Blaze media wrote about our free speech victory in our lawsuit on behalf of “Mr Reagan,” a YouTuber who creates political satire videos.
Judge Mendez granted Kohl a preliminary injunction against the ban Wednesday: “AB 2839 does not pass constitutional scrutiny because the law does not use the least restrictive means available for advancing the State’s interest here.”
The judge agreed that counter speech is less restrictive than outright censorship and emphasized that lawmakers’ fears of a digitally manipulated media landscape does not give them “unbridled license to bulldoze over the longstanding tradition of critique, parody and satire protected by the First Amendment.”
Mendez, who expressed sensitivity to the risks posed by AI and deepfakes, further noted that AB 2839 is unconstitutional “because it lacks the narrow tailoring and least restrictive alternative that a content based law requires under strict scrutiny.”
Adam Schulman, senior attorney with the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, called the ruling a “powerful reaffirmation of free speech values in a world of new technology.”
Read more at Blaze media.