Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech May 28, 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]. We're Hiring! Litigation Attorney – Institute for Free Speech – Virtual .....IFS is hiring an Attorney with at least seven years of experience to support its ongoing litigation efforts. The position is located either in the Washington, DC office or remotely at any location within the United States with reasonable access to air travel. This is a rare opportunity to litigate to protect and advance Constitutional rights. IFS challenges laws, practices, and policies that infringe upon First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, press, and petition concerning politics. Cases typically secure people’s rights to speak at public meetings, such as school boards and legislative hearings, protect people’s ability to give and receive campaign contributions, and ward off any intrusion into people’s private political associations. You would work to hold censors accountable and secure legal precedents clearing away a thicket of laws, regulations, and practices that suppress speech about government and candidates for political office, threaten citizens’ privacy if they speak or join groups, or impose heavy burdens on political activity. In the News Kansas Reflector: Kansas judges order state to pay $214K in attorney fees tied to flawed ethics investigations By Tim Carpenter .....Meanwhile, a federal judge last week approved an order affirming the state owed $98,500 in attorney fees in response to a separate case in which Johnson County activists James Muir and Chengny Thao were directed to register their Fresh Vision OP as a PAC after spending money to endorse a mayoral candidate. KGEC initiated the regulatory action against Fresh Vision, the Overland Park group working to influence the 2021 mayor’s race and development policy at City Hall. Fresh Vision responded with a June 2024 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court against KGEC. The plaintiffs, represented by the Institute for Free Speech in Washington, D.C., and the Kriegshauser Ney firm, received a temporary restraining order against the commission. The federal court amended that to a permanent injunction in January. New from the Institute for Free Speech California College Disciplinary Officer Sued Over Censorship .....When a Golden West College student who fled Iran described illegal immigration as a “cancer” and called to eradicate Hamas, the school’s College Disciplinary Officer didn’t defend his free speech rights from those who sought to silence him—she threatened the student with discipline. Now that student and others are fighting back to defend their First Amendment rights. The Institute for Free Speech has filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of Matin Samimiat, Annaliese Hutchings, and Young America’s Foundation (YAF). The suit challenges the college’s unconstitutional speech policies and their enforcement. The case arises from the students’ efforts to establish a YAF chapter on campus and speak openly about controversial political and social issues. Supreme Court Reason (Volokh Conspiracy): Justices Alito and Thomas Dissent from Court's Declining to Hear "There Are Only Two Genders" School T-Shirt Case By Eugene Volokh .....From Justice Alito's dissent from the denial of certiorari in L.M. v. Town of Middleborough, joined (with a twist) by Justice Thomas: The Federalist: Forcing Lawyers To Join Leftist Bar Associations Violates Basic First Amendment Freedoms By Aaron Withe .....In courtrooms across America, a battle is being waged between state bar associations and attorneys who don’t believe the right to practice law should depend on their willingness to be associated with leftist political candidates and causes. It’s a classic case of “join or starve,” with many states requiring lawyers to maintain membership in state bar associations, despite — or perhaps because of — the organizations’ increasingly liberal tilt. In response, the Freedom Foundation has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Crowe v. Oregon State Bar, challenging this forced membership arrangement as a flat-out violation of freedom of association. Ed. note: Read the cert petition here. Read all SCOTUS filings here. The Courts Kansas Reflector: Kansas abortion rights advocacy group sues state officials over law banning foreign contributions By Anna Kaminski .....A Kansas reproductive rights advocacy group, backed by a Washington, D.C. law firm, sued state officials over a new law banning financial contributions from “foreign nationals” to support or oppose constitutional amendments. The group, Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, argued in a complaint filed in federal court Friday that House Bill 2106, which passed the Legislature in April and is set to go into effect July 1, is broad, vague and unconstitutional. The group said the bill inhibits its ability to advocate for or against future constitutional amendments. Kansans for Constitutional Freedom and its donors have received contributions from foreign nationals, the lawsuit said. The complaint drew a connection between HB 2106 and opposition to the 2022 ballot measure that sought to limit reproductive rights. Voters rejected the proposed constitutional amendment by a 59-41 margin. Washington Post: Judge tosses Trump order punishing the law firm WilmerHale By Mark Berman .....President Donald Trump’s push to punish law firms suffered another defeat Tuesday, as a federal judge in D.C. struck down his executive order aimed at the law firm WilmerHale. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that Trump’s order was unconstitutional and blocked the government from enforcing it, becoming the third judge this month to side with a law firm that had challenged the president’s orders… In a 73-page opinion accompanying his order, Leon wrote that it was necessary to block Trump’s punishments for WilmerHale to preserve “the independent and adversarial nature of our judicial system.” Courthouse News: Judge maintains bond for woman convicted in cross-burning hoax By Amanda Pampuro .....A federal judge on Tuesday maintained bond for a woman found guilty of federal threat and conspiracy charges for burning a cross ahead of the 2023 Colorado Springs mayor election, an incident ultimately determined by investigators to be a political stunt… In her defense, Blackcloud's attorney had argued the message amounted to protected political speech rather than a true threat and that the law prohibiting fire intimidation is meant to be applied against bomb threats, not cross burnings. FTC Broadband Breakfast: Republicans Claim Google ‘Throttles’ Conservative Speech in FTC Filing By Cameron Marx .....Two Republican lawmakers say Google has been burying GOP campaign emails in users’ spam folders – and they’ve asked the Federal Trade Commission to step in. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., accused Google of throttling communications from the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee in a May 21 filing to the FTC. In their letter, Scott and Hudson called on the FTC to “take whatever enforcement action is necessary” to prevent the practice. The comments were submitted as part of the FTC’s public inquiry into content moderation, which sought to determine whether tech companies were suppressing speech unfairly. The letter, written by Jennifer DeCasper, executive director of the NRSC, and Micah Yousefi, executive director of the NRCC, claimed that only 30 percent of NRSC emails were sent to the primary inboxes of Gmail users, with “the vast majority” of the other 70 percent of emails being sent to spam folders. Trump Administration Politico: Trump team pauses new student visa interviews as it weighs expanding social media vetting By Nahal Toosi .....The Trump administration is weighing requiring all foreign students applying to study in the United States to undergo social media vetting — a significant expansion of previous such efforts, according to a cable obtained by POLITICO. The States Politico: Eric Adams sues Campaign Finance Board for denying him millions in matching funds By Joe Anuta .....New York City Mayor Eric Adams filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the city Campaign Finance Board’s decision to deny him millions of dollars in public matching funds. Adams’ lawsuit against the board, filed in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn, accuses the board of violating city, state and federal rules and seeks the release of $3.4 million that would bolster his longshot reelection bid. “As will become evident, there’s no legal basis to hold back matching funds,” the mayor’s attorney, campaign chair and former chief of staff, Frank Carone, said in a statement. “This was decided on hearsay allegations and political preference.” 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." The Institute for Free Speech is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and defends the political rights to free speech, press, assembly, and petition guaranteed by the First Amendment. Please support the Institute's mission by clicking here. For further information, visit www.ifs.org. Follow the Institute for Free Speech The Institute for Free Speech | 1150 Connecticut Ave., NW Suite 801 | Washington, DC 20036 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice