After the January 6 attack on our country revealed gaps and ambiguities in the process of certifying presidential elections, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 — a strong bipartisan bill and major victory for voters’ ability to make their voices heard in future presidential elections.
In the year since, advocates and lawmakers at...
Outside spending groups like super PACs can wield enormous influence over our elections, and it’s important — and legally required — that these groups’ election spending be properly disclosed so that voters can evaluate electoral ads equipped with complete and accurate information about the sources behind money spent to influence their vote and our...
When a person decides to run for one of the country’s highest elective offices, voters have a right to know the candidate’s financial interests. Information about a candidate’s financial background is vital for the public’s trust because it allows voters to assess what influences may come to bear on a candidate or whether there are possible...
Transparency is one of the bedrock principles of our election system. For voters to meaningfully participate in the democratic process, it’s vital that they have access to complete and accurate information about who is spending to influence their vote.
Transparency is especially important in our current political process, in which wealthy donors and...
The Senate Ethics Committee (Ethics Committee) just released its annual report for 2023. For 13 months, the public has had no idea what the Ethics Committee has been doing. Despite the long wait, and a prominent ethics scandal surrounding a committee chairman, the annual report reveals that we haven’t missed much. Once again, the Ethics Committee...
In the 14 years since the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, spending by super PACs and other outside (supposedly independent) groups has skyrocketed, with most experts expecting the 2024 election to break spending records.
Yet as this spending has increased, the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the agency responsible for...
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) joins the legal community, friends, family and colleagues in mourning the loss of Charles Fried — an esteemed scholar and longtime Harvard Law School professor, former Solicitor General and model of nonpartisan commitment to effective democracy.
Professor Fried served on CLC’s Board of Directors from 2016 to 2021...
After receiving CLC’s letter asking that the Judicial Conference’s September 2023 Report of the Proceedings be made public, the Judicial Conference provided the smallest glimmer of hope that it is taking enforcement of Justice Thomas’s Ethics in Government Act (EIGA) violations seriously — it provided an update in the newly released Report of the...
Voters have a right to know which wealthy special interests are spending big money to influence our vote and our government to rig the political system in their favor, but as the 2024 elections approach, a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court over a decade ago continues to threaten that fundamental right.
On Jan. 21, 2010, in the case Citizens...
Voters have a right to know who their elected officials are and what or who may influence them. That is why CLC filed a complaint against Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE).
Rep. Ogles’ financial disclosure reports appear to include over $1 million in financial discrepancies, including his failure to...
On New Year’s Eve, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. shared his 2023 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary (Report). In past years, Chief Justice Roberts’ reports provided relevant historical context for an issue that concerned the federal courts in that year.
To many observers, it seemed obvious that 2023’s Report would address ethics: The...
As state legislatures convene in all fifty states to pass new laws, thousands of newly elected lawmakers will have a chance to add their voices to the process. Hopefully, many of them will prioritize laws and policies that protect the freedom to vote.
This issue is particularly important given that the past few years have seen the proliferation of...
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is pleased to announce that Senior Vice President and Legal Director Adav Noti has been named the organization’s Executive Director, effective January 1, 2024. In this role, Adav will lead CLC’s programmatic activity and operations as CLC executes a multi-faceted strategy to protect our democracy during a pivotal...
Americans looking at their elected officials might struggle to find anyone who genuinely shares their life experiences and day-to-day concerns, as most of our presidents, senators, and members of Congress have been (and continue to be) independently wealthy, and the number of candidates self-funding their campaigns is on the rise.
A Pew Research s...
After more than a decade of noncontiguous, gerrymandered maps, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the state’s legislative maps as unconstitutional — a win for Wisconsinites and for our democracy.
The ruling comes after a lawsuit was filed by Campaign Legal Center (CLC), in partnership with Law Forward, the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law...
By Michael Carter, NARF Staff Attorney, and Mel Neal, Legal Fellow at CLC.
North Dakota has a long and ongoing history of discrimination against Native Americans, including denying Native voters an equal voice in the state’s elections.
Until 1922, North Dakota barred most Native people from voting. Even after North Dakota finally allowed Native...
American elections have many built-in processes for verification and review before, during and after a vote is cast. This is especially true when voting by mail.
After a voter fills out and returns a mail ballot, it goes through a host of steps prior to being counted and election results being released to the public. These steps are known as...
Felony disenfranchisement laws, which take away someone’s freedom to vote if they have been convicted of a felony, are the biggest remaining obstacle to a truly inclusive and equitable democracy in America.
These laws proliferated in the United States as an intentional scheme to strip Black Americans of their freedom to vote and continue to...
Ethics commissions at the state and local levels serve a crucial role in democracy by providing trainings to ensure government officials in every state, city and municipality know how to follow laws and rules that preserve public trust in government.
Government employees are not the only ones who benefit from ethics training. Journalists...
As state houses across the country wrap up their 2023 legislative sessions, several states have taken important steps to update their election laws to conform with the new Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 (ECRA). Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, North Dakota, Nevada and Michigan enacted legislation this year that aligns their timelines for presidential...
Rep. George Santos has become the sixth member in the history of the House of Representatives to be expelled from the chamber. After two failed attempts to expel him, the third time stuck.
What made the third time a charm? A deeply incriminating report, issued by the House Ethics Committee, detailing the extent of his wrongdoing.
It would be...