Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Tyler MacQueen

“Much has been made about the financial implications of Trump’s shocking movie mandate. But beyond the economic concerns, both the industry and elected officials alike have failed to consider the broader constitutional implications of the president’s chaotic posts, should the tariffs actually be implemented. Nestled in his posts, declaring offshore film productions a ‘National Security threat,’ Trump further justified the tariffs this year by labeling foreign films as ‘propaganda.’ For any American who cares about free speech, that should be the cue to jump up and holler, ‘Cut!’” (10/01/25)

https://www.thefire.org/news/trumps-tinseltown-tariffs-threaten-free-speech

Source: The UnPopulist
by Cathy Young

“The secretary is a Christian nationalist who wants to eliminate those who don’t agree with his totalitarian vision.” (10/01/25)

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/hegseths-hatred-of-americans-makes

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Thorin Klosowski

“The Financial Times reports that the U.K. is once again demanding that Apple create a backdoor into its encrypted backup services. The only change since the last time they demanded this is that the order is allegedly limited to only apply to British users. That doesn’t make it any better. The demand uses a power called a ‘Technical Capability Notice’ (TCN) in the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act. At the time of its signing we noted this law would likely be used to demand Apple spy on its users. After the U.K. government first issued the TCN in January, Apple was forced to either create a backdoor or block its Advanced Data Protection feature — which turns on end-to-end encryption for iCloud — for all U.K. users. The company decided to remove the feature in the U.K. instead of creating the backdoor.” (10/01/25)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/uk-still-trying-backdoor-encryption-apple-users

Source: Reason
by Christian Britschgi

“The consistent rhetoric around government shutdowns, even if the parties and issues are reversed, betrays a common view of Congress’ role in our constitutional design: Lawmakers should shut up and fund the government. When they don’t do that, and the government shuts down, they’ve failed to do their job. This view couldn’t be more backwards about how our constitutional scheme, with its separate branches, divided powers, and limits on the power of the executive and majority parties, is supposed to work. The whole reason for Congress having the power of the purse and holding regular votes on how much money to give the president to spend is to give it the opportunity to say no sometimes.” (10/02/25)

https://reason.com/2025/10/01/government-shutdowns-are-an-example-of-congress-doing-its-job/