Barr & Klein PLLC

10/15/2025

Steve Klein published a white paper with Wyoming Liberty Group, analyzing ten election cycles’ worth of candidates’ campaign finance filings in the state and summarizing his findings. You can read “No One’s ‘Buying’ Elections” here.

Wyoming Liberty Group, in collaboration with attorney and researcher Stephen R. Klein of Barr & Klein PLLC, has released a new policy study titled No One's 'Buying' Wyoming Elections: A Candid Look at a Decade of Campaign Finance Disclosure. The study examines every Wyoming statewide and legislative...

09/12/2025

This week, Stephen Klein discussed the case Dinner Table Action v. Schneider with the plaintiffs’ counsel Charles Miller of the Institute for Free Speech in a Litigation Update with The Federalist Society. The lawsuit successfully challenged newly enacted speech restrictions and disclosure requirements in under the , and is now heading to the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

In Dinner Table Action v. Schneider, pending in the First Circuit, Maine is appealing a permanent injunction barring the enforcement of a ballot initiative p...

06/17/2025

Michigan’s electronic eavesdropping law is a bit convoluted, but it governs secret recording clearly enough: one may record a conversation as a party without notice. In nearly eight years of litigation against Project Veritas and one of its journalists, the American Federation of Teachers (“AFT”) Michigan has tried to rewrite the law twice in federal court. We’re thankful to the Michigan Attorney General for weighing in today—also for the second time—with the appropriate interpretation of the law.

You can download the brief here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tdN6ZfWFk90_cAwNEZLPmio8W-7bqd_r/view?usp=share_link

04/21/2025

Steve Klein writes at The Federalist Society about the clash between privacy protections against secret recording by the government and privacy as an interest that can censor the rights of citizens to secretly record. The issue is part of our appeal in Project Veritas v. Vasquez against ’s recording law, certiorari pending at the Supreme Court. .

On April 7, Project Veritas filed a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court in...

04/10/2025

Benjamin Barr appeared on CBS News Chicago this evening to discuss how the Trump administration’s funding cuts to universities like Northwestern might fare in court.

The funding freeze stems from ongoing Title IX investigations following pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses last year. Sabrina Franza reports.

04/07/2025

What if investigative journalism became illegal?
In Oregon, it already is—unless you explicitly warn subjects before recording. Our Supreme Court petition asks: Does Oregon’s bizarre law violate the First Amendment by turning essential reporting techniques into crimes? It’s time for clarity from the highest court to protect your right to know. Read more: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10r5_wXUrFbLp7aAF4OOHR6S2z2vg2BZ_/view?usp=share_link

03/19/2025

In 1992, the Supreme Court upheld a law that placed a 100-foot no-electioneering “buffer zone” around election day polling places as constitutional under the . Since then, many states have adopted in-person absentee or early voting and have placed more buffer zones around entrances to courthouses and other busy government buildings just because they have one room dedicated to in-person voting. In , absentee buffer zones censor for nearly a month before an election around the offices of the very officials who are subject to those elections -- even threatening someone with a crime for driving by with too big of a bumper sticker. Today, on behalf of John C. Frank, we returned to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to put an end to this creeping and chilling .

You can download the brief here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cpFgnviIDZ7mOk3_b4Yu7-ncbP1Zp_eO/view?usp=share_link

03/14/2025

Steve Klein argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit this morning on behalf of the New York State Fi****ms Association and several individual citizens in a lawsuit against Steven James, Superintendent of the New York State Police. The case challenges New York’s ammunition background checks as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. The audio of the argument is available at the link below.

02/01/2025

“Klein said the plaintiff's actions are ‘about punishing free speech, period.’”

SWEETWATER COUNTY -- Oral arguments on a motion for summary judgement were heard Friday, Jan. 31, in the defamation case brought by two Rock Springs legislators against a political action

01/07/2025

“Benjamin Barr, a lawyer for Project Veritas, said the group will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said the decision ‘leaves undercover journalists with their hands tied in Oregon’ by impeding their ability to investigate corruption and work with whistleblowers.”

A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld an Oregon law banning most secret recordings of oral conversations, rejecting a First Amendment challenge by Project Veritas, a conservative activist group known for using covert recordings against opponents. In a 9-2 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of....

10/29/2024

“The PAC is represented by Teton County’s Mark Jackowski and Washington D.C.-based attorney Stephen Klein — the latter of whom has litigated other high-profile cases related to Wyoming elections, including one recently heard in federal court[.]”

The plaintiffs are “seeking to punish and censor criticism of their records as legislators and to profit from their public service” the PAC argues in a Friday filing.

10/28/2024

Since a settlement with the Michigan Secretary of State five years ago in Crookston v. Benson, a free speech lawsuit represented by Steve Klein, state regulations permit photographing one’s own marked ballot in a voting station. The state still prohibits all other photography in polling places except by credentialed media, making things a little confusing owing to the term “ballot selfie.”

Voters can't take a selfie of themselves with their marked ballots. But they can take a photo of the marked ballot alone, while inside the booth.