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The FEC routinely fails to enforce campaign finance laws. Congress anticipated the possibility of FEC inaction and authorized lawsuits to compel agency enforcement actions. Realizing that FEC delays may persist even in the face of a court order, Congress also authorized citizen enforcement suits to...
After the FEC failed to take action for over three years, CLC filed suit against the dark money group Heritage Action for America to enforce disclosure laws. Heritage Action spent over $1 million to influence federal elections in 2018 cycle without reporting its funding sources.
To keep their electoral spending secret, wealthy special interests often funnel contributions through vaguely named LLCs or corporate entities — a violation of federal law that fundamentally undermines transparency. Campaign Legal Center (CLC) takes action to support robust enforcement of laws...
CLC has sued the FEC for its failure to act on CLC’s July 2020 administrative complaint alleging that then-President Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign committee (and an associated fundraising committee) violated federal campaign finance transparency requirements by routing hundreds of millions of...
CLC sued the Federal Election Commission for failing to enforce transparency laws, thereby allowing large, anonymous donors to funnel millions of dollars into political activity through 45Committee, a dark money group. After the FEC failed to act, the court authorized CLC to file suit against...
Federal law limits candidates from using more than $250,000 in contributions raised post-election to repay personal loans candidates make to their campaigns. In 2018, Sen. Ted Cruz and his Senate campaign committee sued the FEC, complaining that this law violated the First Amendment.
CLC filed suit against Iowa Values, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the reelection of Sen. Joni Ernst, for failing to register as a PAC and disclose the sources and recipients of its election spending, depriving voters of the right to know who funded its efforts to influence a competitive Senate...
Congress should pass and President Biden should sign into law the Freedom to Vote Act. This sweeping, transformative bill would make the promise of democracy more real for us all by increasing Americans’ access to the freedom to vote, curbing gerrymandering and improving the functionality of the...
CLC sued the FEC for failing to enforce federal transparency laws, enabling Big Tent Project, an entity funded by secret money, to avoid reporting its contributions, expenditures and debts. The FEC has failed to protect the public’s right to know who is seeking to influence elections.
CLC assisted in the successful defense of a Rhode Island transparency law requiring groups that spend significant amounts of money to influence state elections to disclose their spending and certain contributors to voters.
CLC sued the FEC for its failure to act on the administrative complaint filed against Heritage Action for not disclosing who paid for its election advertising during the 2018 election cycle, violating federal law and depriving voters of the right to know who funded its spending to influence...
CLC sued the FEC for its failure to act on an administrative complaint CLC had filed against Iowa Values, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the reelection of Sen. Joni Ernst. By failing to register with the FEC as a federal PAC, Iowa Values violated federal law and deprived voters of the right to...
On Dec. 1, 2020, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed an amicus brief in federal district court in support of New Jersey’s defense of its longstanding law prohibiting campaign contributions by banks and certain other corporations.
The federal contractor ban, which has been in place for over 75 years, prohibits government contractors from making federal political contributions to avoid the appearance or reality that taxpayer-funded contracts are for sale. CLC is working to ensure that this important protection against pay-to...
CLC challenged the FEC’s delay in enforcing key provisions of federal campaign finance law, including the ban on “straw donors,” against SCYWSE, LLC, which gave a $150,000 contribution to a federal super PAC despite having no public history of any business or commercial activity.
CLC sued the Federal Election Commission for its failure to enforce transparency laws, allowing large, anonymous donors to funnel millions of dollars into political activity through 45Committee, a dark money group. The FEC’s failure to act threatens transparency and public trust in our elections.
Montana has strong transparency requirements for businesses that make political contributions and expenditures while seeking lucrative contracts with state government agencies. CLC is urging the court to uphold these requirements, which advance core First Amendment principles in promoting political...
This case considers whether the FEC can shield its enforcement decisions from any court review whenever a minority of commissioners invoke “prosecutorial discretion” as one reason for dismissing serious alleged violations of campaign finance law.
CLC is advocating in favor of state laws requiring that presidential electors follow the popular vote in their state.
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...