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The Latest from Campaign Legal Center

Arizona is attempting to ignore federal law to silence the voices of its voters.  

Since 2004 the state has been trying to make it harder for Americans to register to vote and access the ballot box.

Arizona was the first state to enact a law that requires voters to provide burdensome citizenship documentation to register to vote, and Campaign Legal...

After over three years of litigation, the Washington State Supreme Court has upheld a record-setting $25 million fine issued to Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms, Inc., for violating the state's campaign finance disclosure law requiring digital platforms to maintain records of political advertising on their sites.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC)...

The 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence presents an invaluable opportunity to reflect on the great distance our republic and our democracy have traveled, while charting a course for a new era of progress, particularly given the immense strains on our democracy in this moment.  

This journey began with a decision by a handful of British...

Since the beginning of his second term, President Donald Trump and his administration have renewed their efforts to undermine Americans’ freedom to vote.

The current administration has sought to seize voter data from the states, unlawfully change the way our elections are run, and attack voting rights.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is pushing back on...

Campaign Legal Center welcomes eight new members to our team for the summer: our 2026 class of summer legal interns. The summer interns are current law students who will work with CLC's staff to help advance our work in the areas of voting rights, redistricting, campaign finance, government ethics and the rule of law.

Welcome, team!

Meet the Interns

K...

What is gerrymandering?

Gerrymandering is the term used to describe the manipulation of voting district boundaries based on partisanship or race to achieve an unfair advantage.  

To understand gerrymandering, it is important to understand the process of drawing district maps.

The U.S. Constitution requires the federal government to conduct a census...

Issues

Election outcomes should be determined by voters, not politicians who manipulate voting maps.

But gerrymandering — the manipulation of the map-drawing process for political gain — makes it easier for politicians and political parties to consolidate power and win elections at the expense of voters and our democracy.  

Gerrymandering directly affects...

Issues

In the November 2024 election, an overwhelming majority of voters in Washington, D.C. voted to pass Initiative 83 (I-83), which introduced ranked choice voting and semi-open primaries for elections in the District of Columbia.  

Campaign Legal Center, on behalf of our clients who proposed and supported I-83, has successfully defended the will of the...

The American system of representative self-government is being tested in ways we haven’t seen in generations, if ever. President Donald Trump’s second term has brought a wave of actions that challenge the very principles that system is built on.  

From attempting to take control of federal elections to threatening peaceful protestors and bypassing...

During the 2026 election cycle, Campaign Legal Center continues to vigilantly monitor and demand public accountability for Hatch Act violations. Nonpartisanship as a cornerstone of civil service is a principle outlined in the Constitution, reaffirmed by the courts and protected by the law — namely, through the Hatch Act. The public has the right to...

Issues

When wealthy special interests can purchase access, influence and favor from public officials, Americans lose trust that the government works for them. President Donald Trump’s planned construction of a massive ballroom at the White House undermines the fundamental trust and expectation that the government works on behalf of the people.

Trump’s...

Elections are big business. Federal candidates and political parties routinely raise and spend millions of dollars to seek public office. Outside groups like super PACs unleash torrents of additional money to back their favored candidates. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that political ad spending in the 2026 midterms is projected to top $10...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has a responsibility to protect Americans’ freedom to vote, but recent actions by the DOJ — taken at the behest of President Donald Trump and other members of his administration — are now threatening that very freedom.  

Beginning in the spring of 2025, the DOJ embarked on a sweeping effort to demand highly...

With the 2026 midterms approaching, the Trump administration and its allies have intensified a sweeping campaign to erode the safeguards that keep our elections free, fair and secure. These efforts form a clear pattern: undermining the rule of law; destabilizing election administration; and weakening our institutions and election protections.

This...

The Trump administration has dramatically expanded a little-known immigration status verification tool called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, pulling in data from multiple federal databases and encouraging states to run information about millions of voters through the program.

Election officials and experts warn...

In 2024, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued an advisory opinion (AO) that created a new, legally indefensible loophole in federal campaign finance law permitting federal candidates to outsource and conceal millions of dollars in spending on canvassing coordinated with supposedly “independent” groups. 

This unlawful opinion disregarded...

States across the country are redrawing their congressional districts in an unprecedented mid-decade race to the bottom to reshape voting maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Florida has joined this race, attempting to implement a map that violates the state constitution and silences voters.

Passed during a special session called by Governor...

Issues

A 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais has eviscerated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and opened the door for states to enact discriminatory voting maps and laws.

This decision — which contradicts the text of the Voting Rights Act, the will of Congress and the Constitution — is one of the most consequential setbacks for...

Dismissal from the civil service due to political beliefs, whether one’s own beliefs or the beliefs of one’s family, is blatantly unlawful. Congress has long protected civil servants from discrimination based on their personal political beliefs, and all Americans have a First Amendment right to their beliefs.  

But President Trump’s relentless...

President Donald Trump’s second administration has appointed dozens of former lobbyists to important government roles, including leadership positions in the very agencies they formerly lobbied. Consequently, special interests have been given undue influence on major policies that impact American life.

This phenomenon, commonly referred to as the...

Issues

Recent attempts by the Trump administration to take control over different aspects of our elections have raised questions about what the federal government can and cannot do when it comes to our elections.  

So, what is the proper legal role of the federal government in election administration?

The United States has a largely decentralized election...