Category Archives: cheap speech

“The Jolt: Georgia megadonor tells Trump attorney election was clean”

May 3, 2023, 4:03 pmcheap speech, election subversion risk, fraudulent fraud squadJustin Levitt

Lauren Windsor with another audio reveal from the Cleta Mitchell conversation to RNC donors. More here at the AJC. From a donor apparently identified as Tommy Bagwell, to the assembled crowd: I’m one of the largest donors to Trump… Continue reading

“Bill would require disclosure of AI-generated content in political ads”

May 2, 2023, 4:08 pmcheap speech, election subversion riskJustin Levitt

The WaPo reports on Rep. Yvette Clarke’s bill, but it may be even more notable that the N.Y. Democrat called out a recent RNC ad as a model.

“Exclusive: Dominion Voting Systems tells its Fox News lawsuit story”

May 1, 2023, 7:41 pmcheap speech, chicanery, election subversion riskJustin Levitt

Axios with a bit of oral history.

“Inside a private portal from GOP campaigns to local news sites”

April 27, 2023, 7:12 amcheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: The top Republican campaigns in Illinois used a private online portal last year to request stories and shape coverage in a network of media outlets that present themselves as local newspapers, according to documents and people familiar with the… Continue reading

“Supreme Court to decide if First Amendment stops government officials from blocking social media critics”

April 24, 2023, 7:27 amcheap speech, First Amendment theory, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Tierney Sneed for CNN: The Supreme Court said Monday that it will consider whether the First Amendment protects social media users from being blocked from commenting on the personal pages that government officials use to communicate actions related to their… Continue reading

“Why It’s Fine that Fox and Dominion Settled; Murdoch testimony would have been more fun to watch than Succession. But the trial wouldn’t have fixed the bigger problem.”

April 19, 2023, 7:43 amcheap speech, election subversion riskRick Hasen

I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: What does the Fox (News) say? Not enough to save American democracy. But we never should have expected that a private defamation suit could have cured this country’s ongoing election panic… Continue reading

“As Fox News case heads to trial, far right St. Louis site faces its own defamation suit; A trial is scheduled for May 9 in St. Louis in a lawsuit filed by two Georgia election workers against The Gateway Pundit”

April 18, 2023, 7:32 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Missouri Independent: They didn’t know it at the time, but Dec. 3, 2020, was the start of a nightmare for Wandrea Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. Both were election workers in Atlanta, and that was the day Rudy… Continue reading

“Erosion, Backsliding, or Abuse: Three Metaphors for Democratic Decline”

April 10, 2023, 3:55 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

Thomas Keck review essay in Law & Social Inquiry reviewing these three books: Rosalind Dixon and David Landau, Abusive Constitutional Borrowing: Legal Globalization and the Subversion of Liberal Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021). Stephen M. Feldman, Pack the Court:… Continue reading

“Twitter fails to report some political ads after promising transparency”

April 10, 2023, 7:31 amcampaigns, cheap speechRick Hasen

Politico: Elon Musk took over Twitter last fall with a pledge of transparency for the social media giant — but so far political advertising on the platform has been anything but forthcoming. Twitter has failed to disclose some political… Continue reading

Interview with Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi

April 6, 2023, 4:07 pmcheap speech, chicaneryJustin Levitt

I missed this interview on Monday, talking at least in part about the impact of cheap speech on democracy (and about the Mackey conviction).

Still more defamation actions

April 5, 2023, 1:44 pmcheap speech, chicanery, election subversion risk, First Amendment theoryJustin Levitt

Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene notes Devin Nunes’s latest, about an allegation that federal investigators were looking into Trump Media for potential money laundering activities.

“Fiction vs Reality: My Texts with Michael Shellenberger”

March 31, 2023, 2:02 pmcheap speech, chicanery, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

Renee DiResta: For several months earlier this year, I’d been chatting with Michael Shellenberger about the Twitter Files. He’d reached out to me in a Twitter DM on December 30th, telling me he wanted to better understand social media content… Continue reading