For decades, federal law has prohibited foreign interference in federal, state, and local elections. Despite this general federal ban, the law has significant loopholes that have been exploited by foreign interests as recently as the 2020 elections.

The federal ban has not been updated since the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit will hear arguments in Daunt v Benson on March 17, 2021. This case challenges the constitutionality of voter-approved reforms designed to end gerrymandering in Michigan.

The decision could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and would impact the movement to adopt independent redistricting...

For the first time in a generation, sweeping campaign finance reforms are on the verge of passing Congress. To reduce political corruption, we need real transparency about who is spending big money on elections.

Many of the provisions in the For the People Act (H.R. 1/S. 1) are designed to crackdown on corruption in both parties.

Specifically...

A new poll commissioned by the right-leaning R Street Institute found that 57% of Republican voters support independent redistricting commissions (IRC).

With a strong majority of polled Republican voters supporting IRCs, this new finding reinforces the fact that public opposition to politician control over the redistricting process is bipartisan...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on March 8, 2021 against Rep. Tom Malinowski for allegedly violating the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.

Between 2019 and 2021, Malinowski made more than 100 trades with a total value ranging from approximately $1.3 million to $5...

It has been 56 years since the “Bloody Sunday” March on Selma that finally generated the popular will for former President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign into law the Voting Rights Act (VRA), our country’s best defense against racial discrimination in elections.

On March 7, 1965, civil rights icon and former Rep. John Lewis and 600 other activists...

After a record 4.9 million Floridians voted by mail in 2020, some Florida legislators are moving to restrict access to that option. Their proposals, backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, seek to limit vote-by-mail on a number of fronts, including by purging vote-by-mail registration rolls before the 2022 elections, limiting who can drop off mail-in ballots...

Across the political spectrum, four-out-of-five Americans consistently support greater transparency in our democratic process. Yet a growing number of state legislatures around the country are moving to block public access to information about who is spending big money to secretly influence our vote and our government.

Last week, South Dakota...

On March 3, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the For the People Act, H.R. 1, a transformative bill that would set baseline standards and reverse coordinated efforts to restrict access to voting at the state level. This comes as lawmakers in 43 states have crafted more than 253 bills with provisions that restrict voting access.

Reform...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) asked the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to investigate possible misuse of campaign funds by Rep. Steven Palazzo in March 2020.

Specifically, Palazzo made campaign expenditures that appear to be illegal payments for personal expenses, including $60,000 in rental payments to his second home and $127,933 to his...

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments in Brnovich v. DNC, a case which could have profound implications for the future of voting rights in America. Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted an amicus brief in the case.

The case focuses on the role of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), a federal law providing protection against racial...

On Tuesday, March 2, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to hear a case, Brnovich v. DNC, that could have profound effects on the future of voting rights in America.

What is this case about?

This case is about two Arizona voting restrictions that are being challenged under Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA).

• The first...

Google announced that it would rescind the ban on political advertising that it has had in place since the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Starting on Feb. 24, “[if advertisers] are otherwise policy compliant, then [Google’s] reviewers will approve the ad," said an email from Google obtained by Axios.  

The article goes on to highlight...

The U.S. Senate’s decision not to hold former President Trump accountable for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, despite bipartisan agreement that he incited rioters, highlights a larger problem in the upper chamber. 

The Senate seems to have an aversion to accountability not only for the immediate past president but also for its own...

Republican and Democratic former chairs of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Trevor Potter and Ann Ravel sent a bipartisan letter of support for the FEC reforms in the For the People Act (H.R.1/S.1) to leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives. The steps outlined in H.R.1 to strengthen the agency will fix the failures of the FEC to...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) joined 42 civil society organizations calling on the Biden administration to implement a bold transparency agenda. The letter highlights the important role that transparency, accountability, and oversight play in ensuring the public’s trust in government.

The health of our democracy in part depends on the Biden...

The Georgia House of Representatives has hastily introduced an omnibus election bill that would make voting harder in a state that experienced record setting turnout in 2020. This partisan effort is part of a larger disturbing trend of restrictive voting bills that are gaining steam across the U.S. this year.

Jonathan Diaz, legal counsel for...

Reports filed by the National Rifle Association Victory Fund (NRA Victory Fund) reveal that the super PAC failed to disclose key information about nearly all of its individual contributors in the 2020 election cycle – keeping from the public identifying information about a combined $510,500 in donations.  

Campaign Legal Center Action (CLCA) and...

Despite a global pandemic, Americans turned out in record numbers to cast their votes in the 2020 election. Election administrators, volunteers, and voters overcame extraordinary obstacles to make their voices heard at the ballot box.

At the same time, however, we saw that our elections remain in need of improvement. For many Americans—especially...

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have implemented or are in the process of implementing automatic voter registration (AVR). In 2019, the Brennan Center found that AVR increased the average registration rate in every state where it was implemented. Oregon, the first state in the country to implement AVR, has seen its voter registration...

By today’s vote, 43 Senators failed to hold former President Trump to full account for his conduct, which threatened our 228-year tradition of peaceful transfers of the presidency under our Constitution. There is, however, action which Congress can now take that will bind some of the wounds of our democracy and strengthen it for elections to come...