Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech August 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]. In the News The Trentonian: For Elon Musk, Getting to Mars May Be Easier Than Starting a Political Party By Bradley A. Smith .....Elon Musk has pioneered reusable rocket technology, built Tesla into a dominant force in electric vehicles, and revolutionized global satellite internet services. But his latest idea—forming a new political party—may be far more challenging. Musk has discussed creating the “America Party” as an alternative to what he calls the “uniparty” of Democrats and Republicans. However, campaign finance laws transform this already monumental political task into a nightmare. California Globe: Golden West College Settle Lawsuit with Young America’s Foundation Students over Free Speech By Evan Gahr .....Golden West College in Huntington Beach is repealing unconstitutional provisions of its disciplinary code to settle a free speech lawsuit by conservative students who a woke school administrator threatened to punish for making pointed criticisms of Hamas and illegal immigrants. New Hampshire Journal: Bow School District Says Protecting Trans Student Trumps Free Speech By Damien Fisher .....The presence of a male player in a girls’ soccer game was all the justification Bow School District officials needed to crack down on protesting parents, according to a legal brief filed last week with the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. “While Plaintiffs cast their conduct at the Sept. 17 game as a ‘silent protest,’ the District reasonably viewed it as intimidation aimed at [biological male] 15-year-old Parker Tirrell,” wrote Bryan Cullen, attorney for the Bow School District, in the brief filed Friday. SAU 67 is pushing back on an appeal filed by four Bow parents—Anthony Foote, Kyle Fellers, Nicole Foote, and Eldon Rash—who argue they have a First Amendment right to protest at school events. The group was disciplined last year after engaging in a silent protest against biological males participating in girls’ sports. Anthony Foote and Fellers were temporarily banned from all after-school events. New from the Institute for Free Speech Grassroots Advocacy Comes with a Price .....Ben Dorr never expected that advocating for constitutional rights would endanger his pregnant wife. As the executive director of both Minnesota Right to Life and Minnesota Gun Rights, Dorr has spent years mobilizing grassroots supporters across Minnesota to contact their legislators about issues that matter to them. It’s the kind of civic engagement that forms the backbone of American democracy—citizens engaging with one another about matters of public concern and encouraging them to make their voices heard. In Minnesota, that kind of speech comes with a price. And for Dorr and his organizations, that price has become deeply personal. IRS New York Times: How Conservative Christians Cracked a 70-Year-Old Law By Elizabeth Dias and David A. Fahrenthold .....The Johnson Amendment became an enduring part of nonprofit law, seen by some as an appropriate wall between charities and churches and the dirty business of politics. But many conservative Christian activists — as well as some independent legal scholars — saw it as a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech. “Putting the I.R.S. inside what a church says is a bad fit for the I.R.S., or even for government,” said Benjamin Leff, a law professor at American University who has argued that the law should be more forgiving. He believes that nonprofits should be allowed to say what they want, but not allowed to spend significant money to get that message out. Courthouse News: Keep politics out of parishes, nonprofits say in letter to Trump By Kelsey Reichmann .....Over 1,000 nonprofits launched a national campaign on Wednesday against the White House’s effort to allow churches to engage in partisan politics, pushing President Donald Trump to uphold a decades-old provision of the tax code... “If successful, it would open the door for political actors to use charitable nonprofits as conduits for anonymous campaign funding, benefiting from substantial tax write-offs while shifting the financial burden onto taxpayers who may disagree with the candidates or causes being supported,” the groups wrote in a letter to the president. Nonprofit Law Prof Blog: Phil Hackney Discusses Johnson Amendment, University Tax Exemption, and Trump Administration's Scrutiny of Civil Society By Darryll K. Jones .....Our colleague, Phil Hackney, shared interesting thoughts with Bloomberg Tax last week regarding the Johnson Amendment and the Trump Administration's scrutiny of universities. He offered some interesting perspective, as well, on laws affecting Civil Society in general. Listen to the 15 minute podcast above. The Courts Reason: The ACLU Says a New York Official Violated the NRA's First Amendment Rights. They Still Can't Sue Her. By Billy Binion .....The national debate over qualified immunity—the legal doctrine that can make it difficult to sue government officials for constitutional violations—has largely focused on police misconduct. But it also broadly applies to state and local government employees. A recent federal court ruling is a reminder of that, uniting two unlikely bedfellows: the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The Hill: New York woman pleads guilty to $30M investment scheme tied to political campaigns By Filip Timotija .....A New York woman pleaded guilty on Wednesday in relation to a multi-year investment scheme, falsely promising investors permanent resident status in the U.S. and selling foreign investors access to American politicians, including President Trump. Sherry Xue Li, of Oyster Bay, N.Y., pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government by obstructing the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC’s) administration of campaign finance laws, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York. ADF: The Babylon Bee Files Lawsuit Challenging Anti-Free Speech Law in Hawaii .....Could you go to jail for posting a meme? That seems like an absurd question straight from a dystopian novel. But unfortunately, the state of Hawaii has enacted a law that criminalizes posting satirical digital content such as memes. That’s why The Babylon Bee, a popular Christian satire website, is joining forces with Hawaii voter Dawn O’Brien to file a lawsuit challenging this draconian law. New York Times: Project Veritas Withdraws Lawsuit Against The New York Times By Katie Robertson .....The conservative group Project Veritas this week dropped its yearslong libel lawsuit against The New York Times. The lawsuit accused The Times of defamation for an article published in 2020 that reported that researchers from Stanford University and the University of Washington had described some videos produced by Project Veritas as probably part of a coordinated disinformation effort. The group also sued the researchers. Congress New York Post: House probes whether EU, Biden administration pushed Spotify to censor podcasters including Joe Rogan, Steve Bannon By Taylor Herzlich .....The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday launched an investigation into whether the EU and Biden administration pressured Spotify to censor free speech, The Post has learned. The States The City: Campaign Board Voided $1 in Every $3 Eric Adams Submitted for Matching Funds By Greg B. Smith .....Campaign finance officials could not verify the billing address of more than 200 credit card contributions Mayor Eric Adams’ re-election campaign has submitted for public matching funds, raising questions about the true source of many of his donations. In its reviews of the campaign’s requests, the Campaign Finance Board deemed as invalid all 222 of these donations — including 25 where the credit card billing address differed from the donor’s stated residential address, an analysis by THE CITY finds. With the other 197 donations, the address on file with the credit card company did not match the billing address of the card used by the donor to make the donation. That included four donations featured by THE CITY in a recent report detailing suspicious donations submitted by Adams campaign in the weeks after a federal judge dismissed his campaign finance fraud case at the behest of the Trump administration. 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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