Birmingham, AL – Last week, Judge Myron Thompson from the U.S District Court for the Middle District of Alabama ruled in favor of CLC’s client, Greater Birmingham Ministries (GBM), in a lawsuit seeking to compel the state of Alabama to comply with federal law and turn over records related to purged voter lists and people denied the right to vote because of felony convictions.

The opinion rules in favor of Greater Birmingham Ministries on all counts and directs Secretary Merrill to send Greater Birmingham Ministries (GBM) all the requested records. The opinion also points out that time is of the essence, as the voter registration deadline for Alabama is October 25th and GBM’s efforts to conduct voter outreach have already been impeded by the state's refusal to comply with the National Voter Registration Act.

“Greater Birmingham Ministries strengthens our democracy by bringing more Alabamians into the democratic process. This work is impossible to do when the Secretary of State stonewalls access to voter purge records that they are required to disclose under the law,” said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at Campaign Legal Center. “At a time when Alabama’s discriminatory voting policies are under a microscope, this ruling is a win for transparency and will allow Greater Birmingham Ministries to help more voters make their voice heard.”

GBM engages in voter outreach efforts for its community members, including ensuring Alabamians maintain their active registration and helping eligible Alabamians with prior felony convictions apply for rights restoration and register to vote. Access to up-to-date public registration records, which Alabama is required to make public under the National Voter Registration Act, is critical to conducting this work.

"This victory is bittersweet. GBM has been trying for well over a year to get these records released pursuant to the NVRA. The time, money, and effort wasted by the Secretary of State giving us the run around is shameful," said Tari Williams, Organizing Director at Greater Birmingham Ministries. "These resources could have been put to better use by correcting erroneous denials of voter registrations, informing tens of thousands of Alabamians with felony convictions of their immediate eligibility to vote upon enactment of the 2017 Moral Turpitude Law, and/or the  process for rights restoration (where applicable), and implementing stronger protections against flawed voter purging. GBM will continue to be a watchdog, protector and advocate of voting rights for all Alabamians. " 

###

Washington, D.C. – Campaign Legal Center Action (CLCA) filed a lawsuit (linked here) on behalf of Common Cause Georgia against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in federal court.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, October 10th, comes on the heels of the FEC’s August dismissal of a complaint filed in March 2021 by CLCA, Common Cause Georgia and Aunna Dennis, Common Cause Georgia’s Executive Director. The complaint showed illegal coordination between the nonprofit corporation True the Vote and the Georgia Republican Party during the 2021 U.S. Senate runoff election in Georgia. Campaign finance law treats coordinated expenditures as in-kind contributions, prohibiting groups like True the Vote from making contributions to political party committees. 

The FEC’s Office of General Counsel reviewed the complaint and recommended  an investigation be opened into the alleged violations of campaign finance law, including the extent of illegal and undisclosed contributions resulting from the coordinated activities. However, on August 11th of this year, the FEC’s six Commissioners failed to take action after commissioners voted 3-2 on the complaint, short of the four votes needed to move forward. 

“The FEC’s dismissal of this administrative complaint was based on critical errors of law and cannot be sustained. This is yet another example of the FEC refusing to enforce our nation’s campaign finance laws even in the face of significant evidence the law was violated,” said Megan McAllen, Director of Campaign Finance Litigation at CLC Action. “Failing to hold political actors accountable for their abuses of campaign finance law does immense damage to the anticorruption and transparency objectives that those laws were designed to serve. We urge the court to recognize that this dismissal was contrary to law and send the case back to the FEC so the agency can do its job.”

“We were pleased that the FEC’s nonpartisan Office of General Counsel agreed that there was reason to believe violations occurred. The FEC’s three Republican commissioners rejected that recommendation, however, and failed to stand up for hundreds of thousands of Georgia voters by letting True the Vote off the hook for their illegal attempts to undermine people’s votes in 2021,” said Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia. “We have another important election just weeks away and Georgia voters need reassurance that their rights to vote will always be respected and that our federal institutions won’t neglect their duties to enforce the law."

The FEC is the only federal agency whose sole responsibility is overseeing the integrity of our political campaigns. A pattern of failures by the FEC to hold wrongdoers accountable has resulted in an explosion of political spending and our politics are increasingly rigged in favor of special interests. Through this lawsuit, CLCA and Common Cause Georgia seek to compel the agency to enforce our existing campaign finance laws.  

Washington, D.C. – Campaign Legal Center senior vice president, Paul Smith, released the following statement ahead of oral arguments in the Supreme Court case Merrill v. Milligan. The case is centered on a voting map in Alabama that was struck down by a lower court for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting Black Alabamians’ voting strength, restricting their ability to elect their preferred representative:

“The voting map being considered by the Supreme Court in Merrill v. Milligan is a textbook case of racial vote dilution. The map packs some Black voters into a single district and divides other clusters of Black voters into multiple districts, diluting the voices of Black Alabamians. This practice deprives Black voters of an equal opportunity to participate in the political process.

The Supreme Court must take this opportunity to reaffirm the strength of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, one of the last remaining tools to challenge voting maps that dilute the political influence of minority voters. We hope the Supreme Court will side with Black Alabamians and prevent politicians from drawing unfair voting maps that drown out Black voices. Moreover, this case illustrates the need for Congress to step in and pass legislation that uniformly protects the freedom to vote in every state.”

Campaign Legal Center has been involved in several lawsuits challenging racial vote dilution in voting maps. In July 2022, Campaign Legal Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that Alabama’s attacks on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act are unfounded. The brief offers several remedies the state of Alabama could take that does not dilute Black voices while still satisfying Alabama’s other policy priorities.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center (CLC), and a Republican Former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), released the following statement:

“Yesterday, H.R. 8990, the Combatting Financial Conflicts of Interest in Government Act, was formally introduced in the United States House of Representatives. Public polling confirms that most Americans support banning lawmakers from trading stocks, and it is therefore crucial that the House passes this legislation.

As members of Congress craft laws that directly impact the lives of Americans, voters have a right to know whether their representatives are acting in the interest of the public, or in ways that serve their own personal interest. Congress passed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act into law ten years ago, but the STOCK Act did not decrease the appearance of corruption that arises when members of Congress engage in suspicious stock trades.

At the top of the public’s mind are legitimate concerns over conflicts of interest that may arise when an elected official has a financial stake in an area over which they have significant influence. The Combatting Financial Conflicts of Interest in Government Act, designed with the shortcomings of the STOCK Act in mind, will work to repair that trust by banning members of Congress from trading stock while in office and prohibiting such activity by their spouses, dependent children, and senior staff. The law establishes significant penalties to promote compliance, an area where the STOCK Act fell woefully short. To comply with the new law, officials may transfer their investments to a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest.

Although this bill has room for improvement concerning the scope of covered officials and potential loopholes, it answers voters’ calls for reform and I urge every member of the House to vote in favor of the Combatting Financial Conflicts of Interest in Government Act.”