{"id":2350175,"date":"2024-10-03T15:23:01","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T19:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-judge-stops-newsoms-assault-on-political-speech\/"},"modified":"2024-10-03T15:25:26","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T19:25:26","slug":"federal-judge-blocks-newsoms-attack-on-political-speech-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-judge-blocks-newsoms-attack-on-political-speech-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge Blocks Newsom&#8217;s Attack on Political Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffederal-judge-blocks-newsoms-attack-on-political-speech-2%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2350175&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A federal \u200cjudge has temporarily blocked a controversial California \u200blaw, championed \u200cby Governor Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislators, aimed at\u200c regulating so-called &#8220;deepfakes&#8221; used in political advertising. This law, considered a threat to free speech by \u2064critics,\u200d was\u200d passed in \u200dresponse to a \u200dparody\u200b video featuring Vice \u200dPresident Kamala Harris\u200b that\u200b utilized artificial \u200cintelligence to manipulate her statements. The ruling is viewed as \u2064a substantial victory for\u200c the \u2064First Amendment amidst concerns that it allows \u2064politicians \u200cto silence dissenting \u200cvoices in political discourse.<\/p>\n<p>The judge emphasized that while the state has \u200ba valid interest in maintaining \u2062electoral integrity, the law is too \u2063broad and fails to meet constitutional requirements. \u2063The law could enable significant legal ramifications for those producing or distributing what could\u2062 be considered misleading political content. Critics\u2064 argue that this move reflects a worrying trend where politicians seek to shield themselves \u200cfrom scrutiny under the guise of protecting the public from misinformation. \u2064The law&#8217;s\u200b future remains uncertain as \u2062California&#8217;s\u200d attorney \u2063general is expected to appeal.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A federal judge has blocked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a> and his band of leftist legislators from implementing a political speech-killing law hastily assembled under the guise of protecting the public from so-called &ldquo;deepfakes.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/electionlawblog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/kohls.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">decision<\/a>, at least for now, is a significant victory for the First Amendment, which has been under constant assault from leftists like Newsom who insist they are &ldquo;defending democracy&rdquo; by gutting liberties in the name of stopping &ldquo;disinformation.&rdquo; California&rsquo;s far-left <a href=\"https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">attorney general, Rob Bonta<\/a>, is likely to appeal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The California legislature <a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2839\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rushed<\/a> to pass and implement the bill (<a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2839\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">authored<\/a> by state Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/a28.asmdc.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz<\/a>) after Newsom took issue with a hilarious parody video satirizing Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Produced by Christopher Kohls, who bills himself as &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MrReaganUSA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mr. Reagan<\/a>,&rdquo; the campaign ad parody uses AI to make Harris, in many cases, say what she has been incapable of saying as President Joe Biden&rsquo;s vice president and on the campaign trail: the truth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate. Thanks, Joe,&rdquo; the &ldquo;fake&rdquo; Harris says in the video.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>Free speech warrior and X owner Elon Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1816974609637417112\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">posted<\/a> the parody in late July. Newsom went apoplectic, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GavinNewsom\/status\/1817768956754788440\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">declaring<\/a> that he would sign a bill shutting down such satire. Earlier this month, the Democrat signed constitutionally suspect bills he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.ca.gov\/2024\/09\/19\/governor-newsom-signs-bills-to-crack-down-on-sexually-explicit-deepfakes-require-ai-watermarking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claims<\/a> will &ldquo;protect individuals from the misuse of digital content.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The law blocked by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-judge-blocks-newsoms-attack-on-political-speech\/\" title=\"Federal Judge Blocks Newsom&#039;s Attack on Political Speech\">federal judge bans digitally manipulated communications deemed<\/a> to be misleading or false. Anyone who distributes such mailers or video ads targeting or involving an elected official, candidates, elections workers, or voting equipment could be sued for damages by anyone who views the content.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>California is standing up to harmful deepfakes in political ads and other online content.<\/p>\n<p>To help safeguard the integrity of our elections, these three new laws will remove deceptive content from large online platforms, increase accountability, and better inform voters. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6wUzHpOSGV\">pic.twitter.com\/6wUzHpOSGV<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&mdash; California Governor (@CAgovernor) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CAgovernor\/status\/1836187008567513349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 17, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<h2>&lsquo;Politicians Protecting Politicians&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>In issuing the preliminary injunction, U.S. District Senior Judge John Mendez wrote that the law is much too broad to survive constitutional scrutiny.