Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech May 8, 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]. In the News WORLD Radio: Free speech, faith, and family Hosted by Steve West and Mary Reichard .....Two dads wanted to quietly protest a high school’s decision to let a male student identifying as female to play on their daughters’ soccer team. What happened next raises constitutional questions. Congress The Federalist: House Committees, DOJ Turn Up The Heat On Dems’ ActBlue By M.D. Kittle .....On Wednesday, Reps. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., chairman of the Committee on House Administration, Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the Judiciary Committee, and James Comer, R.Ky., who heads up the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, apprised Attorney General Pam Bondi on ActBlue’s checkered record. In a letter, they explained that the embroiled platform’s “concerning activities may have a direct effect on U.S. political campaigns and elections.” “The Committees writes today to draw your attention to our ongoing investigation into ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform for the Democrat Party,” the letter states. “The oversight has uncovered that ActBlue has weak fraud-prevention practices and overlooks bad actors, including foreign actors, who take advantage of the platform to make illicit political donations.” Just the News: House Republicans push non-Ivy League presidents on responses to last year's antisemitic protests By Misty Severi .....House Republicans on the Education and Workforce Committee on Wednesday grilled three non-Ivy League school presidents on their response to antisemitic protests that took place on their campuses last year. The presidents testified as part of the committee's investigation of the spread of antisemitism on college campuses, after anti-Israel protests broke out at schools nationwide, which disrupted multiple commencement ceremonies and classes. Reason: Should Sharing Information About Israeli Businesses Get You 20 Years in Prison? By Matthew Petti .....Boycotting foreign countries is an American tradition older than the United States. The Boston Tea Party that preceded the American Revolution came at the tail end of a boycott campaign against British goods. But since the 1970s, the U.S. government has tried to stop Americans from participating in unauthorized foreign boycotts. This week, the House of Representatives was set to vote on the International Governmental Organization (IGO) Anti-Boycott Act, which would arguably be the most draconian measure of this kind to date: It would impose a maximum 20-year prison sentence or $1 million fine for complying with international human rights sanctions against a U.S. ally, including by "furnishing information." Trump Administration Washington Post: How a Georgetown scholar went from ‘quiet’ researcher to detainee By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff .....For more than two years, Badar Khan Suri was a little-known postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University trying to land a book project, colleagues and family say. The Indian national, who was on a J-1 visa for academic and exchange visitors, spent much of his time researching minority rights in his home country, visiting the campus mosque with his wife and three young children, and teaching a class on his research, they say. But earlier this year, two groups that oppose campus antisemitism published articles about Suri and his wife’s support for Palestinians and their family ties to Hamas: His father-in-law was an adviser to the group’s former political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. The Department of Homeland Security detained Suri soon after, alleging that his presence in the U.S. could have “adverse foreign policy consequences.” A DHS spokesperson accused him of spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism, and pointed to his “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist.” Suri hasn’t been charged with any crime, nor has his wife, who is a U.S. citizen, and the government has not released any evidence in the case. After more than a month in a detention facility in Texas, Suri had an initial immigration hearing this week as the government seeks to deport him. Online Speech Platforms Politico (EU): Musk’s X blocks account of jailed Erdoğan rival By Eliza Gkritsi .....Social media platform X has blocked the account of Ekrem İmamoğlu, a leader of Turkey's opposition movement and political nemesis of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The block comes at the order of the Erdoğan government, X said in a Thursday post, adding it has challenged the order in court. "We strongly disagree with the order," the post by its global government affairs team said. It published both a court order requesting the ban and X's legal challenge. The States Carolina Journal: Donor privacy push echoes turbulent past By Donna King .....State lawmakers are considering a bill that would keep charitable donors’ personal information private. On Tuesday, the Senate judiciary committee voted to advance the Personal Privacy Protection Act sponsored by state Sens. Warren Daniel, R-Burke; Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell; and Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson. The measure, Senate Bill 614, prohibits the government from collecting or disclosing the personal information about members, volunteers, and donors to 501(c) nonprofit organizations, and allows victims of disclosure to sue. The bill also makes it a misdemeanor to disclose the private information of a non-profit, punishable with up to 90 days in jail or a $1,000 fine. New York Times: Kehlani Concert in Central Park Is Canceled After Pressure From Mayor By Ed Shanahan .....The nonprofit group behind the SummerStage concerts has canceled a scheduled Central Park performance by the popular R&B singer Kehlani under pressure from the administration of Mayor Eric Adams. The move came on Monday after a top New York City official warned the group, the City Parks Foundation, that its license to stage the long-running concert series could be at risk if it did not “promptly take steps” to address “security concerns” raised by the planned show. Billed as “Pride With Kehlani,” the concert was to take place on June 26 as part of the city’s broader Pride festivities. It was the second scheduled Kehlani performance to be canceled in recent weeks amid a furor over the singer’s pro-Palestinian stance. Unlike Cornell University officials, who explicitly cited what they said were Kehlani’s antisemitic and anti-Israel views when they dropped the singer two weeks ago as the headliner of an annual campus concert, the city official, First Deputy Mayor Randy M. Mastro, did not invoke the singer’s personal opinions. Instead, he said in a letter to the foundation’s executive director, Heather Lubov, that the Adams administration’s concerns were based on “the controversy” surrounding the scheduled Cornell performance, as well as the security demands posed by such an event in Central Park and by other Pride events around the city. Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. 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