Email from The Institute for Free Speech The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech November 19, 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]. The Courts Courthouse News: New Mexico lawmaker appeals adverse ruling over campaign donation to student By Joe Duhownik .....New Mexico’s secretary of state engaged in content discrimination when she referred a state senator’s donation to a high school student for criminal prosecution under campaign finance laws, the senator told a 10th Circuit panel Tuesday morning. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, a Democrat, told the three-judge panel that section A(4) of New Mexico’s Campaign Reporting Act violates the First Amendment by discriminating what types of charitable contributions an elected official can make with their campaign funds — one can donate only to a 501c3, which, unlike similar organizations, cannot support political candidates or lobby the government as a “substantial part” of its activities. Politico: Appeals court panel mulls $1M penalty for Trump in lawsuit against Hillary Clinton By Josh Gerstein .....A federal appeals court gave a chilly reception Tuesday to President Donald Trump’s bid to revive a sprawling racketeering lawsuit accusing his perceived political foes — including Hillary Clinton and James Comey — of conspiring to tar him with false allegations that he collaborated with Russia. A three-judge panel sitting in Birmingham, Alabama, also heard arguments over a nearly $1 million penalty a court imposed on Trump and his then-attorney Alina Habba for filing and persisting in the lawsuit a judge determined in 2023 to be frivolous. Bloomberg Law: Congress Hopeful Campbell Agrees to Stop Invoking Soup Brand By Kyle Jahner .....Campbell’s Co. reached an agreement with Michigan congressional candidate Shelby Nicole Campbell in which she’d stop using its famous soup-can branding in campaign materials. The Democratic House candidate swore off use of the trade dress in a jointly stipulated order granted Nov. 14, a month after the soup giant filed its lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Campbell, representing herself, had filed a motion to dismiss Nov. 6 claiming protected political speech, parody, and no likelihood of confusion. But it was stricken from the record the next day on technical grounds. Fox News: University of Kentucky professor sues after being barred from law school after calling for an 'end' to Israel By Kristine Parks .....A University of Kentucky law professor who claims he was pulled from teaching and barred from his law school building after posting a petition calling for "military action" against Israel is suing the university, alleging First Amendment retaliation and other constitutional violations. Ramsi Woodcock, a tenured law professor at the J. David Rosenberg College of Law, filed a federal lawsuit on Nov.13, claiming administrators punished him for political speech made outside the classroom, including a 2024 "Petition for Military Action Against Israel" he posted online. "We demand that every country in the world make war on Israel immediately and until such time as Israel has submitted permanently and unconditionally to the government of Palestine everywhere from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea," the petition on his website called the "Antizionist Legal Studies Movement" reads. Trump Administration Fox News: Trump calls for federal AI standards, end to state 'patchwork' regulations 'threatening' economic growth By Emma Bussey .....President Donald Trump has demanded an end to excessive state-level regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) and warned that state rules will end up threatening the U.S. economy. In a post shared to Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump also slammed "Woke AI" and referred to a "patchwork" of state regulations in the AI space. "Investment in AI is helping to make the U.S. Economy the ‘HOTTEST’ in the World," Trump wrote. "But overregulation by the States is threatening to undermine this Major Growth Engine. Some States are even trying to embed DEI ideology into AI models, producing ‘Woke AI’ (Remember Black George Washington?). We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes." Free Expression First Amendment Watch: Introducing The SLAPP Back Initiative .....Courts dismissed dozens of strategic lawsuits against public participation targeting media in 2024, finds a new analysis from New York University’s First Amendment Watch. SLAPPs, often filed by corporations or deep-pocketed plaintiffs, are civil claims brought against individuals or organizations engaged in public expression and are seen by many as threats to free speech. “Our initial findings make clear what observers have long suspected: the media are a significant target of potentially frivolous or malicious litigation designed to chill speech and stifle scrutiny,” says First Amendment Watch’s founding editor Stephen D. Solomon, whose team led the analysis. The analysis stems from a newly launched project housed at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute: The SLAPP Back Initiative, the country’s first national database of SLAPP claims —potentially meritless legal actions that experts say can nonetheless force defendants to spend significant resources defending themselves, ultimately chilling criticism and threatening First Amendment freedoms. The States  Colorado Politics: Colorado justices weigh disclosure requirements for ballot initiative spending By Michael Karlik .....Members of the Colorado Supreme Court considered on Tuesday whether an organization that spent $4 million to advocate for ballot initiatives in the 2020 election was required to disclose its donors and spending. The organization, Unite for Colorado, advanced a straightforward argument: It spent 10% or less of its money on a single ballot measure. It spent less than 25% of its money on ballot measures. Therefore, Unite for Colorado did not have a “major purpose” of ballot issue advocacy that triggered the state’s disclosure requirements. However, during oral arguments, some members of the Supreme Court were worried about the results of that logic. Specifically, an organization could avoid the transparency required of issue committees if it were so wealthy that its expenditures on ballot initiatives were relatively small in comparison. “Part of what my concern is with your position is that whenever the organization can become so large and have such a high financial amount, that nothing’s ever a major purpose,” said Justice Brian D. Boatright. Center Square (Illinois): Elections board drops campaign finance fines against IL Senate President By Greg Bishop .....The campaign finance violation against Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, is over after the Illinois State Board of Elections decided to not take up an appeal and dismiss the case. The Liberty Justice Center says it’s time for the courts to weigh in. Harmon’s campaign finance committee faced a nearly $10 million fine for violating campaign finance law by accepting donations in excess of state limits. Records indicate he personally contributed more than $100,000 to his campaign committee in January 2023, having the effect of lifting contribution limits for others to donate, but took campaign contributions in excess of limits the following election cycle. Board members were deadlocked on whether to assess the fines against Harmon’s committee last month. Tuesday, board Chair Laura Donahue said another stalemate on an appeal doesn’t address how to interpret the law. “What does the board do, we’re in kind of a limbo,” Donahue said. “We won’t have any direction because we’ve had recommendations from a hearing officer, our general counsel and we don’t know what an election cycle is defined, and I think it will be incumbent upon the legislature to either give us that, or the court or somewhere.” Harmon’s committee had argued the notice of self-funding should be based on the office's election cycle, not the day of the next general election cycle as some Senate terms can be four and six years. Harmon is up for reelection in 2026. The Federalist: Tennessee Teacher Who Mocked Charlie Kirk’s Assassination Got Her Job Back By M.D. Kittle .....After suspending her without pay in September, the Williamson County school district now says Franklin (Tenn.) High School science teacher Emily Orbison’s conduct, posting abhorrent comments celebrating conservative icon Charlie Kirk’s assassination, “did not justify employee discipline.” Why the change of heart? Perhaps it has something to do with the lawsuit Orbison filed against the suburban Nashville school district, which, sources tell The Federalist, caved on the advice of legal counsel Lisa Carson. The Enterprise: Our Opinion: First Amendment protects gadfly's offensive banner By Wilson Times editorial .....A North Carolina man had the right to display a banner containing a vulgar insult against a county commissioner, the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled this month, and the sheriff’s deputies who arrested him for disrupting a meeting caused the disruption themselves by confronting the silent protester. That’s the upshot of State v. Barthel, a 30-page appellate opinion authored by Judge Donna Stroud that ought to be required reading for local elected officials and every law enforcement officer tasked with keeping the peace in government boardrooms. The appeals court vacated William J. Barthel’s convictions of disrupting an official meeting and resisting a public officer, which stemmed from his Jan. 16 arrest during a special Avery County Board of Commissioners meeting. 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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