With deepfake video and audio making their way into political campaigns, California enacted its toughest restrictions yet in September: a law prohibiting political ads within 120 days of an election that include deceptive, digitally generated or altered content unless the ads are labeled as “manipulated.”

On Wednesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the law, saying it violated the 1st Amendment.

Other laws against deceptive campaign ads remain on the books in California, including one that requires candidates and political action committees to disclose when ads are using artificial intelligence to create or substantially alter content. But the preliminary injunction granted against Assembly Bill 2839 means that there will be no broad prohibition against individuals using artificial intelligence to clone a candidate’s image or voice and portraying them falsely without revealing that the images or words are fake.

The injunction was sought by Christopher Kohls, a conservative commentator who has created a number of deepfake videos satirizing Democrats, including the party’s presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. Gov. Gavin Newsom cited one of those videos — which showed clips of Harris while a deepfake version of her voice talked about being the “ultimate diversity hire” and professing both ignorance and incompetence — when he signed AB 2839, but the measure actually was introduced in February, long before Kohls’ Harris video went viral on X.

When asked on X about the ruling, Kohls said, “Freedom prevails! For now.”

The ruling by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez illustrates the tension between efforts to protect against AI-powered fakery that could sway elections and the strong safeguards in the Bill of Rights for political speech.

In granting a preliminary injunction, Mendez wrote, “When political speech and electoral politics are at issue, the 1st Amendment has almost unequivocally dictated that courts allow speech to flourish rather than uphold the state’s attempt to suffocate it. … [M]ost of AB 2839 acts as a hammer instead of a scalpel, serving as a blunt tool that hinders humorous expression and unconstitutionally stifles the free and unfettered exchange of ideas which is so vital to American democratic debate.”

Countered Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, “The 1st Amendment should not tie our hands in addressing a serious, foreseeable, real threat to our democracy.”

Robert Weissman of the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen says 20 other states have adopted laws similar to AB 2839, but there are key differences.

( Nick Wass / Associated Press)

Weissman said 20 states had adopted laws following the same core approach: requiring ads that use AI to manipulate content to be labeled as such. But AB 2839 had some unique elements that might have influenced Mendez’s thinking, Weissman said, including the requirement that the disclosure be displayed as large as the largest text seen in the ad.

In his ruling, Mendez noted that the 1st Amendment extends to false and misleading speech too. Even on a subject as important as safeguarding elections, he wrote, lawmakers can regulate expression only through the least restrictive means.

AB 2839 — which required political videos to continuously display the required disclosure about manipulation — did not use the least restrictive means to protect election integrity, Mendez wrote. A less restrictive approach would be “counter speech,” he wrote, although he did not explain what that would entail.

Responded Weissman, “Counter speech is not an adequate remedy.” The problem with deepfakes isn’t that they make false claims or insinuations about a candidate, he said; “the problem is that they are showing the candidate saying or doing something that in fact they didn’t.” The targeted candidates are left with the nearly impossible task of explaining that they didn’t actually do or say those things, he said, which is considerably harder than countering a false accusation uttered by an opponent or leveled by a political action committee.

For the challenges created by deepfake ads, requiring disclosure of the manipulation isn’t a perfect solution, he said. But it is the least restrictive remedy.

Liana Keesing of Issue One, a pro-democracy advocacy group, said the creation of deepfakes is not necessarily the problem. “What matters is the amplification of that false and deceptive content,” said Keesing, a campaign manager for the group.

Alix Fraser, director of tech reform for Issue One, said the most important thing lawmakers can do is address how tech platforms are designed. “What are the guardrails around that? There basically are none,” he said, adding, “That is the core problem as we see it.”

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff denied the veracity of a Daily Mail report in which three unnamed sources accused him of having slapped a former girlfriend during a 2012 trip to the Cannes Film Festival.

Fox News Digital has not been able to independently confirm the allegations.

“This report is untrue,” an unnamed representative for Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband told news outlet Semafor. “Any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false.”

The Daily Mail’s exclusive story on Tuesday quoted a trio of unidentified sources who claim Emhoff slapped his then-girlfriend while the couple waited in a valet line following an event in Nice, France, in 2012. The alleged altercation was purportedly sparked when the woman – identified only by the pseudonym “Jane” and described as a successful New York attorney – flirted with a valet, according to the article.

The Harris campaign, the Office of the Vice President and a representative for Emhoff’s ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, did not comment despite repeated requests from Fox News. 

Several media outlets, including Semafor, noted they had been unable to match the Daily Mail’s reporting and legacy media companies such as the New York Times have yet to report on the claims. 

The Daily Mail’s article hinged on the recollections of three people described as being Jane’s friends. The outlet said its sources requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation from Emhoff. The three friends reportedly provided the outlet with a photo of the pair when they were still a couple, as well as itineraries and correspondence between Emhoff and Jane to substantiate that they made the trip to France in May 2012.

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One of the sources is described by the Daily Mail as a female New York attorney who learned about the alleged incident from Jane.

“He hauled up and slapped her so hard she spun around,” the source is quoted as saying. “She said she was in utter shock. She was so furious, she slapped him on one side, and then on the other cheek with the other hand.”

Another friend, described by the Daily Mail as a New York businessman, told the outlet Jane called him sobbing following the alleged incident. 

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“It was very clear what she was telling me,” that source said, according to the Daily Mail. “She said she was with a guy, her date, she was at the Cannes Film Festival, and he hit her. She was in the car with the guy at the time.”

