May 13, 2025

In the News

Matt Walsh (Video):  American Cities Are Making The Pride Flag Their OFFICIAL Flag!? | Ep. 1592

.....Ed. note: Walsh discusses the federal court ruling upholding the constitutionality of Nashua city officials banning the Pine Tree flag from the city's citizen flag pole. We represented Nashua residents Bethany and Stephen Scaer in the lawsuit and have filed a notice of appeal. Read more here. Full segment begins at 2 minutes 17 seconds.

Congress

The Intercept: Republicans Sneak Nonprofit Killer Bill Into the Tail End of Trump’s 389-Page Tax Plan

By Noah Hurowitz

.....To advance President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cuts, House Republicans on Monday unveiled a proposal that could hand him a powerful new tool to go after his political enemies.

The House Ways and Means Committee will meet Tuesday for a mark-up session of the 389-page draft plan, a massive bundle of draft amendments central to the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that aims to cut trillions of dollars in government spending. 

Among those amendments, buried on page 380 of the draft, is a section that would enable Trump’s secretary of the Treasury to denounce any nonprofit as a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip it of its tax-exempt status…

A previous version of the clause — dubbed the “nonprofit killer bill” — was introduced in 2023. Critics viewed that legislation as a bipartisan expression of pro-Israel policy and opposition to pro-Palestinian speech.

The first version of the bill passed the House easily, before languishing in the Senate. But when it reappeared in November — following Trump’s reelection — many Democrats who had backed the bill dropped their support in the face of reporting from The Intercept and a flurry of anger from the party’s base. 

At the time, the ACLU and other civil liberties groups warned that the bill would be used by Trump to make good on his campaign promise to crush his political enemies. 

Archived article (nonpaywalled)

The Courts

Reason: Judge Orders Tufts Grad Student Rumeysa Ozturk Be Released on Bail From Immigration Detention

By C.J. Ciaramella

.....On Friday, a judge ordered the government to immediately release Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk on bail from a federal immigration detention center. The judge said Ozturk's challenge of her arrest raised serious claims of due process and First Amendment violations, and that her continued detention "potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of people in this country who are not citizens."

U.S. District Judge for the District of Vermont William K. Sessions III said the government's failure to produce any evidence against Ozturk besides an op-ed she helped write for the Tufts student newspaper suggested that she was detained for protected First Amendment speech. Citing the extraordinary circumstances of her case, the chilling effects of her continued detention, and Ozturk's medical testimony, Sessions found that Ozturk's detention could not stand and ordered her released on her own recognizance without restriction on travel.

Courthouse News: Karen Read protesters win round over courthouse buffer

By Thomas F. Harrison

.....A ban on protests within a 200-foot “buffer zone” around the courthouse where the Karen Read murder trial is taking place might violate the First Amendment, the First Circuit held Friday.

The state trial judge in the Read case, Beverly Cannone, ordered the buffer zone to prevent protesters from intimidating jurors and witnesses and making so much noise as to disrupt the proceedings. A federal judge refused to issue a preliminary injunction against the buffer zone, finding that a group of protesters was unlikely to be able to show that its First Amendment rights outweighed the right to a fair trial.

But at oral arguments in the First Circuit four days ago, the protesters’ lawyer, Mark Randazza, told the court that his clients were willing to agree to a compromise: They would remain silent, protest only on streets and sidewalks off courthouse property and stay away when jurors entered and left the courthouse.

“How about a buffer zone around the juror bus?” Randazza suggested. “We’d waive any right to that. We can all compromise on that … We’ll be silent; we’ll stay away from jurors.”

In a 12-page per curiam decision, the First Circuit said the protesters’ concessions obviated most of the problems and ordered the federal judge to reconsider.

Fox 4: Judge allows Naples Pride drag shows outside at Pridefest, all ages allowed

By Kaitlin Knapp

.....A federal judge has approved a preliminary injunction in favor of Naples Pride, meaning they can have drag performances outside at Cambier Park during Pridefest.

The ruling came down on Monday afternoon from Judge John E Steele.

The injunction says the defendants in the case, which include City Council members, the city and police, cannot prohibit drag outside. They also cannot impose an age restriction on the audience of performance.

Additionally, the city must go back and reevaluate the fees given in the permit.

Free Expression

The Conversation: From defenders to skeptics: The sharp decline in young Americans’ support for free speech

By Jacob Mchangama

.....According to a March 2025 report by The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think tank where I am executive director, support among 18- to 34-year-olds for allowing controversial or offensive speech has dropped sharply in recent years.

In 2021, 71% of young Americans said people should be allowed to insult the U.S. flag, which is a key indicator of support for free speech, no matter how distasteful. By 2024, that number had fallen to just 43% – a 28-point drop. Support for pro‑LGBTQ+ speech declined by 20 percentage points, and tolerance for speech that offends religious beliefs fell by 14 points.

This drop contributed to the U.S. having the third-largest decline in free speech support among the 33 countries that The Future of Free Speech surveyed – behind only Japan and Israel.

Why has this support diminished so dramatically?

