Maryland’s law requires press entities and Internet advertisers to amass vast  amounts of information—every buyer of advertisements and their underlying donors—in order to possibly find a Russian spy posing as an American. Maryland bears the burden of proof on this score, and even under exacting scrutiny, it failed to carry that burden. In fact, Maryland’s law is both overbroad and underinclusive. It regulates virtually all paid online political activity, but does not concern itself with the primary weapon used by the Russian Federation in 2016: free online content.

Read the full amicus brief here.

Decision, United State Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (December 6, 2019)

Institute for Free Speech Amicus Brief, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (June 7, 2019)

 

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