Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech May 1, 2025 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]. FEC Statement of Commissioner Allen J. Dickerson upon the Conclusion of his Term .....Four years ago, the Senate confirmed my nomination to a term on this Commission ending April 30, 2025. That day has arrived. Accordingly, I have informed the President of my resignation, effective this evening. As is customary, I’d like to leave my colleagues with my thanks, and a few thoughts. It is difficult to remember the Commission we inherited in 2020. Years of entrenchment and recrimination had badly hobbled this organization. The enforcement backlog numbered in the hundreds of matters, many imperiled by the statute of limitations. Regulatory efforts had lain dormant for a decade or longer. The FEC was refusing to show up in Federal court, or even explain why. Meanwhile, basic efforts to acknowledge binding decisions of the Supreme Court went nowhere as longserving commissioners played a delaying game rather than accept judicial losses. The commissioners had such difficulty agreeing on advisory opinions that the public largely stopped asking. I mention all of this for three reasons. Ed. note: The Commission also elected Commissioner Shana M. Broussard to serve as Chair of the Commission for the remainder of 2025, effective July 1. Congress New York Post: Contractors for Dem fundraising platform ActBlue summoned to Congress amid fraud probe By Josh Christenson .....Contractors for the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue have been summoned to appear before Congress amid a sweeping probe into potentially fraudulent — and even foreign-sourced — donations during the 2024 election, according to a pair of letters exclusively obtained by The Post. The House Oversight, Judiciary and Administration Committees fired off letters to two employees of the AI-powered fraud prevention software firm Sift who worked with ActBlue — and reportedly know “critical” information about how the lead Dem funding portal adopted a “more lenient” standard for suspicious donations. “The Committees are concerned that ActBlue has maintained poor anti-fraud practices that may have allowed bad actors to make fraudulent political donations, including from foreign sources,” wrote Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Administration Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.). The Courts Courthouse News: NYC mayoral hopeful asks 2nd Circuit to overturn ban on ‘independence’ in party names By Josh Russell .....A New York City lawyer running for mayor asked a federal appeals panel on Tuesday to declare unconstitutional the enforcement of a state bill that barred the use of "independence" and "independent" in political party names. Jim Walden, a candidate for New York City mayor, is challenging New York’s “Independence Ban,” which bans the use of the words “independence” and “independent” from ballot lines to prevent voter confusion, claiming the state’s barring is a “direct content-based restriction on core political speech.” LifeNews.com: Lawsuit Filed Against City Giving People Criminal Citations for Pro-Life Yard Signs By Jordan Sekulow .....The ACLJ just filed a federal lawsuit to defend a courageous pro-life advocate whose constitutional rights were blatantly violated by local officials in Carbondale, Illinois. We told you earlier this month that while we were live on air during our broadcast, a pastor reached out to us after some of his parishioners were being targeted for criminal citation by police just for having pro-life signs. We went right to work, in real-time, de-escalating the police and ensuring that our clients were not arrested that day. Courthouse News: Judge rules Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil’s case belongs in federal, not immigration court By Nina Pullano .....A New Jersey federal judge on Tuesday shored up his determination that he has jurisdiction to decide the fate of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian Columbia University graduate facing deportation for advocating against Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip. On April 11, an immigration judge in Louisiana, where Khalil is detained, said the 30-year-old Syrian-born activist can be kicked out of the U.S. as a national security risk, siding with the secretary of state in its determination that Khalil was “deportable” based on his activism. But immigration courts don’t have the power to give Khalil the relief he seeks in his claim that the government’s determination was unconstitutional, nor could they carry out the fact-finding that a federal appeals court would need down the road, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said in his 108-page ruling. Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): N.Y. Decision on Showing Required for #TheyLied Defamation Claims Based on Allegations of Sexual Assault By Eugene Volokh .....In Friday's decision in Vitagliano v. Weiner, by N.Y. appellate judges Gerald Whalen, John Curran, Donald Greenwood, and Lynn Keane, Vitagliano sued alleging that Weiner had sexually assaulted her; Weiner counterclaimed "for defamation premised on a social media 'story' posted by [Vitagliano] in which she asserted that defendant 'is a rapist.'" Vitagliano tried to get Weiner's counterclaim dismissed early, under New York's anti-SLAPP statute, which is designed to quickly dispose of legally insufficient claims based on speech on matters of public concern. No, says the appellate court: Wall Street Journal: Activist Robby Starbuck Sues Meta Over AI Answers About Him By Sarah Nassauer and Jacob Gershman .....Robby Starbuck, the conservative activist, filed a defamation lawsuit against Meta alleging its artificial intelligence tool smeared him by falsely asserting he participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Starbuck says he discovered the problem last summer when he was waging an online campaign to get Harley-Davidson to