WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Campaign Legal Center submitted a letter to the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, urging it to advance S. 1171, the Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act. 

The Committee is scheduled to vote on this legislation at its July 24 business meeting, as well as a bipartisan agreement between Sens. Peters (D-MI), Merkley (D-OR), Hawley (R-MO) and Ossoff (D-GA) to revise and strengthen this bill. If the Committee votes favorably, a modified version of the ETHICS Act will head to the Senate floor, a milestone in the ongoing effort to address serious concerns around lawmakers’ stock trading.  

If amended and passed, the ETHICS Act would prohibit members of Congress, the president and the vice president from buying and selling covered assets. These officials, including their spouses and dependents, would be required to divest any covered assets starting in 2027. This legislation would also provide enhanced enforcement mechanisms for these new divestment rules.

“Voters have a right to know if federal elected officials are acting in the best interests of their constituents, or for their own financial gain,” said Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel and senior director of ethics at Campaign Legal Center. “By virtue of their positions, members of Congress, the president and the vice President are oftentimes privy to information that is unavailable to the general public. Allowing them to engage in stock trading risks fostering an environment where conflicts of interest among lawmakers lead to the deterioration of public trust. It is essential that the U.S. Senate pass this bill.”  

In the 117th Congress, over half of members owned individual stocks while congressional stock transactions reached over $630 million. A recent media investigation revealed that nearly 20% of these members of Congress failed to timely disclose stock trades they made. 

Americans across the political spectrum overwhelmingly support a potential ban on congressional stock trading, due to their impression that these actions are secretive and self-interested on the part of lawmakers. Stock trades risk making lawmakers vulnerable to potential conflicts of interest around policymaking and even committee assignments.  

The modified ETHICS Act is a critical piece of bipartisan legislation. At a time when growing distrust among the public exists around the federal government and its associated officials, the U.S. Senate needs to pass this bill without delay.  
 

Read the full letter here. 

Adav Noti, executive director of Campaign Legal Center, released the following statement in response to questions regarding ballot access laws (the procedures of how candidates are placed on the ballot in each state):  

“Assuming the Democratic Party formally chooses a presidential nominee before or during the Democratic National Convention, there are no legal barriers to that candidate being on the general election ballot nationwide. In all 51 jurisdictions, the deadline to name the presidential candidate falls after the nominating date at the convention. Legal actions attempting to block the nominated ticket from appearing on the general election ballot would have no merit and would be rapidly disposed of by the courts.”  

Noti and CLC’s election lawyers are available to answer press questions about the legal requirements relating to ballot access.  

Washington, D.C. — Today, President Joe Biden made the announcement that he is withdrawing his bid for reelection. Trevor Potter, founder and president of Campaign Legal Center, issued the following statement regarding the campaign funds currently held by the Biden-Harris campaign:

A major party’s presumptive nominee stepping down months before Election Day is not an ordinary event, but it is also not a crisis.

There are Democratic Party rules in place to govern the process of selecting a new nominee. There are also rules established by the Federal Election Commission that apply to the funds currently held by the Biden-Harris campaign.

The application of those FEC rules depends in part on who becomes the Democratic nominee for president. Specifically, because Biden and Harris share a campaign committee, the Vice President and her running mate can continue using the campaign’s existing funds for the general election if she is on the Democratic ticket as either the presidential or vice-presidential nominee.

If the new ticket does not include Vice President Harris, the rules are different.  Campaign committees are subject to federal contribution limits, which limit candidate-to-candidate contributions to $2,000 per election.

Alternatively, the Biden campaign can offer to refund its donors, or the campaign can transfer its funds to the national Democratic party or state parties. The party committees are permitted by FEC rules to spend some funds in coordination with the eventual presidential nominee.  

Regardless of whom the Democratic Party ultimately chooses as its candidate, what matters most is voters having the final say on who becomes the next President of the United States. I urge all parties to follow the law and respect the outcome of the election in November.

CLC’s election lawyers - including President Trevor Potter, Executive Director Adav Noti, Senior Director for Campaign Finance Erin Chlopak and Director for Federal Campaign Finance Reform Saurav Ghosh - are available to further discuss these FEC rules with the press.

Lincoln, NE — The freedom to vote for tens of thousands of Nebraskans with prior felony convictions now hangs in the balance after Attorney General Mike Hilgers issued an opinion that takes Nebraska backward on voting rights.

At least 59,000 of the voters who would be impacted by this decision have had their freedom to vote for almost 20 years.

