April 2014

The Virginia General Assembly passed new ethics legislation on Wednesday to little fanfare.  Legislators voted unanimously to adopt the new law with Governor Terry McAuliffe’s technical amendments.  We previously blogged about the law’s major provisions.  The law supplements the much stricter executive order limiting gifts to the executive branch,…
Continue Reading Virginia Enacts New Gifts and Ethics Legislation

Super PACs in the Empire State and in the Big Apple are about to become more “super.”  Today, a New York federal court finally (albeit begrudgingly) struck down a state law that effectively capped contributions to state Super PACs at no more than $150,000.  Prior to today’s ruling, New York…
Continue Reading Federal Judge Finally Tosses Aside Limits on Contributions to New York Super PACs

The rules on corporate contributions to Super PACs were made clearer today when the Federal Election Commission (FEC) released its finding that Chevron Corporation’s $2.5 million contribution in 2012 to the Congressional Leadership Fund (a Super PAC) had not violated the bar on government contractors making contributions in federal elections.
Continue Reading In Chevron Case, FEC Brings Clarity to the Federal Contractor Ban and Super PACs

The Alabama Senate unanimously passed a bill to close Alabama’s revolving door last week.  The legislation bars a legislator from lobbying either chamber of the Alabama legislature for two years.  This bill closes a loophole in Alabama’s current statute, which only prohibits a former legislator from lobbying the…
Continue Reading Is Alabama’s Revolving Door Closing?

While McCutcheon concluded the government’s anti-circumvention rationale was too speculative and attenuated to justify the biennial aggregate limits, the Court did discuss “multiple alternatives available” to the government that would serve this interest while still satisfying the First Amendment.  One such suggestion involved “earmarking” rules—which bar donors from trying to…
Continue Reading FEC has said little about earmarking rule discussed in McCutcheon

The Supreme Court’s latest major campaign finance decision, McCutcheon v. FEC, “does not involve” a challenge to current limits on contributions to political party committees and PACs, which the Court “previously upheld as serving the permissible objective of combatting corruption.”  But it nonetheless provides fodder for those who would…
Continue Reading After McCutcheon, Are Limits on Party Committee and PAC Contributions Justifiable?

In his controlling opinion yesterday in McCutcheon v. FEC, Chief Justice John Roberts struck down the federal aggregate campaign contribution limits.  These limits capped the total amount one individual could give to candidates, party committees, and PACs in a two-year election cycle.  The purpose of the limits was to…
Continue Reading Don’t Hold Your Breath for a Legislative “Fix” to McCutcheon

Despite the heated rhetoric surrounding today’s McCutcheon decision, it should be remembered that the aggregate contribution limits the Court struck down today have played only a minor role in recent controversies surrounding campaign finance regulation.  In recent years, debates surrounding the disclosure of political spending have instead taken center stage. …
Continue Reading Both Sides of the Political Disclosure Divide Likely to Latch onto McCutcheon Decision

Today, in McCutcheon v. FEC, the Supreme Court struck down the complex array of overall limits on federal political contributions that have been in force since 1974.  Covington issued a detailed advisory analyzing the opinion and its consequences.  We refer our blog readers to that advisory for the details.
Continue Reading Supreme Court Strikes Down Overall Limits on Federal Contributions