It is illegal to make political contributions in the name of someone else. Yet, in recent months, three corporations appear to have been used to do just that.
The disclosure of who’s spending to influence elections is critical to our democracy—it’s how “citizens can see whether elected officials are ‘in the pocket’ of so-called moneyed interests,”...
In the past five years, members of Congress have spent at least $871,000 on golf club expenses, $741,000 at the St. Regis Hotels, and $469,000 at Disney World. A South Dakota Senator spent $403,000 at West Virginia’s Greenbrier Sporting Club; an Ohio Congressman spent $64,000 on Broadway tickets in New York City.
This runaway spending was brought...
On July 17, 2018, CLC hosted "After the Supreme Court: What's Next for Fair Maps," a conference call to discuss the next steps in the fight for #fairmaps.
Featuring:
Ruth Greenwood, Senior Legal Counsel, Voting Rights & Redistricting, CLC
Annabelle Harless, Legal Counsel, Voting Rights & Redistricting, CLC
Josh Penry, Principal, EIS Solutions...
Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s record indicates he will expand big money in politics, weaken voter protections and put the president above the law. CLC issued a fact sheet detailing the judge's record on democracy issues.
He’s made clear that he believes money is the same as speech, and unlimited spending in elections is absolutely...
On July 20, 2018, the Republican National Committee and Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. will file disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission. These filings will almost certainly reveal that both organizations are paying substantial sums to law firms for various kinds of legal work. Based on previous reporting and admissions of the...
Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) urging it to investigate Donald Trump, his 2016 campaign committee, and the Donald J. Trump Foundation. The complaint outlines how each violated federal campaign finance law by soliciting and spending soft money in connection with Trump’s 2016 run for...
This week, a bipartisan group of Members of Congress introduced the REFUSE Act to close the loopholes that foreign actors have used to secretly influence U.S. democracy. CLC advised the House offices on the text of the bill. The bill would close the loopholes that can allow foreign-owned corporations and foreign-funded dark money groups to spend...
Last week, the Supreme Court sidestepped our challenge to the state of Wisconsin’s extreme partisan gerrymanders. Rather than ruling on the merits, the Justices sent the case, Gill v. Whitford, back to a lower court to further examine the plaintiff’s standing in the case and the serious harms that gerrymanders cause. While this means that the...
The U.S. Supreme Court sent North Carolina’s partisan gerrymandering challenge, Rucho v. League of Women Voters of North Carolina, back to a federal district court today for further analysis in light of the Whitford decision. Campaign Legal Center and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice represent the League of Women Voters of North Carolina...
CLC reached a settlement agreement with the Secretary of State of Arizona and the Maricopa County Recorder over a lawsuit on behalf of League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and Arizona Students’ Association (ASA) challenging the state’s overly burdensome voter registration process. When the lawsuit was filed, Maricopa County Recorder...
The Supreme Court today left the door wide open for it to rein in partisan gerrymandering. The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the case. Instead, the Court returned the case to Wisconsin district court. Fortunately, the Supreme Court provided a clear roadmap of what it expects to see presented in district court before it sets a legal...
State and local governments across the country are leading the way to ensure every voice is heard in the political process. Nearly 30 jurisdictions since 2016 – from Albuquerque, New Mexico to New Haven, Connecticut – have passed innovative public financing programs intended to give candidates an incentive to reach out to a greater share of...
In a 5-4 ruling in Husted v. APRI, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Ohio voter purge practice that removes infrequent voters from the registration rolls. The decision creates a danger that other states will pursue extreme purging practices to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters across the country.
In APRI, Ohio asked the Supreme Court to...
This month the Supreme Court of the United States is set to issue an opinion in a case I’ve been working on for many years: Gill v. Whitford. I, along with a team, represent Bill Whitford and his fellow plaintiffs in seeking to strike down the Wisconsin state house plan as a partisan gerrymander, in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments...
If Will Rogers were still alive, he might remind his fellow Oklahoman, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, of the first law of holes: “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." Instead, Pruitt has dug himself deep into an ethical pit. But where Pruitt’s ethical problems began, in state politics in Oklahoma, an effective...
Following a request made by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced in March that the 2020 U.S. Census will include a question regarding citizenship. The DOJ claims that the data from this question will help to better enforce the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and provide more accurate and in-depth information...
Just as the internet has changed society, it has also changed the way campaigns reach out to voters. But regulation of these ads has not kept up. That slow reaction created a blind spot which Russians exploited when they ran thousands of advertisements on Facebook and other digital platforms, reaching a wider audience than last year’s Super Bowl.
...A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlighted the fight to restore voting rights to citizens who are currently ineligible to vote because of Jim Crow era laws that disenfranchise an estimated six million people convicted of felony offenses across the country. Meanwhile, in The Washington Post, the title of an op-ed by George Will sums up...
Bombshell revelations from President Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani came out last week about a hush money payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election. The media has added a new layer to scrutiny of the Trump campaign — but more importantly — they have unearthed serious questions about whether...
A super PAC forms. A megadonor writes a check for a few million dollars. The super PAC starts spending heavily in support of one candidate. The candidate publicly expresses his or her thanks to the super PAC donor.
So far in this election cycle, scenarios like this one, and close variations of it, have surfaced again and again. But these aren’t...
Pruitt’s political career in Oklahoma included many of the same themes as his tenure atop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the New York Times reported over the weekend. When Pruitt served as Oklahoma attorney general, he used connections to get a sweet deal on a mansion (subsidized by telecom interests and owned by a shell company) and...