Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech May 29, 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 YAF: YAF Sues Golden West College for Blatant First Amendment Violations By Spencer Brown .....Young America’s Foundation — represented by the Institute for Free Speech (IFS) — filed a federal lawsuit against Golden West College in Huntington Beach, California, this week for the school’s multiple First Amendment violations surrounding student attempts to form a Young Americans for Freedom chapter. Filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of YAF student activists Matin Samimiat and Annaliese Hutchings along with Young America’s Foundation, the complaint explains how Golden West College engaged in a pattern of viewpoint discrimination and other activity that violated the First Amendment. As the IFS lawsuit notes, “[c]ensorship is a cancer upon any society in the world” but, “at Golden West College, the censor might threaten students with expulsion for saying so, because it may hurt people impacted by cancer. Indeed, Golden West’s chief censor, Defendant Stephanie Smallshaw, employed that logic to threaten students for calling illegal immigration a societal cancer.” Trump Administration Cincinnati Enquirer: Trump pardons PG Sittenfeld, ex-Cincinnati councilman convicted of bribery, per report By Cameron Knight and Kevin Grasha .....Former Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, who was convicted on federal bribery and extortion charges, has been pardoned by President Donald Trump, according to a CNN report. The case against Sittenfeld centered on donations to his political action committee, which prosecutors said he solicited from an informant for the FBI and FBI agents posing as developers of a downtown Cincinnati project. Prosecutors said Sittenfeld's actions went beyond campaign fundraising and crossed the line into bribery. A jury found him guilty in 2022. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison. Campaign contributions are typically protected by the First Amendment, but the question is when that crosses a line and becomes bribery. Sittenfeld has always said that what he did was ordinary politics. Sittenfeld has taken his case to the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to overturn his conviction. The Courts Daily Signal: Democrats Compared Parental Rights Groups to the KKK While Passing a Transgender Law. Now, Those Groups Are Suing. By Tyler O'Neil .....While the Colorado Legislature passed a new transgender bill, sponsors compared parental rights groups to the Ku Klux Klan. Now, those groups are suing to block the legislation, mere days after Gov. Jared Polis signed it. “The State of Colorado cannot stifle viewpoints it doesn’t like simply because it finds those views offensive or disagreeable,” Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at the parental rights group Defending Education, told The Daily Signal in a statement Tuesday. The parental rights groups Defending Education, the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, and Protect Kids Colorado teamed up with the medical watchdog group Do No Harm and a medical doctor, Dr. Travis Morrell, to file the lawsuit Monday, challenging HB 25-1312, which Polis, a Democrat, signed Friday. The law amends the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of “gender expression,” specifically stating that refusing to use a person’s “chosen name” will constitute discrimination. Wall Street Journal: Big Law Firms 3, Trump 0 By The Editorial Board .....Judge Leon says the Trump EO violates the First Amendment as retaliation for protected speech, as viewpoint discrimination, and as violations of the right to free association and to petition the government. He says the EO also violates the constitutional rights to counsel and due process, as well as the separation of powers. It’s hard to imagine a more thorough takedown of a presidential order. Congress Just the News: FBI assessed Fusion GPS contractor likely lied to Congress about role in Trump-Russia probe By Steven Richards .....A newly declassified FBI document released by Iowa GOP Senator Chuck Grassley shows that the FBI found the Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr likely lied to Congress about her contribution to the Crossfire Hurricane probe into Donald Trump but was never held accountable by the Justice Department. The memo, which was declassified by FBI Director Kash Patel after a request from Grassley, shows the bureau assessed that Nellie Ohr likely lied to Congress in her testimony about the genesis of the infamous Steele Dossier, her interactions with Justice Department officials, and knowledge of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Washington Post: House Democrat launches investigation of Trump’s meme coin dinner By Cat Zakrzewski .....A top House Democrat on Wednesday night opened a probe into the private dinner that President Donald Trump hosted for top investors in his meme coin, seeking to highlight the ethical and legal concerns raised by the president’s willingness to profit while in office. