April 28, 2025

In the News

Pluribus News: States crack down on nuisance lawsuits

By Reid Wilson

.....[Anti-SLAPP] laws exist “to stop frivolous lawsuits that seek to censor people,” said David Keating, president of the Institute for Free Speech, which backs the anti-SLAPP laws. “A lot of these lawsuits, these frivolous lawsuits make defamation claims. And with the internet, a lot of people today are speaking online, and that can appear anywhere.”

Keating said it is impossible to compile the number of SLAPP lawsuits filed in the United States, but that the frequency of those suits is rising…

Anti-SLAPP laws do not always conform to the Uniform Law Commission’s model bills. Keating’s group rates states based on the level of protection their laws provide; both deep red states like Texas and Louisiana and deep blue states like California and Oregon have approved anti-SLAPP laws that earn the Institute for Free Speech’s highest marks.

“The most important thing is the amount of speech covered. If the law is too narrow to start with, then it doesn’t really do any good,” Keating said.

FEC

NOTUS: The Federal Election Commission Is Facing a De Facto Shutdown

By Dave Levinthal

.....The Federal Election Commission will soon lose its powers to enforce and regulate campaign finance laws, NOTUS has learned.

This de facto FEC shutdown will be triggered when Republican Commissioner Allen Dickerson resigns on Wednesday, leaving the six-member FEC with too few commissioners to legally conduct high-level business, three government sources familiar with the matter said.

Nonprofits

The Free Press: Exclusive: Trump’s D.C. Prosecutor Threatens Wikipedia’s Tax-Exempt Status

By Gabe Kaminsky

.....Ed Martin, the firebrand Republican activist whom President Donald Trump picked to be the top prosecutor in D.C., has a new target: Wikipedia.

Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington and Trump’s permanent selection to serve in that role, sent a letter on Thursday afternoon to the Wikimedia Foundation that alleged it “is engaging in a series of activities that could violate its obligations” under 501(c)(3), a section of the IRS code for charities. It is Wikipedia’s parent group.

The letter, which was obtained by The Free Press, accused the largest online encyclopedia of “allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public.” The Wikimedia Foundation, Martin said, is directed by a board “that is composed primarily of foreign nationals” who are “subverting the interests of American taxpayers.”

The Trump-allied prosecutor went on to accuse the foundation of engaging in activities that are “implicating the national security and the interests of the United States,” according to the letter, which is four pages long and demanded responses to a dozen questions about the Wikimedia Foundation’s operations by May 15.

The Courts

Wall Street Journal: Former Congressman George Santos Sentenced to Seven Years for Fraud

By James Fanelli and Olivia Beavers

.....George Santos, the disgraced former New York congressman who fabricated his life story to win public office, was sentenced Friday to just over seven years in prison for stealing from political donors and lying about his campaign fundraising.

Free Expression

Vox: This pro-Israel group keeps a blacklist. Now it’s taking credit for deportations.

By Zack Beauchamp

.....About nine years ago, a new organization called Canary Mission released a YouTube video describing their mission: maintaining a blacklist of anti-Israel college students.

American campuses, the video warns, had become hotbeds of anti-Israel extremism: safe spaces for students to attend “Jew-hating conferences and anti-American rallies.” To fight this, Canary Mission would build an extensive database of students and professors who engaged in anti-Israel activity. The primary intent, per the video, is to ensure that anti-Israel students cannot find gainful employment after graduation.

“These individuals are applying for jobs within your company,” the Canary Mission video warns. “It is your duty to ensure that today’s radicals are not tomorrow’s employees.”

Over the course of the next decade, Canary Mission — which takes its name from the expression “canary in the coal mine” — delivered on its promise.

Its database now contains mini-profiles of thousands of students and professors, and has expanded to include professionals like doctors and nurses. People listed in the database have been harassed, disciplined, and even fired. Israeli intelligence has used Canary Mission profiles as justification for detaining listed visitors at the border.

And since the second Trump administration began, Canary Mission’s targets have started to be deported from the United States.

Persuasion: Europe Really Is Jailing People for Online Speech

By Yascha Mounk

.....The politician in question is Nancy Faeser.

Over her three-plus years in office, the Social Democrat has reported multiple citizens to the police for criticisms they made of her on social media. She is hardly alone in having done so; other members of Olaf Scholz’s outgoing government have been even more aggressive in targeting its critics.

Robert Habeck, a leader of the Green Party, has initiated over 800 criminal complaints since taking up his position as vice chancellor in 2021. One of them was directed against a pensioner who had tweeted a parody of a ubiquitous ad for a German shampoo brand by the name of “Schwarzkopf Professional” which featured Habeck’s face—and luscious hair—under the slogan “Schwachkopf Professional” (roughly: professional idiot). The police duly raided the pensioner’s home at 6am, confiscated his iPad, and started criminal proceedings against him.

