From: NoBody <NoBody@nowhere.com>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,can.politics,alt.politics.trump,alt.politics.liberalism
Subject: Newsome tries to stop free speech - gets slapped by judge
Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2025 13:44:55 -0400
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
A federal judge has struck down a California law signed by Gov. Gavin
Newsom that prohibits the creation of deepfake images and videos of
politicians after conservative Christian satire site Babylon Bee and
others sued.
In a decision released Friday, U.S. District Judge John Mendez of the
Eastern District of California ruled that the Assembly Bill 2839,
which bans most deepfakes of political figures, "discriminates based
on content, viewpoint, and speaker and targets constitutionally
protected speech."
"Rather than targeting content that procures tangible harms or
materially benefits a speaker, AB 2839 attempts to stifle speech
before it occurs or actually harms anyone as long as it is 'reasonably
likely' to do so and it allows almost anyone to act as a censorship
czar," wrote Mendez, a George W. Bush appointee.
"The far-reaching prior restraints AB 2839 implements have not been
recognized by First Amendment caselaw thus far and have no
historically accepted analogs."
California could have tailored the law to "false speech that causes
legally cognizable harms like false speech that actually causes voter
interference, coercion, or intimidation," Mendez added.
"California could also limit the statute's reach to factual statements
that are demonstrably false like the time, date, place, or manner of
voting," he continued.
The Babylon Bee and other plaintiffs were represented by the Alliance
Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that has won First
Amendment cases at the Supreme Court level.
"Making fun of politicians and criticizing the government is a core
First Amendment right. That includes using new technology to create
parody campaign ads or satirical memes," ADF Senior Counsel Johannes
Widmalm-Delphonse, who argued the case before the court, said in a
statement.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/judge-sides-with-babylon-bee-strikes-down-newsom-s-anti-deepfake-law/ar-AA1LEvJQ