Minority Rule: A Conversation with Ari Berman and Advocates

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Most Americans agree on a fundamental principle: In our democracy, free and fair elections rely on every voter having the ability to make their voice heard. But what that looks like in practice and who our democracy includes doesn't always align with that ideal.

Unfortunately, this isn’t new.

From the country’s inception, America has confronted existential questions about the nature of our democracy: Who gets to vote? How should we elect our leaders? Who counts as a person?

Protecting Nevadans Who Vote by Mail (RNC v. Burgess)

At a Glance

Partisan actors have filed a lawsuit challenging Nevada’s deadline for counting ballots cast by mail. CLC filed a friend-of-the-court brief alongside the ACLU of Nevada and Protect Democracy urging the federal court to dismiss the case so every mail ballot cast by Election Day in Nevada is counted. 

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Active
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Issues
Voting and Elections
About This Case/Action

The Republican National Committee, Nevada Republican Party, the Trump campaign and a Nevada voter filed a lawsuit against election officials challenging a Nevada law allowing mail ballots to be counted if they are postmarked on or before Election Day and are received within four days. If they are not clearly postmarked, they must be received within three days. This is known as Nevada’s “mailbox deadline.”  

The partisan actors who filed the lawsuit claim that the deadline violates a provision of the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA), a 2022 law that Campaign Legal Center helped pass to update the Electoral College process. CLC, with the ACLU of Nevada and Protect Democracy, filed a friend-of-the-court brief explaining that while the plaintiffs use the correct legal mechanism to enforce the ECRA, they are dead wrong on the law.  

Nevada, like all states, is permitted to facilitate vote-by-mail and ensure that voters who cast their ballot in a timely way will have their vote processed and counted. At least 20 states, red and blue, similarly count ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive some days after.  

This issue is especially important in Nevada, where the state Legislature has adopted a universal vote-by-mail system that allows all voters to vote by mail. As a result, voting by mail has become very popular in Nevada, and a growing majority now cast their ballots by mail. To avoid undermining voters who place their ballot in the mail on or before Election Day, Nevada ensures that ballots postmarked by that day are counted.  

As CLC’s brief points out, Nevada’s mailbox deadline accounts for well-known issues with U.S. Postal Service (USPS), which include postmarking and delivery times, by permitting ballots without a legible postmark to be counted if they arrive within three days of Election Day.  

Even though USPS tries to postmark all ballots, the agency has acknowledged that logistical breakdowns can prevent some ballots from receiving a postmark. And even when postmarks are applied, they can become smudged or illegible by the time they reach an election office for processing. The three-day rule also accounts for USPS’s expected ballot delivery turnaround, which might get longer if USPS’s planned changes to mail service in Nevada go into effect in 2025. 

Every vote counts in our democracy, so it is vital that we count every vote — including votes cast by mail on or before election day but arrive a few days later.  

Bruce V. Spiva Joins CLC as Senior Vice President

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Washington, DC — Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is pleased to announce that Bruce V. Spiva, a distinguished election law and voting rights attorney and community leader, has joined CLC as a senior vice president. Bruce will work closely with CLC’s Senior Vice President Paul Smith to provide guidance to the voting rights, redistricting and strategic litigation teams through the 2024 election and beyond.

“We are proud and pleased to welcome Bruce to CLC during this critical juncture for our organization and nation,” said Trevor Potter, founder and president of Campaign Legal Center. “Bruce’s expertise and abilities will play a vital role in helping CLC address the significant challenges facing our democracy, and we are glad to have him on board.”

“I am beyond thrilled to be joining such a dynamic and committed team of advocates seeking to protect every American’s right to participate equally in the democratic process,” said Bruce V. Spiva, senior vice president at Campaign Legal Center. “CLC has built a policy and litigation powerhouse at a time when it is needed most. I am eager and ready to put my shoulder behind the wheel.”

Bruce brings a wealth of litigation experience to CLC from his 30-year career fighting for civil rights, civil liberties and voting rights. He has led trial teams and argued many appeals in voting rights and redistricting cases across the country, including arguing against vote suppression in the United States Supreme Court in 2021.  

Through his service on the boards of several nonprofits and advocacy organizations, Bruce has partnered with Black and Brown communities and young people to protect and strengthen the freedom to vote. He has also steadfastly advocated for the right of D.C. residents to full and equal representation in Congress through statehood.

Bruce is also familiar with electoral politics, having mounted a competitive run in the primary election for Washington, D.C. attorney general in 2022. Bruce previously served as the managing partner of the D.C. office and on the national executive committee of Perkins Coie LLP, where he also had an active election law practice.

