How a Trump adviser manipulates free speech to advance his causes and ‘hurt his adversaries’

"The first amendment has been a particular target of political manipulation by Leo and the conservative legal movement across a range of subjects," he said. 

In 2010 the supreme court ruling Citizens United used free speech as a way to open the door to massive spending in elections by corporate donors. Then in 2021, in a much less noticed ruling, Americans for Prosperity v Bonta, the rightwing justices effectively created a new first amendment right to keep the identity of big donors secret. 

In the judicial term that ended in June, the six conservative justices again turned to the first amendment – this time to unleash open discriminationagainst LGBTQ+ communities in the name of protected speech. In a dissent, Sonia Sotomayor warned that business services could now be denied any vulnerable group, such as interracial couples or parents with disabled children, all in the name of "free speech". 

Now, in the latest iteration of the use of the argument by the right, Trump himself is leaning on a free speech defense in response to this week's indictment over his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election.

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/aug/09/leonard-leo-federalist-society-manipulates-free-speech