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Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior identifying ways the department can improve voting access for Native Americans in accordance with President Biden’s Executive Order Promoting Access to Voting, including expanding opportunities for voter registration and education, reducing barriers to casting a ballot, facilitating government-to-government coordination between tribes, states and localities and assisting other federal agencies in improving services that impact Native voters.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) released a report on the tools that ethics commissions can use to promote transparency and serve a vital role in our democracy by upholding transparency principles and administering various laws and rules intended to preserve the public’s trust in government.
On Dec. 2, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) sent a letter on behalf of All Voting is Local, Ohio Voice and Common Cause Ohio to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost requesting he issue a formal opinion regarding Ohio law R.C. § 3501.054. The law is causing confusion among local election officials as to what election activities, including critical voter outreach and education efforts, they can continue to conduct in collaboration with outside organizations, and therefore, CLC requested that Attorney General Yost, as the state’s chief law officer, issue a formal opinion clarifying that election officials may continue their important partnerships with pro-voter organizations and groups.
On Dec. 1, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Missouri Ethics Commission alleging Eric Greitens' gubernatorial campaign committee, Greitens for Missouri, violated state campaign finance law by failing to disclose in-kind contributions made to Greitens' U.S. Senate campaign.
On Nov. 12, 2021, the Louisiana Secretary of State responded to the Campaign Legal Center’s demands on behalf of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw and Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe to ensure that tribal members have access to the ballot box during the fall 2021 elections. The secretary’s response details the actions his office took and methods for displaced voters to cast a ballot.
On Nov. 29, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted public comments to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) regarding proposed amendments to its disclosure rule for "commercial advertisers," including online platforms, that sell political advertising in state elections. CLC's comments include several recommendations that would ensure the PDC's amended rule continues to facilitate public access to important information about political ads concerning candidates and ballot measures in Washington.
On Feb. 12, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed suit against Iowa Values, a nonprofit 501(c)(4) corporation that violated federal campaign finance law. Despite its major purpose of supporting the reelection of U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Values failed to register as a PAC and publicly disclose its donors and the recipients of its spending. CLC filed this citizen suit against Iowa Values after the Federal Election Commission (FEC) failed to enforce the law and a court ordered that the FEC’s inaction entitled CLC to sue Iowa Values directly under the Federal Election Campaign Act’s citizen suit provision.
On Nov. 19, 2021, a federal district court denied Iowa Value's motion to dismiss Campaign Legal Center's (CLC) private enforcement action against the group, recognizing that the citizen suit provision in federal campaign finance law is a “safeguard to protect the First Amendment rights of complainants” like CLC.
On Nov. 22, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC)—joined by Citizens for Ethics & Responsibility in Washington (CREW), Common Cause and Democracy 21—filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate. The brief urges the Court to uphold the constitutionality of the challenged law, a provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) that limits the post-election repayment of candidates’ personal loans to their campaigns. As noted in the amicus brief, contributions raised after Election Day to repay a candidate’s personal loans are functionally personal gifts to the candidate, not campaign speech, and limiting cash gifts that personally enrich candidates is a well justified and commonsensical protection against corruption and self-dealing.
A federal court in Kansas enjoined the state’s new restrictions on voter advocacy organizations’ speech seeking to encourage and assist Kansans to vote by mail.
On Nov. 19, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a supplement to its complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging Rep. Jim Hagedorn's campaign committee illegally accepted corporate contributions in the form of free office rent. An Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) probe confirmed the allegations.
On July 20, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging Rep. Jim Hagedorn's campaign committee illegally accepted corporate contributions in the form of free office rent.
Through a 2018 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) received 734 pages of documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) about their involvement with the failed Pence-Kobach Commission on alleged voter fraud. These documents reveal, as expected, that there have been almost zero prosecutions of noncitizens for voting (pages 33-34), and they also reveal that, despite Kris Kobach’s claims to the contrary, ICE did not agree to and did not take on the work of the defunct commission (page 412).
On Nov. 18, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Issue One (IO) submitted to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) their joint report documenting abuses of leadership PAC funds in the 2020 election cycle. The letter urged the FEC to proceed with a rulemaking that prohibits the use of leadership PAC funds for personal expenses.