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🔥 Today’s Lever essay: A new book is supercharging elites’ campaign to deter Democrats from challenging billionaires and corporate power.

👇 Spend two minutes reading this 544-word newsletter to learn about: 

  • This secret trick to hack the First Amendment.
  • Universities’ multibillion-dollar investment snafu.
  • Trump’s plans to expand the military-industrial complex.
TODAY'S NUGGETS

🤑 Price fixing = free speech? A recent city ordinance in Berkeley, California, banning the use of software to set rent prices is under attack from a real estate tech giant. RealPage, which was sued by the Justice Department last year for colluding with landlords to algorithmically fix rent prices, has now filed a lawsuit claiming Berkeley unlawfully violated the company’s free speech rights. The Lever reported last year that corporations are increasingly relying on the First Amendment’s compelled speech principle to argue against regulatory action. In a recent lawsuit, Uber made compelled speech arguments to try to block a Colorado pay transparency law.