Pruitt Can’t Play Both Sides of a Case

WASHINGTON– Today, the Campaign Legal Center called on Scott Pruitt, President-elect Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to recuse himself from the multiple lawsuits he brought against the agency as Attorney General of Oklahoma. Pruitt’s current ethics agreement is insufficient to avoid actual or apparent conflicts of interest, CLC explains in a letter to EPA’s Ethics Office and the Office of Government Ethics.

“Pruitt made a name for himself by suing the same agency he now seeks to lead, and if confirmed, he will be in a position of defending against—or settling—the same cases he previously initiated and supported,” said Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center. “Pruitt can’t be an impartial administrator when it comes to the lawsuits he spearheaded and as EPA Administrator he must step aside from those suits to protect the integrity of the agency’s decisionmaking.”

On Pruitt’s campaign website, he boasts of his role in leading and coordinating litigation against the EPA. According to some estimates, he initiated or filed briefs in at least 26 suits against the EPA, nine of which are ongoing. The cases affect a wide range of issues including air quality standards, clean water and pollution limits.

In his ethics agreement, Pruitt argues he only has an obligation to recuse from these cases for one year, and will even seek waivers to participate before that period expires. CLC’s letter explains that the circumstances here require recusal for the duration of the litigation, and regardless of whether Oklahoma withdraws from a suit or waives any conflict.

Pruitt’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works began at 10am today.

Read the letter

WASHINGTON — Today, civil rights leaders and voting rights experts provided reaction to the confirmation hearing of Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions and discussed his voting rights history, including Gerry Hebert, who testified against Sen. Sessions this week during the hearings. Read Hebert's recent op-ed in the Washington Post, "Jeff Sessions says he handled these civil rights cases. He barely touched them" here.

Senator Sessions’ history on voting rights is, simply put, a record of hostility. He has referred to the Voting Rights Act as intrusive and is a supporter of the Supreme Court decision to gut the Act in Shelby County v. Holder. A longtime, vocal advocate for voter ID laws, Sen. Sessions admitted he had no formulated plan to defend constituents against disenfranchisement as Attorney General.

A recording of today’s event is available here.

Wade Henderson, President of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said “This week’s confirmation hearing for Senator Sessions highlighted what’s at stake with this critical nomination and underscored why Senator Sessions is unfit to serve as our nation’s Attorney General. Judging by his record and testimony, we believe that Senator Sessions would fail to properly enforce many of our nation’s important civil rights laws and precedents, while overzealously pursuing false allegations of voter fraud and supporting policies that would make it more difficult for citizens to register to vote. Absolutely nothing that we heard or witnessed from the Senator should dispel concerns about his fitness to serve as Attorney General or reassure those worried about whether Senator Sessions would be a fair arbiter of justice for all Americans.”  

Gerry Hebert, Director of Voting Rights and Redistricting Program for the Campaign Legal Center, said, “Jeff Sessions continues to misrepresent his record to his fellow Senators. Even his responses to the supplemental questionnaire, as well as his sworn testimony about cases he continues to claim he worked on, were false.  Senators owe it to the American people to take the time to know the facts and demand the truth from Senator Sessions. It is frightening to think that Sessions will run the U.S. Department of Justice and have the opportunity to roll back voting rights through voter suppression laws in communities that have long struggled for equality and justice.”

Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders, said “Senator Session has not done justice as a U. S. Attorney, an Alabama Attorney General or U. S. Senator.  Senator Jeff Sessions cannot do justice as head of the Justice Department."

*A recording of today’s call is available here

This follows a similar response call held earlier this week with civil rights leaders, recording available here. 

President-elect’s Plans Leave Nation in Unprecedented Territory

WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump made clear today he will retain retain full ownership of Trump Organization while turning over management of the business to his sons, a choice that will create the appearance, and perhaps be the case in reality, that his decisions as president are motivated by self-interest rather than what’s best for the country. It will also provide an opportunity for those seeking access, influence and favors, including from foreign countries, to personally enrich the president’s family without the public’s knowledge.

“Having Trump’s adult children lead the operational control of his business, while he still retains full ownership, is not an acceptable solution,” said Trevor Potter, president of the Campaign Legal Center. “It does not limit the potential for conflicts. There is no reason why Trump would not be fully invested in a business he founded and that is run by his adult children. His decision has created a direct path by which U.S. and foreign interests, including foreign governments, can exert influence over him through his companies or holdings.

Giving management control to his children will not solve the problem, as evidenced by other countries where family members are used as proxies to enable political figures to amass wealth from domestic and foreign interests seeking to buy influence with the nation’s leader by enriching their family. The United States should not follow this path.”

“President-elect Trump has put himself, his administration, and the nation on the wrong path today – one that was completely avoidable,” said Larry Noble, general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center. “Every modern president before him protected the integrity of the office by converting all personal investments to government bonds or broad investment funds. This is the only way to assure the public that presidential decisions made on behalf of the American people are not clouded by self-interest. Now we are in uncharted and dangerous territory. It is not clear if foreign governments will try to exert influence over Trump through his family’s companies or holdings, or how potential violations of the Emoluments Clauses will be dealt with, or how many times the president will be caught up in legal entanglements involving his interests.  But it is clear that neither President-elect Trump nor the American people need these distractions.”