It may seem as though this is nothing new. By American standards, Germany’s limits on free speech have long been shockingly restrictive. As a family friend experienced some two decades ago, even a comparatively innocuous interpersonal altercation can lead to a lengthy court trial.

Wall Street Journal: Many Big Law Firms Shun Conservative Clients

By John Greil

.....More than 500 law firms recently signed a court brief denouncing President Trump’s executive orders targeting Perkins Coie and other firms for representing causes that Mr. Trump opposes. The brief invokes the Supreme Court’s admirable maxim: “The ‘courage’ of attorneys who take on unpopular clients has long ‘made lawyerdom proud.’ ”

But that courage often goes only in one direction. For years, some of America’s biggest law firms have been unwilling to represent conservative clients whose beliefs run against the elite liberal consensus. This imbalance hurts reputations—and compromises the rule of law.

The States

Texas Scorecard: Senate Bill Would Tie Licenses to Ethics Registry, Drawing Sharp Criticism

By Brandon Waltens

.....A proposal in the Texas Senate is drawing fire from First Amendment advocates who say it could turn Texas into a political police state.

Senate Bill 1460, filed by Sen. Donna Campbell (R-Bulverde), would create a statewide “Ethics Violations Registry” managed by the Texas Ethics Commission. Anyone listed would be denied a state license—including the ability to drive, practice medicine, law, real estate, plumbing, or any other licensed trade—until they pay off fines or fulfill other TEC-imposed penalties.

The bill was heard in the Senate Business & Commerce Committee on Thursday morning, after being posted with less than 24 hours’ notice...

But critics say the bill would give the TEC dangerous power to destroy the livelihoods of Texans engaged in political speech.

First Amendment attorney Tony McDonald likened the bill “to bringing the Chinese social credit system to Texas.”

McDonald described current TEC enforcement as abusive and warned the bill would give the agency unilateral power to blacklist citizens from working. 

“SB 1460 will make outlaws of every Texan who is dragged in front of the TEC and who can’t come up with the money to pay their extortionate demands,” he wrote.

Alabama Political Reporter: Clarifying Alabama campaign finance laws on federal-to-state transfers

By Bill Britt

.....U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville’s campaign is facing scrutiny following a statement published on Yellowhammer News that reveals a misunderstanding — or misrepresentation — of Alabama’s strict campaign finance regulations. Yellowhammer reported, “to clarify under Alabama FCPA law, campaign committees are allowed to transfer money from one principal campaign committee if they are the same person,” implying Tuberville could shift his substantial federal campaign war chest of $628,327.28, as reported in the first quarter of this year, into a potential state-level campaign.

Tuberville’s Senate office stated it has not commented on matters related to his campaign finances.

However, this claim directly contradicts Alabama’s explicit restrictions under the state’s Fair Campaign Practices Act (FCPA). According to Alabama law, transferring more than $1,000 from a federal campaign account into a state campaign committee constitutes a felony — a stark reality Tuberville’s campaign either fails to comprehend or is intentionally ignoring.

Washington Examiner: Inside the movement to stop foreign cash from swaying ballot initiatives

By Robert Schmad

.....In October 2024, a right-of-center watchdog organization called Americans for Public Trust released a bombshell report claiming that foreigners may have dumped tens of millions of dollars into ballot initiative campaigns ahead of November’s election. Since then, a coalition of right-of-center advocacy groups has worked with grassroots activists and state legislators to block foreign entities from throwing their money into American ballot referendums.

APT pointed to a loophole in many states’ election laws which they claim allowed foreign citizens to donate to 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations and for those organizations to then spend money advocating for or against ballot measures. The concerted push to stop that practice by APT, Heritage Action, and the Honest Elections Project, alongside others, has borne considerable fruit. 

Spectrum News 1: Authorities investigate doxxing attempt on judge in Frisco teen's stabbing case

By Christine Sanchez

.....The Collin County judge presiding over the case of a 17-year-old’s fatal stabbing at a Frisco track meet is the victim of a doxxing attempt, according to a report from the Dallas Morning News.

A post circulating on X appeared to reveal District Judge Angela Tucker’s home address. The post has since been removed from the social media site for violating its rules.

Austin Metcalf was killed in the April 2 stabbing and another 17-year-old has been charged in the case.

The doxxing attempt happened after Tucker lowered the bail of the minor charged in the case from $1 million to $250,000 on April 14, a decision that was met with backlash online.