Litigation

Almost every election cycle, some outcomes come down to a small handful of votes. With months of long days, late nights, and lost weekends and millions of dollars in donor investments on the line, campaigns, ballot measure committees, and their donors need certainty that every vote is fairly counted. Combining…

Continue Reading Election Recounts and Disputes

More than one billion dollars were spent in 2024 elections supporting or opposing state and local ballot measures. With high-profile and contentious issues expected to be on the ballot, such as congressional redistricting, AI regulation, minimum wage increases, and more, that number promises to be even larger in 2026. As…

Continue Reading Covington’s Guide to Ballot Measures

In a unanimous ruling, the D.C. Circuit shed new light this week on the applicability of key federal criminal statutes on proceedings before the Office of Congressional Ethics (“OCE”).  While largely removing the prospect of criminal obstruction liability for parties responding to inquiries from OCE, the court’s opinion is…
Continue Reading D.C. Circuit Rules Obstruction of Office of Congressional Ethics Not a Crime, but Questions and Risks Remain

Yesterday, a complaint was filed in a Minnesota federal district court against Bernie 2020 Inc. (“the Sanders Campaign”), alleging that the Sanders Campaign transmitted automated text messages to mobile telephone numbers without the “prior express consent” of their recipients in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”).

The complaint…
Continue Reading Political Campaigns Among Entities Alleged to Have Violated TCPA

In one of the most watched campaign finance disclosure enforcement cases, last week, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld a trial court’s finding that a trade association intentionally failed to register and report contributions and expenditures in opposition to a ballot initiative that would have required labeling of genetically modified…
Continue Reading Campaign Finance Violation for Unregistered Political Committee Upheld in Washington State, but $18 Million Penalty Must Still Pass Excessive Fine Test

In a rare case, a so-called “dark money” group has now publicly released the names of its donors.  Under federal law, if an organization has as its “major purpose” the nomination or election of federal candidates, the organization may be a “political committee” required to report its receipts and disbursements…
Continue Reading So-Called “Dark Money” Group Reveals its Donors

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit yesterday issued a long-awaited opinion upholding, on the merits, a recent update to the SEC’s pay-to-play rule.  While the case involved only a narrow piece of the rule, the decision’s logic is worded more broadly and could apply to the SEC…
Continue Reading In Major Blow To Its Opponents, SEC Pay-to-Play Rule Survives D.C. Circuit Challenge

On May 7, 2019, a federal District Court in the Southern District of Florida ruled that an American company, RM Broadcasting, must register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (“FARA”) for its agreement to broadcast radio programming from Rossiya Segodnya (meaning “Russia Today”), a Russian state-owned…
Continue Reading Florida FARA Case Leaves Troubling Precedent

Just one week ago, a federal court in Colorado held that the state’s system for enforcing its campaign finance laws was unconstitutional.  Moving quickly, the Colorado Secretary of state has enacted temporary enforcement rules, effective immediately.

Under the new rules, any person may file a complaint, just like under…
Continue Reading Colorado Enacts Replacement Campaign Finance Enforcement System