change its diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policies. A Harley dealer in Vermont fired back by posting on X a screenshot on Aug. 5 purportedly of an Meta AI response saying Starbuck was at the Capitol riot and that he was linked to QAnon. Starbuck denied the allegations that same day and responded in a social media post that “Meta will hear from my lawyers.” He says Meta AI was still making the same unproven claims about him months later and he filed a lawsuit. His lawsuit, filed in Delaware Superior Court on Tuesday, seeks more than $5 million in damages. The States Alaska Beacon: Alaska House votes down restrictions and disclosure rules for ‘dark money’ campaign cash By James Brooks .....Ahead of its vote on a bill to restrict political donations in state elections, members of the House’s multipartisan majority rejected a series of amendments that would have expanded the bill. Among the rejected proposals were ideas to require greater disclosure of donations funneled through so-called dark money groups enabled by the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United. The rejected amendments, from Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, would have required prompt disclosure of donations to independent expenditure groups, required advertising disclosures, and sought to limit out-of-state contributions to groups backing ballot measures. Federal courts have struck down Alaska’s limits on out-of-state contributions to candidates. Previous bills dealing with independent expenditures haven’t advanced to a floor vote, making the rejected amendments significant. Inverting the usual pattern, Republican lawmakers proposed the restrictions, and they were defeated by the votes of independents and Democrats. Washington Examiner: Texas House passes bill requiring antisemitism definition in schools despite free speech concerns By Emily Hallas .....The Texas House passed a bill on Tuesday that would require public schools and colleges to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. Lawmakers approved the bill by a 134-2 vote, putting it one step closer to getting signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) after the legislation passed the state Senate earlier this month... SB 326 would add the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism to bullying statutes, requiring schools to abide by the definition in student disciplinary proceedings when examining whether antisemitism was involved in incidents. The IHRA’s definition of antisemitism reads: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Politico (New Jersey Playbook): Public campaign financing in the age of super PACs By Matt Friedman .....While super PACs are barred from coordinating with campaigns, there are easy ways around that, as demonstrated by the fact that their commercials are sometimes virtually indistinguishable from that of the candidates themselves, right down to the stock footage used. Take the Coalition for Progress Super PAC ad that features the exact same footage of Steve Fulop running up a massive staircase that’s shown in a Fulop campaign ad. And if Josh Gottheimer didn’t have a decent idea of what a super PAC backing his gubernatorial campaign planned, do you think he would have blindly given it $10 million from his House campaign fund? Some individual donors have given hundreds of thousands to candidates’ PACs, while interest groups like unions have given millions. Supporters of the public financing program still have arguments in favor of it. Less-wealthy candidates who have some fundraising ability still get access to millions that can help them compete with richer or better-connected opponents. And it forces candidates to take part in debates, though with the many Democratic candidate forums in recent weeks, I’m not sure they need to be prodded. But it seems that some of the big justifications for the program don’t apply when there’s no limit to how much anyone can give to a shadow campaign. Dallas Morning News: Texas lawmakers hear proposal to fine, jail noncitizen donors By Nolan D. McCaskill .....Noncitizens who make political contributions in Texas elections could be fined and jailed under a bill taken up by a legislative committee Monday. It is illegal for foreign nationals to donate or spend money in federal, state and local elections under federal law. But Rep. Dennis Paul, R-Houston, said “enforcement is rare and often focused on national races.” Paul’s House Bill 4312 would prohibit anyone who is not an American citizen from knowingly donating to a Texas candidate or political committee. An offense would be a Class A misdemeanor, and violators would face up to a $4,000 fine, a year in jail or both. “This applies at every level of government — including school board, judicial, local races — ensuring foreign money has no influence in Texas politics,” Paul said Monday morning. “The bill aligns with federal law, but it ensures Texas can defend its election without waiting on Washington and gives our state clear legal grounds to enforce that standard.” ... Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, asked Paul to amend his bill to also make it illegal for Texas candidates to accept contributions from noncitizens. Paul said it would be a good floor amendment. Other members of the House State Affairs Committee raised concerns over enforcement, including Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who has introduced legislation to limit out-of-state contributions in Texas elections and other bills related to campaign donations and advertising. “Some of these campaign finance reports have thousands and thousands of small donors that give to a campaign,” Phelan said. “How can you possibly go through that list of 2,000 and know who’s a citizen?” Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. For email filters, the subject of this email will always begin with "Institute for Free Speech Media Update." 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