Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed suit against 45Committee, a secret money group that spent as much as $38 million in 2016 to help elect former President Donald Trump. The suit alleges that 45Committee failed to register as a political committee as required by federal law, thereby avoiding disclosure of its donors and spending.

This suit, filed on...

Federal law requires political committees to disclose basic information about the contributions they receive, including who contributed the money and when. Transparency regarding the sources of funding for our elections and how that money is spent has long been a central tenet of our democracy.  

But many big donors prefer to keep their election...

In a win for political transparency, the U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition for certiorari seeking to hear an appeal in the case Rio Grande Foundation v. City of Santa Fe, preserving voters’ right to know who is spending to influence ballot measure campaigns in the city.

Like many other states and municipalities, Santa Fe, New Mexico...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted an amicus brief in the Maryland legislative redistricting case encouraging the court to adopt the widely used and reliable standards and tools to evaluate partisan gerrymandering and rule that Maryland’s Declaration of Rights limits lawmakers’ ability to use partisan gerrymandering to silence voters holding...

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) recently settled a complaint against Canadian billionaire Barry Zekelman and his associated steel companies, after finding reason to believe that Zekelman illegally funneled $1.75 million to America First Action (AFA), a super PAC aligned with former President Donald Trump, and initiating an investigation.

As...

Almost exactly 10 years after the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act was signed into law, the House Administration Committee held a hearing examining congressional stock trading and potential reforms.

This hearing, held on April 7, 2022, was years in the making and reflective of a newfound acknowledgement by Congress that voters...

In a victory for Michigan voters’ ability to choose their representatives, a federal district court declined to invalidate the congressional maps created by the Michigan Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission.

The court’s ruling, issued on April 1, 2022, said that the plan enacted by the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting...

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act was signed into law by former President Barack Obama on April 4, 2012. Ten years later, it is time to take stock of the STOCK Act.

The STOCK Act had three principal objectives: increase public trust in Congress, increase transparency by providing the public with real-time disclosure of...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Barton Mendez Soto PLLC filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Arizona Students’ Association (ASA) and the Arizona Democracy Resource Center (ADRC) challenging H.B. 2492, an anti-voter law which undermines the...

Voters have a right to know whether their elected officials are prioritizing their own wallets over the needs of the public, and for years, much focus has rightfully been paid to the stock trading activities of those in power.

Although criticism of laws regulating congressional stock trading has focused on the lack of meaningful protection against...

Stefanie Condie, a plaintiff in the lawsuit that Campaign Legal Center and its partners recently filed against the Utah Legislature, wrote an op-ed in The Salt Lake City Tribune objecting to the legislature’s efforts to implement a congressional redistricting map that would constitute an extreme partisan gerrymander and warning against silencing...

The White House recently released a report detailing many of the barriers commonly faced by Native voters and described best practices for protecting the right to vote. This built on a White House directive issued on March 7 to expand voting access.

The report was developed in consultation with Tribal Leaders, Native voters, organizations working...

No matter your background or zip code, voters want to be able to choose their own elected officials instead of the other way around. This sentiment was expressed in an op-ed that husband-wife duo Malcolm and Vicki Reid wrote for The Deseret News about how the gerrymandered congressional map undermines the will of voters to lock in power for an...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has filed a lawsuit in the District of Columbia federal court, challenging the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) failure to act on an administrative complaint CLC filed against the campaign committees of then-President Donald Trump in July 2020 and supplemented in January 2021.

The underlying administrative complaint...

I came to Washington to work in the Reagan Justice Department and have spent much of my career in Republican circles. I was a lawyer for the presidential campaign of President George H.W. Bush, — a Republican Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and as a long-time advisor and campaign legal counsel to Sen. John McCain.

But I’m...

Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center (CLC), underscored in an op-ed for The Arizona Republic that the anti-voter bill H.B. 2492 would create significant obstacles to voting and impose high costs on voters in violation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

The op-ed, published on March 27, 2022, looked at how this bill is...

A district court declared that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has illegally failed to act for more than three years on Campaign Legal Center’s (CLC) “supported” and “credible” allegations that secret money group Heritage Action violated campaign finance laws.

As the court explained, CLC’s “allegations outline a legitimate threat to the...

The Georgia House of Representatives recently introduced a new 40-page omnibus bill – H.B. 1464 – that undermines the freedom to vote and poses risks to our democracy.  

Campaign Legal Center has submitted written testimony outlining serious concerns with the bill ahead of a Georgia Senate hearing tomorrow.  

Among the most concerning measures...

While members of Congress have rightly received a lot of publicity and scrutiny for allegedly violating the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act and trading stock based on nonpublic information they receive in their official capacity, the stock trading problem on Capitol Hill doesn’t end with them.

Senior level congressional staff...

The American people strike a bargain with nonprofit groups: nonprofits get a break on their taxes but must agree to make much of their tax return public.

This transparency is especially important for certain groups that devote huge sums to political spending but organize as “social welfare” nonprofits under section 501(c)(4) of federal tax law in...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC), partnered with Utah attorneys from Parr Brown Gee & Loveless and Zimmerman Booher to file a lawsuit on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Utah, Mormon Women for Ethical Government and individual voters in Salt Lake City to block Utah from violating voters’ will with its new congressional redistricting map.

The...