On May 2, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on Supreme Court ethics reform. CLC’s Vice President, General Counsel, and Senior Director of Ethics Kedric Payne was one of five witnesses providing testimony for the hearing.
CLC’s testimony focused on how the Supreme Court’s ethics rules lag decades behind the executive and...
Voters have a right to know whether officials in the federal government are prioritizing public good or their own personal financial interests.
Congress passed the Ethics in Government Act in 1978 with the goal of increasing public trust in government and building confidence that public servants were indeed acting in the public’s best interest...
In March 2023, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) filed a federal lawsuit seeking suit seeking to overturn Arizona’s newly enacted Proposition 211, also known as the Voters’ Right to Know Act.
On April 28, 2023, CLC Action (CLCA) filed a motion for Voters’ Right to Know (VRTK) to intervene as a...
The right to vote is a basic American freedom—and when that freedom is abridged, our democracy suffers. This week, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) joined forces with local advocacy groups to fight back against barriers blocking the right to vote, filing a lawsuit challenging part of Louisiana’s felony disenfranchisement scheme.
We can’t have an...
Last week, the North Carolina Supreme Court issued a trio of disappointing decisions rolling back fundamental protections against partisan gerrymandering, revoking voting rights for individuals with a felony conviction and reinstating a racially discriminatory voter ID requirement.
Make no mistake, these decisions are a huge step back for...
It’s apparent that there’s a real crisis of faith in our democracy. Our elected officials are not as responsive to the will of the people as they should be, largely due to wealthy special interests spending big money to influence our vote and our government to rig the system in their favor.
The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) was designed to...
Campaign Legal Center’s “Democracy Decoded” podcast has been announced as the winner of two Webby Awards – one for the judged Webby Award for Podcasts - Public Service & Activism 2023, as well as the publicly voted People’s Voice Award in this same category.
The Webbys, dubbed “The Internet’s Highest Honor” by the New York Times, is presented by...
All eyes are on Tennessee this week following the expulsion of two democratically-elected state house members, representing approximately 130,000 Tennesseans in Nashville and Memphis, the state’s most diverse cities.
Both the ousted legislators are young, Black men. The move raises serious concerns about the Legislature’s racial motivations and...
Campaign Legal Center has sent a letter to the Judicial Conference requesting that it exercise its power under federal law to refer Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Attorney General for willfully failing to disclose gifts of free travel that he has received for over twenty years. If it is found that he intentionally violated the...
Voters in the United States have the right to cast their ballots freely, safely and privately through a secret ballot.
The modern conception of a “secret ballot” originated in Australia and was initially adopted in the American electoral system during the 1888 presidential election. By allowing voters to keep their ballots secret, they could make...
To maintain a government of, by and for the people, we must ensure that executive branch officials are using their power to benefit the American public, not their own financial interests. This is why we have laws to ensure that there is transparency and accountability when these officials play the stock market. But those laws are not always...
It’s no secret that leadership PACs have long been a source of abuse in our campaign finance system. These committees were first permitted more than forty years ago to enable federal officeholders and candidates to raise money to support congressional colleagues and gain support for their efforts to secure leadership roles. But in recent years...
On March 7, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14019 Promoting Access to Voting. directing all federal agencies to evaluate opportunities to increase access to registration and ballot access, and to develop strategic plans to achieve these goals.
On the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, and two years after President Biden issued this...
On Bloody Sunday, televised violence against civil rights activists in Selma, Alabama caused a national outcry and mobilized Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. Fifty-eight years later, the State still has a long way to go to ensure Black Alabamians have equal access to the ballot box.
For decades, the Voting Rights Act served as a powerful...
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is reportedly rolling in campaign cash, having raised over $70 million through his state PAC “Friends of Ron DeSantis,” and he will surely raise millions more before he formally acknowledges what is already apparent – that he will run for president in 2024.
DeSantis, who was just reelected governor of Florida by a...
The newly-elected Congress is the most diverse in history, but it falls far short of mirroring the breadth of diversity we have in this country. Revising a problematic campaign finance regulation could help improve our representative democracy by reducing the de facto personal wealth requirement for seeking elected office.
While the U.S...
The Supreme Court of the United States has released its final investigation report of last year’s leak of the Dobbs. v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. This monumental breach of the Court’s confidentiality was handled with a conspicuously flawed investigation that yielded—surprise!—an inconclusive result. With this first major public...
Yesterday, the Senate Ethics Committee (“Ethics Committee”) released its annual report for 2022, revealing that it dismissed nearly all its ethics investigations and only issued one private letter of admonition as a penalty. In response, CLC sent a letter to Chairman Chris Coons (D-DE) and Vice Chair James Lankford (R-OK), calling on them to end...
As President Donald Trump demanded vote recounts and filed lawsuits across the country to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, he raised millions of dollars to help finance his efforts. But he ultimately spent several million dollars that he raised during this period on something completely unrelated, and his actions illustrate...
Voters have a right to know who’s spending money to influence elections. That’s why federal campaign finance laws require people running for public office to declare their candidacy and file reports that disclose who their donors are and how they spend campaign funds, including political contributions.
Federal law also prohibits super PACs —...
Kevin McCarthy became Speaker of the House of Representatives — one of the highest roles in our government and second in line to the Presidency — in a dramatic five-day, fifteen-round marathon of votes that highlighted the stark, rancorous divisions in his caucus.
Largely overshadowed by the drama of McCarthy’s bid to become Speaker was a...