The undeniable truth is that sunlight alone will not disinfect the congressional stock trading problem. The first 10 years of the 2012 Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act proved that stock trading disclosure laws without stock trading restrictions make the problem worse, which means reform is inevitable. 

Comparing the...

The night of Jan. 19, 2022 was a disappointing night for all who have been fighting for the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act (H.R. 5746) — a critical piece of legislation aimed at strengthening our democracy that failed in a U.S. Senate vote. Indeed, this month and this past year have been rough for everyone who cares about the freedom to vote.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and our co-counsel, the UCLA Voting Rights Project and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), are representing individual Latino voters and the Southcentral Coalition of People of Color for Redistricting in a federal lawsuit against Washington state officials over a voting map that dilutes the...

Voters should be able to live under maps where they can choose their leaders, instead of giving self-interested politicians the power to pick their voters. In order to have fair and equitable representation, communities must be able to remain together, and voters must be able to have an equal voice.

To combat a racially targeted attack on voters’...

The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the risk of corruption is “inherent” in a campaign finance system that relies on private contributions to candidates. One type of contribution that raises particularly acute corruption concerns is money raised after Election Day to repay candidates’ personal loans to their campaigns.

Using post-election...

As the 2022 midterms rapidly approach, Congress is doing what needs to be done to protect the freedom to vote by advancing the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. Protecting our democracy is not a partisan issue. 

On Jan. 13, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed this important legislation. The U.S. Senate now has the opportunity to...

Voters should be able to elect their preferred candidates instead of having politicians pick their voters. No matter where we come from, when it comes to having a say in who represents us, most of us want a transparent process we can trust, where voters have an equal voice.

Right now, voters across the country are finding out what state and...

One year ago today, we witnessed a substantial attack on a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power. Last January 6 illustrated a democracy in crisis: a violent attack on Congress while it was counting the Electoral College votes, and an attack by many Republican members of Congress on the right of voters in the states to elect...

In the previous installment of the blog series “Gerrymandering 101,” we discussed how gerrymandering makes it easier for a politician and members of their own party to win elections and hurts both voters and our democracy.

But while the harms of gerrymandering cannot be ignored, it is possible to combat gerrymandering and ensure that voters can...

The need to address the lack of transparency in election spending is growing increasingly urgent as the 2022 midterms loom nearer. Just like the last few election cycles, the midterms are certain to be defined by record-breaking amounts of campaign spending, including large sums of secret “dark money” spending.

To protect voters’ right to know...

In a victory for voters, on Dec. 9, 2021, a federal court said a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s anti-voter law can move forward. Campaign Legal Center (CLC) brought the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on behalf of VoteAmerica, the Voter Participation Center and Center for Voter Information. 

The lawsuit...

Our democracy works best when all citizens can vote without barriers. However, too many Americans sit out on elections because of difficult or confusing rules and misinformation about whether jailed voters or voters with felony convictions on their records can vote.

In March, President Biden signed an executive order promising to expand voting...

Native American voters face several barriers to exercising their freedom to vote and making their voices heard in our government.

This is why on Dec. 6, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) sent letters to the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), urging them to address those barriers...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) published a new report, Reforming Campaign Finance in Arizona: A Roadmap to Greater Transparency and Accountability in Arizona’s Elections on Dec. 9, 2021, which details Arizona’s current campaign finance laws and recommends policy solutions to fight corruption and ensure voters know who is spending big money to...

Ohio may not be top of mind when thinking of states passing restrictive laws that threaten our freedom to vote. But earlier this year, a potentially sweeping prohibition on cooperation between election officials and community groups was tucked into the state’s budget, putting at risk the right of Ohio voters to ensure their voices are heard.

This...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Missouri Ethics Commission on Dec. 1, 2021 alleging that Eric Greitens’ gubernatorial campaign committee, Greitens for Missouri, violated state campaign finance law.

By doing so, Greitens for Missouri also violated a February 2020 consent decree with the commission in which it agreed to not...

As a candidate, President Joe Biden promised comprehensive ethics reform. However, Campaign Legal Center’s (CLC) ongoing review of the status of Biden’s promises reveals that the president and Congress have not achieved the vast majority of those reforms.

As of August 2021, Biden has only fulfilled three of his 25 ethics promises. Unfortunately...

To understand gerrymandering, it is first important to understand how states draw political district maps.

Every 10 years, on the years that end in zero, Americans participate in the Census. Data from the Census is then used to create congressional and state legislative district maps. It is also used for redistricting at the local level, including...

Moves by U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-W.I.) and others in his state to undermine a bipartisan elections agency and threaten its members with legal action are part of a concerning and ongoing trend that, if left unchecked, stands to sabotage the American electoral process. 

In recent months, partisan attempts to undermine legitimate and fair American...

Campaign Legal Center (CLC), joined by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Common Cause and Democracy 21, filed an amicus brief in the case Federal Election Commission (FEC) v. Ted Cruz for Senate.

The brief, filed on Nov. 22, 2021, defends a law that prevents potential corruption from arising when politicians make large...

A federal court temporarily blocked certain anti-voter provisions in the Kansas law H.B. 2332 on Nov. 19, 2021. The court ruled that the challenged parts of H.B. 2332 likely violate the First Amendment rights of nonpartisan organizations to engage in political speech by restricting their ability to distribute mail ballot applications to voters to...