In 2018, Florida voters overwhelmingly supported Amendment 4, restoring the right to vote to over a million residents with past felony convictions.

On June 28, 2019, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cut that momentous democratic act off at the knees by signing into law SB 7066, requiring payment of all associated outstanding fines, fees, and...

On June 27, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a January 15 opinion by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman finding that Secretary Ross lied about his reasons for adding the citizenship question to the 2020 Census. 

The Court held that there was a “strong showing of bad faith or improper behavior” by the Administration, justifying a closer look at...

Elections should be determined by voters, not politicians who draw maps that determine their voters. 

On June 27, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal courts may not intervene to block partisan election maps, no matter how unfair they may be. While the U.S. Supreme Court failed to put an end to partisan gerrymandering, something a...

A majority of voters across the political spectrum support limiting the influence of big donors, and for years, politicians have publicly declared their support for reducing the influence of money on our political system. But privately, those same politicians have run campaigns that exploited loopholes in the law—and, in some cases, created new...

Voters need information about who pays for political ads in order to make informed decisions at the ballot box. Unfortunately, to this day, inaction on the part of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has made it easy for online political ads buyers to hide their identity from voters. This is a big problem in a 21st-century political environment...

On June 12, 2019, Paul Smith, CLC’s Vice President, Litigation & Strategy was recognized by Lambda Legal with the Courage in Action Award. This award acknowledges Paul for his work as an "unrivaled champion for equality, fighting for and defending justice and opportunity for all." In a video honoring Paul, Kevin Cathcart, the former Executive...

After nearly two years of trying to hide the names of individuals involved in an inflammatory email to Attorney General Sessions regarding the Pence-Kobach Commission, the Department of Justice has relented and released the email without the redacted names. The newly released document reveals the involvement of Charles J. Cooper, J. Christian Adams...

In response to a Hatch Act complaint filed by CLC, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) sent a letter to President Donald Trump recommending that Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway be removed from office. 

The letter calls Conway’s repeated Hatch Act violations “egregious, notorious, and ongoing,” and says that “her actions erode the...

President Donald Trump was asked by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos yesterday whether his campaign would accept damaging information against his 2020 rivals from foreigners – such as China or Russia – or report such an offer to the FBI.

Trump said, “I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening. If somebody...

Campaign Legal Center welcomes eight new members to our team for the summer: our 2019 class of summer law interns. The summer interns are current law students who will work with CLC's full time staff to help advance our work, including pushing for the enforcement of campaign finance laws, and against felon disenfranchisement and partisan...

The news of Herb Sandler’s passing is a significant blow to everyone who cares about our democracy and this country. Herb and his late wife Marion worked to improve public policy in this country in a number of fields and thereby to improve people’s lives.

Herb was a visionary leader in the nonprofit world: he nurtured organizations, supported them...

For 218 years, residents of the District of Columbia have lived in our country as American citizens without equal representation or equal self-government. This disrespects service members and veterans who call Washington D.C. home and are denied equal rights that other Americans enjoy. Over two centuries after the founding of our country, it is...

On May 22, 2019, the Nevada Legislature passed a bill, AB 431, which would automatically restore the right to vote following a past felony conviction, helping an estimated 77,000 citizens. Campaign Legal Center (CLC) sent a letter to Governor Steve Sisolak urging him to sign this bill as soon as possible because voting is a fundamental right...

On May 14, 2019, the Washington Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Elster v. City of Seattle, a case challenging the constitutionality of Seattle’s innovative public financing system for local elections—the Democracy Voucher Program.

The plaintiffs in Elster are property owners in Seattle who contend the city is forcing them to subsidize...

In 2018, then-House Speaker Paul Ryan flew to Las Vegas, sat down with mega donor Sheldon Adelson, emphasized the importance of electing Republicans to the House, and then left the room. Minutes later, the head of a Ryan-aligned super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, stepped in to secure a $30 million contribution from Adelson.

What Ryan...

Tennessee has one of the lowest voter registration rates in the country. Before last fall’s elections, Tennessee had the lowest voter turnout rate of any state, at just 28.5%. And yet, the state just made it even more difficult to register people to vote and get them out to the polls.

Last Thursday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed into law some...

CLC filed a complaint against White House counselor Kellyanne Conway with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) for again abusing her official authority to influence an election. This is Conway’s third brazen violation of the law.

Conway recently gave two interviews from the White House lawn where she pivoted, unprompted, to attack a...

After Donald Trump was elected President in 2016, his Deputy Campaign Manager David Bossie urged the president’s supporters to donate to an organization called the Presidential Coalition. Capitalizing on Bossie’s ties to the President, the group consistently told supporters that it would use their money to bolster state and local candidates that...

In Arizona, around 80% of voters choose to receive a mail-in ballot. Despite the ubiquity of voting by mail, thousands of ballots have been uncounted because of an alleged “mismatched” signature, as judged by election officials (not handwriting experts). Adding to the injustice, many voters were unaware that their vote was at risk until it was too...

The Inspector General (IG) at the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced that it is opening an investigation into potential ethics violations by 6 senior DOI political appointees after a complaint filed by Campaign Legal Center (CLC).

The complaint filed in February 2019, alleged that 6 of the DOI political appointees violated revolving door...

Campaign Legal Center Action (CLC Action) filed suit on behalf of Giffords against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for failing to announce any action against the National Rifle Association (NRA) for using shell corporations to coordinate campaign spending with seven federal candidates spanning three election cycles from 2014-2018. The lawsuit...