Potter added: "It is not unique for a president-elect with private business interests to need to take steps to avoid conflicts of interest, such as selling those interests and creating blind trusts. This situation is unique because the president-elect thinks he is above the laws and traditions his predecessors followed out of an abundance of caution – to avoid even the appearance of a potential conflict.”

CLC joined a bipartisan coalition of organizations and individuals in signing a letter that urged President-elect Trump to protect the integrity of his presidency by divesting his assets into a qualified blind trust managed by an independent trustee.

Hebert tells of racial insensitivity by Sessions, exposes willful inaccuracies in his questionnaire, and explains the harm he would do to voting rights as AG

WASHINGTON – Today, Gerry Hebert, director of voting rights and redistricting program at the Campaign Legal Center has submitted written testimony for the Jan. 10-11 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Jeff Sessions for U.S. Attorney General, opposing Mr. Sessions’ nomination. The testimony is based on Mr. Hebert’s personal experience with Mr. Sessions, his long career as a civil and voting rights attorney, and his personal knowledge of falsehoods in Mr. Sessions’ questionnaire.

Mr. Hebert worked at the Department of Justice from 1973 to 1994 as its acting chief, deputy chief and special litigation counsel in the voting section of the civil rights division. He became acquainted with Mr. Sessions in when Sessions was U.S. Attorney in Mobile, Alabama and Mr. Hebert was litigating several voting rights cases in the state. During that time, Mr. Sessions made several racially insensitive remarks to Mr. Hebert. He appeared to agree with a statement that a white civil rights lawyer was “a disgrace to his race” and accused the ACLU and NAACP of “trying to force civil rights down the throats of people.”  After Mr. Hebert’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee in 1986 about those remarks, Sessions became the second nominee in 50 years to be voted down by the Senate for a federal judgeship.

“Sessions’ record to date only reinforces the Judiciary Committee’s concerns about his commitment to civil rights thirty years ago. He has not worked to protect civil rights but rather worked against them at every turn,” said Gerry Hebert, director of voting rights and redistricting at the Campaign Legal Center.

Mr. Sessions has an exceptionally poor record on voting rights, which includes the prosecution of innocent civil rights leaders engaged in voter registration efforts, the irresponsible fostering of a voter fraud myth as a cover for voter suppression, and the embrace of the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act in the Shelby County ruling. His record across subject areas demonstrates a disdain for civil rights protections meant to further equal representation and justice under the law.

“I first testified about Sessions 31 years ago and his allies threatened my job. I didn’t back down then and I’m not backing down now. If Mr. Sessions runs the Justice Department, he will seek to turn back the clock to a darker time in American history. I do not have faith that he will enforce basic civil rights laws that ensure equal protection of the law for all Americans, especially minorities, women, and the LGBT community.”

Finally, as Mr. Hebert has publicly explained alongside his DOJ colleagues, Sessions has not been honest with the American people or the Judiciary Committee about his record. In an attempt to deflect from his long and disqualifying record of hostility to civil rights, Mr. Sessions has claimed to have “personally handled” several civil rights cases as the U.S. Attorney in the 1980s. In fact, Mr. Hebert and his colleagues litigated these cases with no substantive input from Mr. Sessions whatsoever. These falsehoods cannot and should not fly under the radar. If he wants to be appointed the nation’s top law enforcement official, Mr. Sessions must first answer for his true, dismal record on civil rights.

To date, a diverse coalition of law professors from 170 law schools in 48 states have signed a letter opposing the confirmation of Jeff Sessions for AG.

Agency Admonishes Stations that Failed to Abide by Public File Requirement of the Communications Act

The Federal Communications Commission admonished several broadcast stations for failing to protect voters’ right to know who is behind political ads in the 2016 Election and prior elections. 

The action on Friday came in response to complaints filed by the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Sunlight Foundation and Benton Foundation, represented by Institute for Public Representation of Georgetown University Law Center.  The agency issued two separate orders (responding to 2014 complaint and 2016 complaint). In the orders, the FCC construed the public file rules expansively, warning broadcast stations that they must comply with FCC requirements going forward.

“This is a victory for transparency and accountability,” said Meredith McGehee, strategic adviser for CLC. “The FCC, through these orders, indicates that it takes the public file requirement of the Communications Act seriously.  It is the FCC’s responsibility to ensure stations disclose information about who pays for advertisements. These rules play a critical role in ensuring voters have the information they need and deserve.  I hope stations will heed this warning and stop freely ignoring existing regulations with impunity.”

The FCC stopped short of fining the stations at this time. Following the FCC’s order, two Republican commissioners indicated that while they agree with the substantive analysis of the orders, they would like to continue to take up the issue in the Trump Administration. 