Bruce graduated from Harvard Law School in 1992, where he was the treasurer (now called vice president) of the Harvard Law Review and graduated with a B.A. in history from Yale University in 1988. After law school, Bruce clerked for the late Honorable Jerome Farris on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.  

Please contact [email protected] to get connected with Bruce.

CLC’s Kedric Payne on Effort to Pass Supreme Court Ethics Legislation in U.S. Senate

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Washington, DC — Today, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will attempt to pass legislation that would strengthen Supreme Court ethics through a unanimous consent (UC) request. In advance, Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel and senior director for ethics at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, issued the following statement: 

“At a time when there is renewed public attention on ethical controversies facing the Supreme Court, we applaud Senator Durbin, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and everyone in Congress who is working toward addressing this important issue. While all other members of the federal judiciary are expected to abide by enforceable ethics standards, the nine justices serving on our nation’s highest court operate with no enforcement mechanism to hold them accountable — to the detriment of public trust. 

"The American public needs to be assured that Supreme Court justices are indeed working in the public interest, given that trust in this branch of our federal government is essential for a functioning democracy. If the justices are unable or unwilling to do this on their own, then Congress must act.”

Issues
Ethics

Campaign Legal Center Files FEC Complaint Against US Senate Candidate Royce White for Misappropriating and Misreporting Campaign Funds

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), alleging that Royce White, U.S. Senate candidate from Minnesota, had reportedly misappropriated over $157,000 worth of funds from his 2022 congressional campaign for personal expenses, and has failed to report to the FEC how his 2024 Senate campaign is spending its money, depriving voters of this critical information they are entitled to have when deciding how to vote.  

The misappropriation and misreporting of campaign funds by Royce White’s campaigns appear to constitute knowing and willful violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act’s (or “FECA”) bedrock requirements that not only prohibit candidates from using campaign funds to pay for their personal expenses, but also require them to regularly file accurate reports with the FEC disclosing any contributions received and disbursements made in support of their candidacy.  

Saurav Ghosh, CLC’s director of federal campaign finance reform, said, “Transparency about how candidates are spending their campaign funds allows voters to make informed choices when voting, and helps ensure that candidates are held accountable if they unlawfully use donors’ money to pay for their personal expenses. Royce White appears to have brazenly violated the federal laws that foster transparency and accountability in our elections, by first using his 2022 campaign’s account to pay for personal expenses—including clothing, fitness, and entertainment charges, along with siphoning off a six-figure sum through checks and wire transfers—and then wholly failing to report his 2024 Senate campaign’s disbursements. It is imperative that the FEC investigate these apparent violations of the campaign finance laws that safeguard our elections from financial malfeasance.”

Despite the bid falling short, funds from Royce White’s 2022 congressional campaign were used to pay over $157,000 in personal expenses – from clothes, cosmetics, and night clubs to opaque checks and wire transfers. Now, amid his current campaign for U.S. Senator, Royce White’s Senate campaign has reported receiving $8,100 in contributions, but reported only one disbursement of just $216.38 for a credit card processing fee. Although it appears White’s Senate campaign has spent additional sums in support of his candidacy, the campaign has failed to report any such spending.  

Voters have a right to factual and timely reporting from campaigns on any money raised and spent in their favor before an election, and to rest assured that candidates are not spending donors’ money to pay their personal expenses. The FEC must investigate what appears to be clear violations of federal campaign finance law by Royce White and his 2022 and 2024 campaigns. 

Issues
Campaign Finance

UPDATE: What is the Status of Justice Clarence Thomas’ Ethics Investigation?

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Earlier this year, the Judicial Conference of the United States indicated that it was likely conducting an ethics review of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for potentially violating the Ethics in Government Act (EIGA). This was an unusual, but promising move, given that this is one of the only entities that can enforce ethics laws against Supreme Court justices.
  
But nearly three months have passed since the Judicial Conference’s March 2024 convening, and no information from this meeting – which would have included updates on a possible ethics review into Justice Thomas – has been made public, prompting Campaign Legal Center’s (CLC) Ethics team to write another letter requesting that the entity provide a timely update on this matter.
 
CLC’s Danielle Caputo writes in a new blog on this letter that: “Under EIGA, the Judicial Conference is in a unique position, as it is tasked with determining whether there is reasonable cause to believe that Justice Thomas knowingly and willfully withheld information on his financial disclosure statements.
  
If the Judicial Conference determines that there is reasonable cause to believe, then it has a responsibility to refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney General. This is one way to provide meaningful accountability for the ethical violations of a Supreme Court justice. Failure to do so would further harm public confidence in the judiciary.”
 
Read the full blog here. 
 

Issues
Ethics
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