On April 28, 2020 the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Chiafalo v. Washington (linked with Colorado Department of State v. Baca), a constitutional challenge to the requirement that presidential electors – the people who physically cast their state’s electoral votes – must vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in their state.

CLC released a report that highlights recent examples of groups exploiting gaps in campaign finance law to keep voters in the dark about online political ads. Among other examples, it points to two dark money groups, Big Tent Project Fund and Fellow Americans, that reported millions in ad spending to the Federal Election Commission, but only a small fraction of that spending is appearing in large digital platforms' public archives. These examples provide a compelling case for Congress to adopt across-the-board digital disclosure legislation. 

CLC has sued the Federal Election Commission for its more than four-year delay in enforcing a federal prohibition on candidates establishing or operating super PACs as “slush funds” for their campaigns. The lawsuit is based on a FEC complaint CLC filed asserting that the 2016 campaign of then-presidential candidate John Elias “Jeb” Bush violated this law by setting up Right to Rise Super PAC, which subsequently spent over $86 million to support his election.

For our democracy to work, the financing of our elections must be transparent. Today, wealthy special interests are spending vast sums of money and hiding their involvement behind anonymous shell corporations and entities, leaving voters in the dark. Effective legislative solutions will put an end to this deception and restore transparency to our elections.

CLC filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) asking it to enforce the law against those behind the Facebook page America Progress Now. In the 2018 midterms, America Progress Now ran digital political ads urging users to vote for green party candidates, but failed both to report its spending to the FEC and to display accurate disclaimers on its ads.

On February 27, 2020, Campaign Legal Center filed suit against the Federal Election Commission for failing to enforce transparency laws for paid election advertising on Facebook.

CLC filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Alpha Marine Services violated the ban on federal contractors making political contributions when it gave $100,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC.  

CLC filed an amicus brief in the D.C. Circuit on April 24, 2019, defending a district court decision that struck down the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) “independent expenditure” disclosure rule because it unlawfully narrowed the contributor disclosure requirements in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) challenged the rule—which applies to independent campaign spending that expressly advocates for or against federal candidates—after the FEC used it to dismiss CREW’s complaint against Crossroads GPS, a dark-money group that has spent more than $100 million in federal elections since 2010 without disclosing a single contributor. According to a CLC analysis, the rule had kept as much as $769 million in the dark since 2010, when Citizens United freed corporations and unions to spend general treasury funds in elections.

CLC filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that VoteVets made, and Pete Buttigieg’s campaign accepted, up to $639,000 in illegal contributions in the form of coordinated communications. On February 5, 2020, a senior Buttigieg campaign official tweeted, “Pete’s military experience and closing message from Iowa work everywhere especially in Nevada where it’s critical they see this on the air through the caucus.” One week later, the super PAC VoteVets appeared to follow through on that request when it launched $639,000 in pro-Buttigieg ads in Nevada highlighting those exact themes.

CLC submitted comments to the IRS on Reg-1025308-16, in opposition to proposed rules that would eliminate confidential donor reporting for many nonprofits. The proposed rule would effectively invite illegal foreign spending in U.S. elections.

On February 3, 2020, CLC filed comments with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) opposing proposed rules that would create new obstacles for shareholders to promote transparency in corporate political spending.

CLC filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that “Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers LLC,” which gave $150,000 to the super PAC 1820 PAC just five weeks after incorporating, violated the ban on making political contributions in the name of another.

In January 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ushered in a new era of big money in politics with the misguided decision Citizens United v. FEC. But even after Citizens United, Congress and state legislatures can still enact many important money-in-politics reforms that would protect the voices of voters in our democracy. This report briefly describes the six most important and impactful reforms.

The failure of the FEC to enforce campaign finance laws has resulted in an explosion in secret spending and our politics are increasingly rigged in favor of wealthy special interests. How can the FEC be fixed?

CLC has filed with the Federal Election Commission a supplemental complaint alleging that Representative Lori Trahan knowingly and willfully violated federal law by receiving approximately $300,000 in excessive contributions for her 2018 congressional campaign and falsely reporting those contributions as personal loans.  CLC’s original complaint against Lori Trahan for Congress is available here.