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, demanded Trump turn over the names of the guests who attended last week’s gala after pouring millions of dollars into the president’s crypto venture. The Maryland congressman also pressed the president to disclose what steps he used to determine the source of the funds used to purchase the meme coin, citing concerns that some of the money could have come from foreign governments seeking to influence the White House. Free Expression National Review: Conservatives Shouldn’t Fear an Ivy League Education By Emma Peretti .....There’s a misconception that Ivy League schools brainwash students into becoming more progressive. That hasn’t been my experience. What I’ve found instead is an environment where you’re surrounded by strong perspectives, and you’re expected to respond — not retreat. Being politically outnumbered hasn’t weakened my views; it’s strengthened them. It’s made me more reflective, more precise, and more committed to understanding the foundations of what I believe. Candidates and Campaigns Independent (via Yahoo): Nancy Mace ran bot army, had staff run fake accounts to boost profile, report claims: ‘It’s what she does for fun’ By John Bowden .....Mace, a third-term House member with reported ambitions to run for governor, directs staffers to run countless bot accounts and fake social media profiles on her behalf — all with the aim of boosting Mace’s content and messaging, according to a new report from Wired Wednesday that cited several unnamed former staffers and a consultant who publicly ended his contract with the congresswoman. The report quoted a deposition from Wesley Donehue, a South Carolina-based campaign consultant who previously worked closely with Mace’s campaigns. The deposition, first reported a week earlier by a local conservative news blog, FITS News, was taken by attorneys for Mace’s ex-fiancee — whom she accused of sexual assault, along with three other men, in a jarring moment during a congressional hearing. Advertisement Wired’s reporting echoed the claim made by Donehue, who told a court: “She programs her own bots. She sets up Twitter burner accounts. This is the kind of a thing she does. She sits all night on the couch and programs bots, because she’s very, very computer savvy. She controls her own voter database, she programs a lot of her own website, she programs Facebook bots and Instagram bots and Twitter bots. It’s what she does for fun.” According to a staffer, Mace would allegedly order her underlings to identify criticism of her on social media; a slew of fake accounts would then pile on the offending account. Washington Post: Takeaways: Trump's campaign has received scores of donations from problematic donors By Brian Slodysko and Steve Peoples .....The AP identified only two Trump donors out of more than 200 living abroad whose U.S. citizenship was listed as “verified” in the president’s campaign finance reports. He received over 1,000 contributions from 150 donors who omitted key identifying details such as their city, state, address or country. Trump also received at least 90 contributions from people who omitted their full name, are listed as “anonymous” or whose donations include the notation “name not provided.” Many of them were made through WinRed, the Republicans’ online fundraising platform that is the GOP’s answer to ActBlue. The States Washington Post (Tech Brief): A new Texas law mandates age checks on phones. It may be just the start. By Will Oremus .....Texas passed a law this week forcing Google and Apple to check the ages of mobile app store users and require parents’ permission before a teenager or child can download an app or use it to buy something. It became the second and largest state to do so after Utah passed a similar law in March. Both laws are set to take effect next year, though legal challenges are likely. In the meantime, Texas lawmakers are eyeing an even more aggressive move that has yet to receive much national attention: a bill that would ban minors from using social media at all. Washington State Standard: Union hit with fine for failing to report $430K in WA campaign contributions on time By Jerry Cornfield .....A powerful statewide labor union was fined $6,000 on Thursday for failing to report more than $430,000 in contributions to candidates and political committees days ahead of the 2024 election. The state Public Disclosure Commission levied the civil penalty on Service Employees International Union Healthcare 1199NW following a short hearing in which the union did not contest the punishment… Under a stipulated agreement, SEIU 1199NW will pay $3,000 within 30 days of the signing of the final order. The remaining amount is suspended if the union complies with campaign finance laws without significant violations for four years. Let’s Go Washington filed the original complaint last November. The group alleged the union did not report a substantial sum of expenditures made in October until after the Nov. 4 election. That violated campaign finance laws intended to give voters campaign spending information before they cast their ballots, the group said. 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. 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