ICYMI

National Review: Stunning Findings on Campaign-Finance Law

By Zac Morgan

You may think the Bill of Rights safeguards our liberties from the whims of public opinion…

Well, you’d be wrong, as we’re reminded by David M. Primo and Jeffrey D. Milyo’s latest work, Campaign Finance and American Democracy: What the Public Really Thinks and Why It Matters. In this welcome addition to the discourse on the country’s campaign-finance system, the authors’ research illustrates the ways in which public opinion, often misinformed, has served as a basis for courts to bless the restriction of First Amendment liberties.

The Courts

Indianapolis Star: ACLU, Black student sue officials at Indiana school over T-shirt dispute

By Johnny Magdaleno

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is suing a school in Northern Indiana after a student alleged he was forced by administrators to go home in August for wearing a T-shirt with the text “I hope I don’t get killed for being Black today.” …

The complaint also alleges that students at the school are allowed to wear T-shirts emblazoned with Confederate flags and “Blue Lives Matter” slogans…

“Schools cannot selectively choose which social issues students can support through messages on their clothing,” Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana’s legal director, said in a prepared statement on Monday.  

Free Speech

Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Conversation on Free Speech and Inequality Between Prof. Nelson Tebbe (Cornell) and Me

By Eugene Volokh

It’s from last month, but I inadvertently neglected to blog it when it was first put up on YouTube. Here it is, brought to you be the University of Texas Law School’s Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center.

Here’s the UT summary:

Free Speech and Economic Justice: A Conversation with Law Professors Nelson Tebbe and Eugene Volokh

Join Professors Nelson Tebbe (Cornell Law) and Eugene Volokh (UCLA Law) for a conversation regarding how and whether current applications of free speech doctrines affect disparities in income, wealth, and other goods; whether those applications should be altered; and the disagreements and controversies arising from some of the proposed changes.

Moderated by Texas Law Professor Steven Collis, this promises to be a spirited-but friendly!-dive into one of the most important issues of our time.

It was indeed both spirited and friendly; I hope you find it to also be interesting!

Online Speech Platforms

New York Times: Roiled by Election, Facebook Struggles to Balance Civility and Growth

By Kevin Roose, Mike Isaac, and Sheera Frenkel

In the tense days after the presidential election, a team of Facebook employees presented the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, with an alarming finding: Election-related misinformation was going viral on the site…

In response, the employees proposed an emergency change to the site’s news feed algorithm, which helps determine what more than two billion people see every day. It involved emphasizing the importance of what Facebook calls “news ecosystem quality” scores, or N.E.Q., a secret internal ranking it assigns to news publishers based on signals about the quality of their journalism.

Typically, N.E.Q. scores play a minor role in determining what appears on users’ feeds. But several days after the election, Mr. Zuckerberg agreed to increase the weight that Facebook’s algorithm gave to N.E.Q. scores to make sure authoritative news appeared more prominently, said three people with knowledge of the decision, who were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

The change was part of the “break glass” plans Facebook had spent months developing for the aftermath of a contested election. It resulted in a spike in visibility for big, mainstream publishers like CNN, The New York Times and NPR, while posts from highly engaged hyperpartisan pages, such as Breitbart and Occupy Democrats, became less visible, the employees said.

Business Insider: Facebook is reportedly planning to woo Joe Biden by rolling out new vaccine and climate change features

By Isobel Asher Hamilton

Facebook is gearing up to woo President-elect Joe Biden by promoting vaccine and climate change information, according to a report from the Financial Times.

Citing anonymous company “insiders,” the FT reports Facebook is planning to crack down harder on COVID-19 misinformation, and is considering putting a banner at the top of its site encouraging users to get vaccinated once a vaccine is approved.

It will also encourage users to engage with content related to climate change, specifically the Paris Climate Agreement, which Biden has pledged to rejoin. 

Candidates and Campaigns

Washington Examiner: Once again, money in politics fails to buy votes

By Dan Backer

Once again, the public proved that money does not buy elections. Outraising and outspending your opponent does not buy votes or guarantee victory…
People think for themselves. No fundraising or spending edge, even in the tens or hundreds of millions, could offset the will of the people in states such as Kentucky, Maine, and South Carolina…

Nevertheless, “campaign finance reform” has become such a normalized talking point that voters are led to believe our elections are rigged. The reality is that campaign finance reform only ever serves to benefit entrenched incumbents and well-established special interests…

Ultimately, the people with the most influence on elections are the voters themselves. We, the people, make our own choices and pick our own winners. If you think people are so stupid they’ll just vote for whoever ran the most ads, then maybe democracy isn’t for you.

Wall Street Journal: Big Donors Spent Heavily on Failed Election Efforts

By Julie Bykowicz and Tarini Parti

Michael Bloomberg followed his $1 billion failed Democratic presidential bid with a $100 million effort to turn Florida blue-only to see the state award President Trump a wider margin of victory than four years ago.

In an election that cost an estimated $14 billion, Mr. Bloomberg is one of dozens of wealthy individuals who saw arguably poor returns on some political investments…

A closer look at how and where some of the biggest political donors spent their money also shows huge outlays on efforts that fell short.

James Simons, a hedge fund CEO who gave $9 million to the Senate Majority PAC, has been one of the biggest investors in the Democrats’ effort to win control of the Senate…

The super PAC, closely tied to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, dedicated 66% of the $187 million it spent on advertising this year to six races that Democrats lost. In October alone, it spent more than $14 million in South Carolina and Texas. Republicans won both races by about 10 percentage points.

The States

Jonathan Turley: Michigan Attorney General Resumes Threats Of Criminal Prosecution Against Those Alleging Voter Fraud

We have been discussing the use of the criminal code by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) to threaten people who post videos on alleged voter fraud or legislators who raise such objections in the state. These threats are coercive and abusive, particularly when targeting opponents of your party who are challenging the victory of your candidate for president. Yet, as shown by a congressman seeking to disbar dozens of Trump lawyers, such threats are popular in today’s rage-filled politics. So, Nessel continued her threats of prosecution on Monday in warning that a former state senator could be prosecuted for alleging possible voter fraud at a meeting of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers. So, raising voting fraud at the board overseeing voting is now a possible basis for prosecution in Michigan.