The Media

New York Times: Pope Leo XIV Calls for News Media to Shun Divisive Language

By Matthew Mpoke Bigg

.....Pope Leo XIV used his first audience with news outlets on Monday to appeal to journalists to help cool the heated language of today’s media landscape.

The comments once again echoed some of the themes highlighted by his predecessor, Pope Francis, as Leo backed a free press to enable informed decisions and renewed his calls for a more peaceful world.

“Let us disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred; let us free it from aggression,” Leo told more than 1,000 journalists, including the Vatican press corps, who were gathered in an auditorium. “We do not need loud, forceful communication but rather communication that is capable of listening,” he added, delivering his address in Italian.

Washington Post: Twitch star HasanAbi says he was detained, questioned by border agents

By Amy B Wang

.....Hasan Piker, a popular Turkish American online streamer who has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, said Monday that he was detained and questioned at length by Customs and Border Protection officers upon returning to the United States over the weekend.

Piker, a U.S. citizen who streams on Twitch under the name “HasanAbi,” said in a live stream that he was taken aside after landing at Chicago O’Hare International Airport from Paris on Sunday — despite being enrolled in Global Entry, a CBP program that is supposed to give expedited clearance to “pre-approved, low-risk travelers” returning to the U.S.

Piker said he was brought to a detention room inside O’Hare that had “fluorescent lightbulbs, the whole nine [yards]” and where a CBP agent questioned him for about two hours about his job, political affiliation, opinion of Trump and whether he had any connections to terrorist groups.

Candidates and Campaigns

New York Times: Cuomo Loses $622,000 Over Concerns of Improper Super PAC Coordination

By Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Nicholas Fandos

.....Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was denied more than $600,000 in public matching funds on Monday after the New York City Campaign Finance Board found that he most likely engaged in illicit coordination with a super PAC supporting his campaign for mayor.

Mr. Cuomo first aroused suspicion when he posted on his campaign website what looked to be a set of detailed spending instructions for anyone hoping to help. The super PAC, Fix the City, began airing an ad just days later that appeared to align with some of those requests, echoing themes and data points.

The tactic in question, known as red-boxing because of the frequent use of red-bordered boxes to highlight the instructions, has become common in federal races as a way to circumvent anti-coordination rules in plain sight. But the New York City Campaign Finance Board has explicitly warned against it.

The States

Rhode Island Current: After winning over House for second year, fate of election deepfakes bill hangs on R.I. Senate

By Nancy Lavin

.....ChatGPT was hardly a household name when Rep. Jacquelyn Baginski first pitched state regulations limiting artificial intelligence in elections in January 2024.

Seventeen months later, the AI-powered chatbot is part of the zeitgeist…

It’s only a matter of time, in Baginski’s view, before the rapid embrace of artificial intelligence filters through to local elections, potentially harming candidates and voters manipulated by deceptive images, audio and video created by generative AI. Which is why Baginski is again pushing for legislation that would restrict and regulate election deepfakes for the second year in a row.

Like last year, her proposal sailed through the Rhode Island House of Representatives Thursday, with a 64-1 vote, with one abstention…

But across the rotunda, companion legislation from Sen. Lou DiPalma remains held for review by the Senate Committee on Judiciary, the same place where it languished and eventually died in the 2024 session.

DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat, insists he intends to shepherd the legislation “across the finish line” this year.

AZ Central: Gov. Katie Hobbs signs bill on campus encampments, enshrining ban in Arizona law

By Helen Rummel

.....One year after pro-Palestinian encampments were built at each of Arizona's major public universities, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill into law that looks to prevent it from happening again.

House Bill 2880, sponsored by Rep. Alma Hernandez, D-Tucson, formalizes and unifies policies at Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University and public community colleges prohibiting unauthorized camping on university property.

Hernandez said it was written in response to a series of demonstrations and encampments created at many of the schools to protest the violence in Gaza. Dozens of students and other protesters were arrested across the schools, with some still facing trespassing charges.

Ohio Capital Journal: Sec. LaRose urges lawmakers to keep but reform Ohio Elections Commission

By Nick Evans

.....Ohio’s Secretary of State is wading into the debate over the state elections commission. The independent agency tasked with campaign finance oversight gets axed in the budget proposal Ohio House lawmakers approved last month. The state Senate is currently mulling changes of its own.

In a letter to Senate President Rob McColley, Secretary Frank LaRose echoed many of the criticisms leveled by House Republicans, but rather than abolishing the agency, LaRose argued forcefully for reform.

The Oregonian: Former Portland commissioner, mayoral hopeful threatens to sue city over campaign finance penalties

By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

.....Former Portland Commissioner Rene Gonzalez has intensified an ongoing legal battle with the city and the office of its elected watchdog over campaign finance violations he faced last fall during his unsuccessful bid for mayor.

Gonzalez threatened to sue both in an April 16 filing, alleging Portland’s campaign finance rules violated his due process rights and that the auditor’s office had “uniquely discriminated” against him and his campaign, public records show.

The filing, known as a tort claim notice, also alleges that Gonzalez’s top rivals in the mayor’s race, Keith Wilson and Carmen Rubio, likely broke the same rule that led to one of the large fines imposed against him. The other candidates were never investigated or penalized.