending its money. Kolfage later launched an identically named 501(c)(4) tax-exempt nonprofit called “We Build the Wall” with a similar stated aim to fund a southern border wall and an ambitious $5 billion goal…
Because We Build The Wall is organized as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit rather than a political committee, it is not legally required to disclose its donors or file regular campaign finance reports to the FEC. Under IRS rules governing such nonprofits, We Build the Wall would not be required to divulge details of its spending until after the 2020 presidential election due to its December 2018 incorporation date.
Even then, the group would only be required to disclose limited details of transactions with closely-tied entities or operatives and payments to its top contractors. Routing spending through shell companies and other nonprofits would further obscure what little financial information the group is required to disclose.
Right to Protest
Chicago Tribune: Citing threats, Mayor Lori Lightfoot defends ban on protesters on her block: ‘I have a right to make sure that my home is secure’
By Gregory Pratt, Jeremy Gorner, and Megan Crepeau
Mayor Lori Lightfoot defended the Chicago Police Department’s ban on protesters being able to demonstrate on the block where she lives, telling reporters Thursday that she and her family at times require heightened security because of threats she receives daily.
Lightfoot refused to elaborate on the specific threats, but said she receives them daily against herself, her wife and her home. Comparisons to how the Police Department has protected previous mayors’ homes, such as Rahm Emanuel’s Ravenswood residence, are unfair because “this is a different time like no other,” Lightfoot told reporters.
“I think that residents of this city, understanding the nature of the threats that we are receiving on a daily basis, on a daily basis, understand I have a right to make sure that my home is secure,” Lightfoot said…
Both Lightfoot and Brown noted there are laws on the books banning residential protests, but Brown acknowledged the Police Department does not always enforce them. Brown said the city tries to give “wiggle room” for protesters.
Washington Post: Police clash with protesters outside Pittsburgh mayor’s home as movement arrives at officials’ front doors
By Jessica Wolfrom and Mark Berman
Protesters and police clashed outside the Pittsburgh mayor’s home for a second consecutive night Wednesday in an encounter that ended with tear gas, as the American summer of unrest made its way to another public official’s front door.
Demonstrations in Pittsburgh grew after plainclothes officers arrested a demonstrator last weekend and drove away in an unmarked van. Mayor Bill Peduto (D) said he was “livid” over the police tactics, but had already drawn outrage over a tweet about the limits of protesters’ rights: “the right to assemble is a guaranteed right, but the right to shut down public streets is a privilege.”
Protesters chanted and sang outside his Point Breeze home, making Peduto the latest in a growing list of mayors and other public figures to see demonstrators take aim at their private residences.
Media
Washington Examiner: OANN reporter announces rival to White House Correspondents’ Association
By Mike Brest
A reporter with One America News Network announced the “formal launch” of a group meant to rival the White House Correspondents’ Association.
A press release on Thursday said OANN White House correspondent Chanel Rion created the National White House Correspondents Association in April after the WHCA board voted to bar OANN from the briefing rotation. She has been showing up to the White House press briefings anyway at the invitation of the White House.
The NWHCA statement claims the WHCA “has maneuvered almost all balance and diversity out of the White House correspondents’ pool and briefing room demonstrating daily that they consider America’s free press the exclusive property of the ‘progressive’ reformers of Washington.”
The organization is reviewing applications for admittance to the group, but only those who are invited to join can apply.
Independent Groups
Politico: Top Democrats funded super PAC that meddled in Kansas GOP primary
By James Arkin
Two top national Democratic groups funded a mystery super PAC that meddled in the Kansas Republican Senate primary by bashing the ultimate victor and elevating a candidate WashingtonRepublicans opposed, Democrats involved in the effort told POLITICO this week.
Senate Majority PAC, a top super PAC run by allies of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Women Vote!, the super PAC arm of EMILY’s List, combined to funnel more than $5 million to Sunflower State, a group formed last month that spent heavily in the Kansas GOP race. The spending was widelypresumed by operatives in both parties to have come from Democrats, though this marks the first official confirmation of their involvement.
Online Speech Platforms
The Guardian: Google giving far-right users’ data to law enforcement, documents reveal
By Jason Wilson
A little-known investigative unit inside search giant Google regularly forwarded detailed personal information on the company’s users to members of a counter-terrorist fusion center in California’s Bay Area, according to leaked documents reviewed by the Guardian.
National Review: Twitter Says Viral Mailbox Misinformation Does Not Violate Company’s Policies
By Tobias Hoonhout
Twitter has declined to address viral tweets pushing misinformation about the Postal Service, saying they did not violate the company’s updated civic integrity policy, which was used to fact-check President Trump in May.
New York Post: TikTok removes 380K videos in US for violating hate speech policy
By Reuters
TikTok has removed more than 380,000 videos in the US for violating its hate speech policy so far this year, the short-form video app said Thursday.
The app, owned by China’s ByteDance, also said it banned more than 1,300 accounts for posting hateful content.
TikTok said in a blog post that it had acted on content such as race-based harassment and that it also had a zero-tolerance policy on organized hate groups and on content that denied “violent tragedies” like the Holocaust or slavery.
By Robby Soave
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced on Thursday that he was donating $10 million to Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, a project recently launched by the antiracist scholar Ibram X. Kendi…
In a tweet, [Kendi] thanked Dorsey for the grant…
Dorsey replied that he hoped the center’s research would inform and fuel “much needed and overdue policy change.”
The CEO of Twitter is more than welcome to spend his financial resources however he sees fit. He can give money to anyone he wants, for any reason. But since Kendi intends to have an impact on public policy-and since these funds presumably will help Kendi fulfill his goals-it’s worth scrutinizing what kinds of policy changes he has in mind.
In a 2019 piece for POLITICO magazine, Kendi proposed a constitutional amendment that would prohibit racism…:
To fix the original sin of racism, Americans should pass an anti-racist amendment to the U.S. Constitution that enshrines two guiding anti-racist principals: Racial inequity is evidence of racist policy and the different racial groups are equals. The amendment would make unconstitutional racial inequity over a certain threshold, as well as racist ideas by public officials (with “racist ideas” and “public official” clearly defined). It would establish and permanently fund the Department of Anti-racism (DOA) comprised of formally trained experts on racism and no political appointees. The DOA would be responsible for preclearing all local, state and federal public policies to ensure they won’t yield racial inequity, monitor those policies, investigate private racist policies when racial inequity surfaces, and monitor public officials for expressions of racist ideas. The DOA would be empowered with disciplinary tools to wield over and against policymakers and public officials who do not voluntarily change their racist policy and ideas.
Candidates and Campaigns
Washington Post: Trump’s reelection effort has officially spent more than $1 billion, a record sum at this point in the campaign
By Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Anu Narayanswamy
President Trump’s campaign, the Republican Party and two affiliated committees, have spent more than $1 billion since 2017, a record-breaking sum spent toward a reelection effort at this point in the presidential campaign, new filings show.
Trump has raised and spent money for his reelection since 2017, earlier in his term than previous presidents. At this point in 2012, former president Barack Obama’s reelection effort, including the Democratic National Committee, had spent about $643 million, federal records show.
Miami Herald: YouTube attack ad by Mucarsel-Powell has ‘false’ allegation, Gimenez lawyer says
By David Smiley
Miami Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign says it will “update” a digital ad criticizing her political opponent for Congress after an attorney for the campaign of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez threatened to sue over “false information” about the mayor’s family contained in the video.