The male friend said he learned more details about the alleged episode after the initial phone call. 

Vice President Kamala Harris hugs second gentleman Douglas Emhoff after speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 22, 2024. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

“It was something like 3 a.m. They were trying to get out of there and they both had been drinking. There was a gigantic line for taxis,” he told the outlet. “She went up to one of the valet guys, offered him 100 euros or whatever, to get to the head of the line. She told me she put her hand on his shoulder. Doug apparently thought that she was flirting, and came over and slapped her in the face.”

A third friend, described as a female executive, told the Daily Mail that she learned of the alleged incident in 2014, and purportedly found out new details from Jane in 2018, when Harris, then a senator from California, made headlines with her questioning of a Supreme Court nominee who had been accused of sexual assault.

“[She] is a gorgeous, strong woman and you would never expect somebody to hit her,” the third friend told the Daily Mail. “When he hit her she hit him back, like, ‘Don’t you ever do that again,’”

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The third Daily Mail source added: “I asked her if he ever apologized. She said ‘no,’ but he commented about the hit she gave him. It was a tennis metaphor. But no apology at all.”

All three friends told the outlet that Jane hit Emhoff back after the alleged initial slap. They also claimed that Jane tried to leave the valet area after the alleged slap, but that Emhoff got into a cab with Jane.

Jane and Emhoff had been dating for about three months before the reported trip to France, according to the friends. Emhoff allegedly cut the trip short and returned to the U.S. for his daughter’s birthday at the end of May, and never saw Jane again, the friends told the outlet. 

Doug Emhoff points as he speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Aug. 20, 2024. (Reuters/Mike Segar)

Emhoff’s alleged relationship with Jane unfolded after his 2008 divorce from his first wife and before his 2014 marriage to Harris. 

The New York Post on Wednesday slammed Emhoff as “Worst Gentleman” in its cover story detailing the Daily Mail’s article.

Sen. Kamala Harris, then her party’s vice presidential nominee, and her husband Douglas Emhoff appear on stage at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Emhoff is fresh off of a Sunday sit-down interview on MSNBC during which Jen Psaki celebrated him as having reshaped “the perception of masculinity.”

“There is also an important, interesting part about how people have talked about your role is how your role has reshaped the perception of masculinity,” Psaki said. “I’m not sure you planned on that, but you are an incredibly supportive spouse. Has that been an evolution for you? Do you think that’s part of the role you might play as first gentleman?”

Emhoff responded: “It’s funny. I’ve started to think a lot about this. I’ve always been like this. My dad’s always been like this. To me, it’s the right thing to do, support women. It is mutual with Kamala and I. We support each other, we have each other’s back.”

DOUG EMHOFF’S EX-WIFE RESPONDS AFTER SECOND GENTLEMAN ADMITTED TO AFFAIR WITH NANNY

He added: “I’ve said many times when we lift up women, we support women, whether it’s pay equity, child care, family leave, and all of these issues in this post-Dobbs hellscape. Women should not be less than. Women should not have less rights and be treated differently. That’s not the American way.”

Clips of the exchange spread like wildfire on social media as critics noted that, in August, Emhoff admitted to having an affair with his family’s nanny during his first marriage years ago.

Emhoff’s admission came shortly after the Daily Mail published a separate report in August claiming that he got his daughter’s nanny pregnant.

The affair occurred before Emhoff’s relationship with and eventual marriage to Harris. 

“During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions. I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side,” Emhoff said over the summer, acknowledging the affair, but not naming the nanny. 

Kerstin Emhoff addressed her ex-husband Doug Emhoff’s affair with a nanny. (Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images)

Emhoff and his first wife were married from 1992 to 2008 and share two adult children. Harris married Emhoff in 2014, and helped co-parent his children, who call their stepmom “mommala.” 

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Emhoff reportedly told Jane in 2012 about his divorce, according to her female friend who works as an executive. 

The Daily Mail’s report was published just five weeks before the election, when Harris will square off against former President Trump at the ballot box. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Schiff says fixing the asylum process long term, in a way that addresses public safety and also keeps migrants safe, will require comprehensive immigration reform.

That, he said, will mean ensuring migrants can apply for protections before leaving their country of origin; hiring more judges and interpreters to address systemic backlogs; and providing resources for communities at the border and elsewhere that have received asylum seekers. It will also require improving border inspections with a surge in resources and technology to ports of entry, he said, to stop fentanyl and other illicit drugs from entering the U.S.

“We must pass a comprehensive immigration reform that treats immigrants and immigrant workers with dignity and respect, keeps families together, and gives Dreamers, farmworkers and other front-line workers a clear pathway to citizenship,” Schiff said. “Comprehensive reform also means ensuring a secure, orderly, and humane response at the border.”

“Dreamers” are those who were brought to the U.S. illegally when they were children.

Garvey says that President Biden’s recent action to limit asylum at the southern border “is an attempted quick fix instead of the real reform needed,” adding that the administration should have taken action on border enforcement earlier.

“Enforcing the law should not be a political decision or an election year talking point,” he said.

In an opinion piece last month in the Los Angeles-based Spanish-language newspaper La Opinión, Garvey said a porous border poses threats to national security, has overwhelmed the already backlogged court system and has strained social services.

Even so, he said, “mass deportation of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in our country is not a realistic solution,” suggesting more resources and staffing for immigration agencies. Garvey is also in favor of reinstating Trump’s so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy that required migrants to wait across the border for the duration of their U.S. court proceedings.