Blair Bowie, director of Campaign Legal Center (CLC)’s Restore Your Vote program, issued the following statement in response:

“Nebraska’s attorney general and secretary of state are taking Nebraska backward and stripping the freedom to vote away from tens of thousands of citizens. Felony disenfranchisement laws have long been a stain on American democracy. AG Hilgers’ opinion undermines the will of the Legislature to restore voting rights to Nebraskans who have completed their sentences. The opinion unjustly strips the well-settled right to vote from tens of thousands of Nebraskans and will create widespread confusion around voter eligibility right before a major election,” said Blair Bowie, director of Campaign Legal Center’s Restore Your Vote program. “All citizens, regardless of whether they have a felony conviction, should have the freedom to vote.”

Nebraskans with past felony convictions can use CLC’s Restore Your Vote tool to help understand their voting rights.

Washington, DC — On July 16, 2024, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was convicted of bribery and 15 other charges by a jury of his peers. In the wake of this decision, the Senate Ethics Committee announced that it will investigate Sen. Menendez and “consider the full range of disciplinary actions.” Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel and senior director for ethics at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center issued the following statement: 

“We commend the Senate Ethics Committee for announcing its intention to investigate Sen. Menendez in light of his criminal convictions for unethical conduct. For too long, the Senate Ethics Committee has failed to uphold its responsibility to guard the integrity of the Senate by holding senators accountable for unethical and unlawful behavior. 

"We hope that this investigation does not end like the 97% of the Committee’s investigations over the last 14 years, where it found no evidence of a violation. The relevant facts of this case are now in the public record, so the investigation should move quickly. The American public deserves a Senate Ethics Committee that will prioritize the public’s interests, and anything less than a finding of wrongdoing will send the message that self-interested corrupt behavior by members is acceptable.”

Montgomery, AL — Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is representing two Alabama voters with past felony convictions in a lawsuit challenging a new law, H.B. 100, that could deprive many Alabamians of their freedom to vote in the 2024 election.  

The bill, set to go into effect on October 1, 2024, effectively adds over 120 felonies to Alabama’s so-called list of “crimes of moral turpitude,” which take away a person’s right to vote.

Implementing this bill just one month before the November election will create substantial confusion for voters and election officials alike, as it changes the rules of voter eligibility immediately prior to a general election.  

Worse still, absentee voting begins in Alabama on September 11, 2024 — before H.B. 100’s October 1 effective date. This means that some Alabama voters could cast their ballots as eligible voters but become ineligible by the time their ballot is set to be counted.

The new law also overrules the will of Alabama voters, who in 2022 overwhelmingly voted to amend the Alabama Constitution to ban changes to election laws within six months of a general election.  

“Every American should be able to exercise their freedom to vote, regardless of whether they have a past felony conviction. Yet, H.B. 100 makes the already confusing voting rights restoration process in Alabama even harder to navigate,” said Blair Bowie, director of CLC’s Restore Your Vote program. “Most Alabamians with prior felony convictions have been able to vote since 2017. This new law takes Alabama backward by unfairly denying certain voters a chance to make their voices heard in the November election. We can’t have an inclusive and accountable democracy when an entire class of citizens is denied the freedom to vote.”

“I find it egregious that Alabama legislators enacted a law that retroactively costs someone their voting rights, without any new charges, after they’ve fought so hard to earn them back,” said JaiGregory Clarke, Birmingham hub organizer and voter rights restoration state lead at Faith in Action Alabama. 

CLC’s lawsuit, filed in partnership with Alabama attorney J. Mitch McGuire, seeks to block H.B. 100 from being implemented so currently eligible Alabama voters with felony convictions will not be disenfranchised this November.

Background:

Alabama’s Constitution does not disenfranchise all individuals with felony convictions, but it prevents those convicted of “felonies involving moral turpitude” from voting until their rights are restored. This vague language, originally adopted in the 1901 Alabama Constitution to “establish white supremacy in this State,” was a method of keeping Black people from voting without overtly breaking federal law.  

Until 2017, Alabama law disenfranchised more than 130,000 Black citizens — roughly 15% of Black adults in the state – and never explained which felonies were disqualifying until 2017, allowing the state to arbitrarily and unequally enforce this law.

Alabamians had long been pushing the state to clarify which felony convictions take away the right to vote. In 2017, the Legislature finally passed a law defining what convictions take away the right to vote.

The 2017 law enshrined the freedom to vote to all Alabamians with felony convictions that were not on the list. Now, Alabama is backsliding and seeking to disenfranchise more of its citizens just over a month before the 2024 general election and while early voting is already underway.  

CLC’s Restore Your Vote tool is a helpful resource to help people with past felony convictions understand their voting rights. Learn more here.