"Transparency is what the law requires and democracy demands,” said Michael Copps, former FCC Commissioner and Common Cause Special Adviser. “Good on the Commission for taking this important step to disclosing secret money. The next and most important step is accountable ads with in-ad, on-air disclosure of secret money funders."

CLC issued a report in 2016 highlighting how frequently broadcast stations neglect to collect and report political ad sponsors and called for aggressive FCC enforcement of the regulations.

FCC Order in Response to 2014 Complaints

FCC Order in Response to 2016 Complaint

Smith Will Lead Groundbreaking Litigation to Advance Key Protections for Democracy  

 WASHINGTON – The Campaign Legal Center is extremely pleased to welcome to its staff one of the nation’s leading attorneys, Paul M. Smith, as vice president of litigation and strategy. Mr. Smith brings more than three decades of experience litigating a wide range of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including cases advancing free speech and civil rights. [Read full bio]

“The 2016 Election made it exceptionally clear: Our democracy is not working as it should,” said Trevor Potter, president of the Campaign Legal Center. “Currently, office holders are too responsive to special interests while legislators are manipulating voting maps to stay in power. At this crucial time in our nation’s history, CLC is committed to advancing legal strategies that will guarantee a democracy responsive to the people. There is absolutely no better person to lead this effort than Paul M. Smith.”

Mr. Smith will work directly with CLC’s talented team of campaign finance attorneys. CLC will be seeking a new director of trial litigation, to be hired in early 2017.

“I am thrilled to be joining the country’s top legal shop fighting for our democracy,” said Paul M. Smith, vice president of litigation and strategy at the Campaign Legal Center. “Now, more than ever, we must commit to ensuring that every American can participate in choosing our elected officials and holding those officials accountable once they are in office. I’m looking forward to getting to work.”

Mr. Smith, who has extensive experience in voting rights and redistricting, will also work side-by-side with long-time colleague and friend, Gerry Hebert, director of CLC’s voting rights and redistricting program. When CLC’s landmark partisan gerrymandering case, Whitford v. Gill, reaches the U.S. Supreme Court next term, as seems almost certain, Mr. Smith will present the oral argument.

Prior to joining CLC, Mr. Smith most recently served as a partner at the law firm Jenner & Block. In addition to his role at CLC, Mr. Smith will teach as a Distinguished Visitor from Practice at Georgetown University Law Center.   

“All of us at Jenner & Block will greatly miss Paul,” said Terrence J. Truax, Jenner & Block’s managing partner. “But we also are excited to see him begin the next chapter of a remarkable career, using his many talents at Georgetown Law School and the Campaign Legal Center on election law issues. Paul’s accomplishments are legendary, from his groundbreaking work in Lawrence v. Texas, to his more recent leadership on a range of issues focused on equal protection for all Americans. He is truly one of those larger-than-life individuals who has made a mark. We are proud to have been able to call Paul our partner, and he will always be a part of the Jenner & Block family, our tradition of excellence and commitment to pro bono and community service.”

 [Read Paul M. Smith’s full bio]

WASHINGTON  – The Campaign Legal Center filed a letter today with the Federal Election Commission providing additional evidence that private prison company GEO Group illegally contributed a total of $225,000 to the Donald Trump-affiliated super PAC Rebuilding America Now, in violation of the 75-year-old ban on government contractors making political contributions.

“By contributing to a super PAC closely associated with Trump—the only presidential nominee to endorse private prisons—GEO presumably sought to influence the government contracting process and to ensure that a Trump administration would protect its access to taxpayer dollars,” said Brendan Fischer, associate counsel for the Campaign Legal Center.

“Government contracting is the most obvious way for a politician to reward friends and political donors, which is why companies that receive contracts have been banned for 75 years from making political contributions. Officials are supposed to decide how taxpayer money is spent based on what's best for the public, not based on what's best for their big money backers.”

Today’s filing is a follow-up letter to CLC’s original complaint filed on Nov. 1, 2016 after GEO gave  $100,000 to Rebuilding America Now the day after the Obama Administration announced it would be ending private prison government contracts. GEO receives 45 percent of its annual revenue from federal contracts, and its stock soared the day after Trump’s election.

The filing describes how the GEO subsidiary that made the $225,000 in contributions, GEO Corrections Holdings, Inc., is listed as the “employer” in multiple labor relations cases involving federally-contracted detention facilities, and has stated in state and federal proceedings that it operates detention facilities. Additionally, both GEO Group and GEO Corrections Holdings, Inc. are effectively indistinguishable and both appear to rely on taxpayer funds for their operations.  

The company also contributed $200,000 to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC associated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and last year gave $100,000 to super PAC supporting Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential bid.

CLC filed a similar complaint in July against a super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton, Priorities USA Action, for accepting a $200,000 contribution from a federal contractor, Suffolk Construction Company.

CLC more recently filed complaints with the FEC against both the Trump and Clinton campaigns for coordinating with their super PACs in violation of federal law.