At a Glance
On August 5, 2010, plaintiffs filed a sweeping lawsuit challenging numerous aspects of Wisconsin campaign finance law, included the state’s definition of “political committee” and various disclosure and reporting requirements applicable to “independent expenditure organizations.” In 2014, a Seventh Circuit panel struck down much of the “dizzying array of statutes and rules” under challenge...
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On August 5, 2010, plaintiffs filed a sweeping lawsuit challenging numerous aspects of Wisconsin campaign finance law, included the state’s definition of “political committee” and various disclosure and reporting requirements applicable to “independent expenditure organizations.” In 2014, a Seventh Circuit panel struck down much of the “dizzying array of statutes and rules” under challenge. Specifically, the decision invalidated Wisconsin’s ban on corporate political spending and its cap on corporate fundraising for an unaffiliated PAC; its definitions of “political purposes” and “political committee” as they applied to non-express advocacy political speech made by entities other than candidates, their campaign committees, and political parties; its imposition of “PAC-like” obligations on groups making independent disbursements, as applied to organizations without the major purpose of express advocacy; and its treatment of communications mentioning candidates during the 30/60-day preelection period as “fully regulable” express advocacy subject to disclosure and reporting requirements.