This amicus brief was filed by the League of Women Voters of Michigan in support of Defendants-Appellees.

This amicus brief was filed by Common Cause, the Leadership Now Project, Issue One, Equal Citizens Foundation, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, and Represent Us, in support of Defendants-Appellees.

This amicus brief was filed by the Brennan Center in support of Defendants-Appellees.

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.

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from Virginia’s House of Delegates which sought to reinstate the state’s election maps after they had been struck down for racial gerrymandering. Campaign Legal Center submitted a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in support of the Virginia citizens and voters who challenged Virginia’s racial gerrymander in September 2016.

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.

CLC filed this comment opposing the Census Bureau’s attempt to collect state administrative records, such as Department of Motor Vehicles data, for the purpose of producing data on citizen voting-age population (CVAP). President Trump has suggested that by producing statistics on the CVAP of each census block in the United States, the Census Bureau will enable states to draw voting districts that deny representation to non-U.S. citizens and minors. However, CLC argues that even if this type of redistricting were acceptable in the abstract (which it is not), it could not be accomplished using the data the Census Bureau plans to produce. The Bureau’s CVAP estimates will be too unreliable for redistricting, in part because state administrative records on citizenship are notoriously outdated and riddled with errors. Moreover, the Bureau’s collection of state citizenship records puts the 2020 Census at risk by stoking fear of the Bureau among non-U.S. citizens and their communities.

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.

CLC led a coalition of 21 organizations and individuals calling for the restoration of a voting quorum at the Federal Election Commission to protect the transparency and fairness of our elections.

A nationwide survey of likely 2020 general election voters commissioned by Campaign Legal Center finds that voters overwhelmingly want the Federal Election Commission to take a more active role in enforcing campaign finance laws. 

Undetected coordination between candidates and special interests erodes the accountability to everyday voters we need from our elected officials. The problem is especially acute with super PACs and corporations. 

CLC filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Iowa Values violated campaign finance law by failing to register as a political committee and file required reports with the FEC. The complaint outlines a number of facts, including a fundraising appeal, a strategy memo, and digital ads that the group ran, that appear to show that Iowa Values, a 501(c)(4) organization, has the major purpose of influencing the re-election of U.S. Senator Joni Ernst and therefore should have registered as a political committee.

On November 13, 2019, Erin Chlopak, CLC’s Director of Campaign Finance Strategy, testified on behalf of North Dakotans for Public Integrity (NDPI), the committee that sponsored the transparency ballot measure that passed as a constitutional amendment in 2018. Chlopak provided to the testimony to the Interim Judiciary Committee of the North Dakota Legislative Assembly, describing how wealthy special interests pour millions of dollars into state and federal elections while concealing their identity as the sources of that spending and even misleading voters about who is actually behind political advertising. Chlopak explained the U.S. Supreme Court’s long-standing approval of transparency requirements for election spending as foundational to democratic self-government and described how loopholes in current state and federal laws allow groups to spend enormous amounts of money in elections without disclosing the true source of that money. Chlopak also identified some key legislative features of election spending transparency rules that will ensure the true sources of election spending are disclosed.

On November 13, 2019, CLC submitted this statement to the Interim Judiciary Committee of the North Dakota Legislative Assembly, on behalf of North Dakotans for Public Integrity. The statement urges the Committee to implement North Dakota’s new state constitutional amendment, Article XIV, in a way that provides transparency in election spending. An effective implementation of Article XIV would make sure that there are no loopholes by which wealthy special interests can secretly spend in North Dakota elections and keep their identities hidden from the public. The Committee has an opportunity now to ensure that state law complies with the transparency mandate in Article XIV and that North Dakotans have the information they need to effectively participate in our democracy.

By state, learn how online ad archives are hosted and what information must be made public.

In the face of Congressional inaction on the critical issue of online political ad transparency, states have picked up the slack, and are passing effective digital ad disclosure policies. These are the most important features of those laws.