Skip to main content

Free Speech Blacklists Pose a Threat to Democracy


Many second amendment supporters fear that one day, gun control advocates will use state gun registries as a shopping list to find and steal all the privately-owned guns. These fears seem well-founded, especially in light of recent comments by certain candidates for the presidency. But there is another kind of registry we should be just as concerned about: free speech registries. Does that concept sound familiar? Perhaps not. It’s terrible branding, if you're a proponent of such measures. Much better to stoke public fears with words like “dark money.” But make no mistake, when politicians and special interest groups talk about donor disclosure for nonprofits, this is what they envision – a list of people against whom they can retaliate for speech they dislike – a blacklist. 

When a nonprofit interferes with your grand political scheme, it’s easier to bully their individual donors than it is the full time employees. Employees don’t have to fear for their employment if they expound unpopular views - they are paid to do so. But people who agree with those views and just want to take part by becoming “members” of an organization are relatively easy to intimidate. Organization employees were also aware when they took the job that they would be in the spotlight, and may be the focus of unflattering publicity. Donors and members likely have very different expectations - namely that they will have the right to disclose their membership or their giving to friends and family, or the right to keep their charitable causes private. They may be punished by an employer for creating bad press. They may be ostracized in their community. 

This issue should not be confused with campaign contribution disclosures. If it were up to me, I would allow unlimited donations to any candidate so long as it was disclosed. I don't care if a candidate is backed by a single, large donor. I do care if they are secretly backed by one or a few large donors. But that isn’t the issue here. True issue advocacy (think Heritage Foundation, the ACLU, or Oklahoma Second Amendment Association) should not require disclosure of donors. These citizens have a fundamental, God-given right to speak. These are the government watchdogs - those who root out corruption.  

This is not a partisan issue, it's a power issue. Nationally, one party tends to favor free speech registration, while the other tends to fight it, but on the state and local level, you are more likely to see tyrannical proposals in states where one party has a supermajority - regardless of which party that is. In more balanced states, legislators are able to recognize that organizations with similar ideologies are just as likely to be in the crosshairs. In one-party states, it becomes tougher to imagine that these ill-thought-out laws could be turned on any organization, including those allied with the party in power. But state politics can turn on a dime. Virginia was long a bastion of second amendment freedom. But just this term they have seen multiple proposals for gun control, and many of them seem likely to pass. Would NRA members want to live in a state where both their second AND their first amendment rights were under threat? 

Make no mistake: once the government has a list of names, it is quite easy for it to be misused by individuals with a grudge, or governments that brook no opposition. California sheriffs in the more conservative inland portion of the state have been forced to disclose the names of concealed carry permit holders under open records requests by the San Francisco Chronicle. In Arizona, the state department of education “inadvertently” released the names of Educational Savings Account recipients. Federal agents unmasked the identities of over 16,000 “U.S. persons” swept up in FISA surveillance operations in 2018. Free Speech Registry proponents want to use fear to spur onerous government regulation. Sound familiar? 

Mike Davis is Research Fellow at 1889 Institute. He can be reached at mdavis@1889institute.org.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the official position of 1889 Institute.

Popular posts from this blog

1889 Institute's Statement Regarding School Closures

The 1889 Institute, an Oklahoma think tank, has released the following statement regarding Joy Hofmeister’s proposal to keep schools closed for the remainder of the school year. We at the 1889 Institute consider Joy Hofmeister’s proposal to close Oklahoma’s schools for the rest of the school year a gross overreaction to the coronavirus situation. Even in the best of times and circumstances, suddenly shifting every student in the state from traditional classrooms to online distance learning will have negative educational consequences. This in addition to the economic burden on two-earner families forced to completely reorder their lives with schools closed. We believe many of our leaders have overreacted to worst-case scenarios presented by well-intended health experts with no training or sense of proportion in weighing the collateral damage of shutting down our economy versus targeting resources to protect the truly vulnerable. We say reopen the schools and stop the madness. ...

Can Government Force You to Close Your Business?

1889 Institute takes no position on whether any or all of these measures are warranted or necessary, or whether their economic fallout would inflict more human suffering than they prevent. We are simply evaluating whether they are legal.   With the unprecedented (in the last 100 years at least) reaction surrounding the outbreak of Covid-19, questions that few living legal scholars have considered are suddenly relevant.   Can a quarantine be ordered?   Can a mass quarantine, lockdown, or “cordon sanitaire” be ordered? Can businesses be ordered to change their behavior?   Can businesses be ordered to close? Can state governments order these measures? Can local governments order these measures? My legal brief addresses these issues from a statutory point of view; it is clear that state law gives the governor and mayors broad authority in a state of emergency. They must, of course, do so in a neutral way that they reasonably believe will help preve...

Even If Pandemic Models Were Right, Were Covid Lockdowns Wrong?

1889 has been quite critical of pandemic modeling that government officials have relied on for their Covid-19 response. We have also criticized shutdown orders in light of flaws in the models. But let’s assume for a moment that the worst predictions really would have come true if nothing was done. Even in those worst case scenarios, it’s fair to ask if our governments did the right thing. Were involuntary shutdowns justified, or would people have found a way to both limit the contagion and maintain some level of productivity? Was putting healthy citizens under house arrest acceptable even if they were willing to risk infection?   While large groups of people are often compared to herd animals, we are not sheep. We don’t behave like animals. We can, have, and will step up when our communities are in danger. When government and journalists give incomplete or false information, people will act irrationally. Depending on the situation, some will blindly follow the first aut...

The Bravery of Those Who Died to Defend Us Highlights Our Cowardice

Memorial Day commemorates those who died in military service to our country. These people died not for a chunk of land, for the natural resources available on that chunk of land, nor for any such simple material possession. They died for an idea, a way of life, as well as for each other. We used to be the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave. Now we're the land of the lockdown and the home of the trepidatious.   The bravery of heroes past has been replaced by dirty looks for those who dare to go outside without a mask - even in their own cars – where mask wearing, at best, can only be justified as a sign of solidarity . But solidarity for what? Certainly not freedom. That solidarity happens when people stand shoulder to shoulder against the jackboots who would take someone to jail for what now appears to be the shocking desire to earn a living to feed a family. What follows are three stories of heroism, and four contrasting acts of cowardice. May the deeds of the...