New from the Institute for Free Speech
Brookings Report Examines How Parties Have Weakened in Relation to Independent Groups
By Joe Albanese
Earlier this month, Jonathan Rauch – a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution – and Raymond J. La Raja – an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst – co-authored a report on the role of political parties and independent, non-party groups in selecting and cultivating political candidates. Their report examines the growing influence of independent organizations and the relative decline of formal parties as “gatekeepers” in the political process. Although the report does not dive into great detail on campaign finance law, it still has important implications for that field.
Rauch and La Raja weigh the potential benefits and downsides of this decades-long trend…
For those who want political parties to maintain their stabilizing influence in politics, the best solution is to stop hobbling them with confusing regulations. For those who welcome the democratizing influence of independent advocacy groups, they may thank the courts for appropriately striking down restrictions on the giving and spending of money on First Amendment grounds. Both outcomes require the same formula: allow more speech from more people, with fewer government restrictions.
FEC
Politico: Lawsuit prompts FEC to withhold information on super PAC donation ‘scheme’
By Josh Gerstein and Maggie Severns
Court records unsealed Tuesday show that last Friday an anonymous individual referred to as “John Doe 1” and an unnamed related trust referred to as “John Doe 2” sued the FEC in federal court in Washington in an effort to block disclosure of information that the lawsuit said could amount to an invasion of privacy and infringe on First Amendment-protected political activity…
In the face of the lawsuit and a request for a temporary restraining order, the FEC agreed to delete the names of the individual and the trust, as well as other identifying details, from records about the investigation made public on Tuesday…
The original complaint about the donation, filed by the good government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, alleged Now or Never PAC had accepted $1.7 million in anonymous funds that were illegally funneled through the American Conservative Union, an organization best known for putting together the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Super PACs, which have to disclose the sources of their spending, are not allowed to accept money that is funneled through so-called “straw donors” who don’t reveal their funds.
The FEC reached an agreement earlier this fall with the American Conservative Union over the complaint, and ACU agreed to pay a $350,000 fine.
Harassment
CNN: Death threats are forcing professors off campus
By Dan Lieberman
The school says his enforced absence is due to safety concerns raised by a furious and frightening reaction to controversial posts he made on social media.
Ciccariello-Maher, who teaches politics and global studies, said he’s received numerous death threats over the last 12 months.
“I have 800 unread voicemails in my inbox right now that have been building up over the past few weeks. And this … it’s just something that happens all the time,” he said.
“Threats that involve my child are, of course, the ones that are the most frightening to me.” …
In the last year, more than 100 incidents of targeted harassment against professors have been reported on college campuses, according to the American Association of University Professors…
“Historically, it’s been conservative professors who have faced retaliation and disciplinary threats, and harassment for offending people,” said Ari Cohn, director of the Individual Rights Defense Program for the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
“I think over the course of the past year, as liberal faculty members have become increasingly outspoken with their criticism of the Trump administration, you have seen more professors on the left being targeted.”
The Courts
Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Court Upholds Right to Display Signs Depicting Aborted Fetuses
By Eugene Volokh
Michael Mattia opposes abortion, and stands on street corners in Center Line, Michigan displaying signs that contain, among other things, graphic images of aborted fetuses. City authorities ordered him to stop, citing (1) local ordinance § 46-146, which provides,
“[a]ny person who shall make or assist in making any noise, disturbance, trouble or improper diversion, or any rout or riot, by which the peace and good order of the city are disturbed, shall be guilty of a breach of the peace, and disorderly conduct
and (2) local ordinance § 5150, which the city attorney read as
“prohibit[ing] all signs, notwithstanding the content, displayed on any street corner, public right-of-way or sidewalk.”
Monday, a federal district court granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the ordinances against Mattia’s speech, concluding that the city’s actions likely violated the First Amendment…
The Media
New York Sun: Could Foreign Agents Law Ensnare New York Times With Legal Fine Print?
By Ira Stoll
The law Mr. Mueller is relying on includes an exemption for “any news or press service or association organized under the law of the United States or of any state.” You might think that would let the Times off the hook. Yet that exemption also requires that the news organization’s “officers and directors, if any, are citizens of the United States.”
That is a test that the Times fails; the chief executive officer and president of the New York Times Co., Mark Thompson, who is a member of its board of directors, is not an American citizen, Mr. Thompson disclosed in a November 2017 interview with Ken Doctor of Harvard’s Nieman Lab.
Without that news exemption, the law casts a wide net that takes in “any person” – a “person” for this purpose, according to the law can include a corporation or organization – who “engages within the United States in political activities for or in the interests of” a foreign principal…
Again, the law casts a wide net – it defines foreign principal as not only a foreign government or foreign political party but also “a person outside of the United States,” or a foreign partnership or corporation.
Under the terms of the law, in other words, Carlos Slim Helu is a foreign principal. According to the 2017 Times Company proxy statement, Mr. Slim, who is based in Mexico, owned 17.3% of the Times Company’s Class A stock.
The States
Reason: Breaking News Before Local Cops Do Lands Laredo Vlogger With Felony Charges
By Elizabeth Nolan Brown
Posting local crime news online before the cops do could land you felony charges in Texas. That’s what Priscilla Villarreal-who runs a hyper-local Laredo news page on Facebook called LaGordiloca-found out last week.
LaGordiloca’s nearly 84,000 followers and Villarreal’s wide range of posts (often in both English and Spanish) on community events haven’t earned her consideration as “official” media from the Laredo Police Department (LPD), apparently. And the department doesn’t seem too keen on honoring the First Amendment rights of ordinary folks.
Police last Wednesday charged Villarreal with two counts of “misuse of official information,” a third-degree felony. The information she allegedly misused was provided to her by a longtime patrol officer with the department charging her.
We’re not talking about whistleblower stuff or private details about investigations. This wasn’t information classified as non-public or prohibited from disclosure under Texas public-information law. It concerned things like local arrests and traffic accidents-information that was already or would soon be made publicly available. But LPD’s Public Information Office would generally control the timing (and framing) of its release, with selective tips given to professional media outlets and an official statement posted to the LPD website and to social media.
Tennessean: Tennessee lawmakers to allow guns but prohibit ‘hand-carried signs’ in new building
By Joel Ebert
Tennesseans will be allowed to bring their guns to the new home of the legislature but must leave any hand-held signs behind, according to a recently implemented policy.
The policy, which Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, and House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, approved Dec. 14, expressly prohibits “hand-carried signs and signs on hand sticks” because they “represent a serious safety hazard.”
In recent years, protesters have frequently brought signs with them to Legislative Plaza – state lawmakers’ longtime home. Last month lawmakers offices were moved into the newly renovated Cordell Hull building…
Ken Paulson, who serves as president of Middle Tennessee State University’s First Amendment Center and dean of the school’s College of Media and Entertainment, said, “Any rational person would have to suspect that this is an attempt in part to limit dissent and to avoid embarrassment to lawmakers.”