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;While California has a valid interest in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process, AB 2839 is unconstitutional because it lacks the narrow tailoring and least restrictive alternative that a content based law requires under strict scrutiny,&rdquo; the judge wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit is similar to a <a href=\"https:\/\/adfmedia.org\/case\/babylon-bee-v-bonta\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">complaint<\/a> filed earlier this week by <a href=\"https:\/\/adflegal.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Alliance Defending Freedom<\/a> on behalf of <a href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Babylon Bee<\/a>, a popular conservative satirical publication. ADL CEO and president Kristen Waggoner told me on the latest edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/babylon-bee-takes-california-to-court-for-censoring-satire--62197954\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Federalist Radio Hour<\/a> that the California laws threaten the time-honored tradition of American political parody and satire. Ultimately, she said, it&rsquo;s &ldquo;politicians protecting politicians.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Censorship threatens the heart of public discourse, and these particular laws are focused [on] the political process and political debate,&rdquo; Waggoner said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The language of the laws strike an Orwellian tone. They are based on subjective standards, prohibiting pictures and videos &ldquo;likely to harm&rdquo; a candidate&rsquo;s &ldquo;electoral prospects.&rdquo; Leftist politicians like Newsom have made clear they&rsquo;re willing to chill and silence free speech if the speech &ldquo;harms&rdquo; the Democrats&rsquo; chances of holding the White House and Congress. <\/p>\n<p>As The Federalist&rsquo;s Mark Hemingway <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/10\/03\/tim-walz-endorsed-censorship-in-front-of-millions-of-americans-and-no-one-cares\/\">wrote<\/a> this week, Harris&rsquo; running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, endorsed censorship during Tuesday&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/campaign-2024-an-early-look-at-the-possible-republican-contenders\/\" title=\"Campaign 2024: An Early Look At The Possible Republican Contenders\">vice presidential debate<\/a>. Here&rsquo;s the telling exchange between Walz and former President Donald Trump&rsquo;s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance. It bears repeating.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>J.D. Vance: <\/em><\/strong><em>The most sacred right under the United States democracy is the First Amendment. You yourself have said there&rsquo;s no First Amendment right to misinformation. Kamala Harris wants to use &hellip;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Tim Walz:<\/em><\/strong><em>  &hellip; [inaudible] threatening or hate speech &hellip;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>J.D. Vance:<\/em><\/strong><em>  &hellip; the power of government and Big Tech to silence people from speaking their minds. That is a threat to democracy that will long outlive this present political moment. I would like Democrats and Republicans to both reject censorship. Let&rsquo;s persuade one another. Let&rsquo;s argue about ideas, and then let&rsquo;s come together afterwards.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Tim Walz:<\/em><\/strong><em>  You can&rsquo;t yell fire in a crowded theater. That&rsquo;s the test. That&rsquo;s the Supreme Court test.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>J.D. Vance: <\/em><\/strong><em>Tim. Fire in a crowded theater? You guys wanted to kick people off of Facebook for saying that toddlers should not wear masks.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration has pushed a campaign to root out and silence speech it doesn&rsquo;t like, including creating the position of a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/04\/26\/opinion\/disinfo-pusher-nina-jankowicz-is-back-to-tell-americans-what-to-think\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;disinformation czar.&rdquo;<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;Lines Between Dictatorships and Democracies&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>As Courthouse News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/federal-judge-stops-implementation-of-california-misinformation-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> on Wednesday, the California law doesn&rsquo;t include any way to &ldquo;measure the effects&rdquo; of altered election-related content.&nbsp;In addtion, as Mendez explained, &ldquo;Even if AB 2839 were only targeted at knowing falsehoods that cause tangible harm, these falsehoods as well as other false statements are precisely the types of speech protected by the First Amendment. In <em>New York Times v. Sullivan<\/em>, the Supreme Court held that even deliberate lies (said with &lsquo;actual malice&rsquo;) about the government are constitutionally protected.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Waggoner said Alliance Defending Freedom is seeing mounting government-sponsored censorship across all Western democracies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;When the public hears words like &lsquo;hate speech,&rsquo; &lsquo;misinformation,&rsquo; or &lsquo;disinformation,&rsquo; that should immediately signal a red flag that blurs the lines between dictatorships and democracies,&rdquo; the free speech advocate said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really a power grab by government officials to take power from the people.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Matt Kittle is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-throws-out-leftist-nevada-ags-phony-fake-electors-case\/\" title=\"Judge Throws Out Leftist Nevada AG&#039;s Phony &#039;Fake Electors&#039; Case\">senior elections correspondent<\/a> for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal judge has halted a law by Gov. Newsom aimed at regulating &#8220;deepfakes,&#8221; marking a win for the First Amendment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2350176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-03-at-12.19.31-PM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[33791,32311,36794,3678,38689],"class_list":["post-2350175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-federal-judge","tag-free-speech","tag-legal-ruling","tag-newsom","tag-political-speech"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-03-at-12.19.31-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2350175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2350176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2350175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2350175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2350175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}