Litigation

The top story in today’s campaign finance press is the Supreme Court’s decision to hear McCutcheon v. FEC, a challenge to the Federal Election Campaign Act’s biennial limits on individual contributions to candidate and non-candidate committees.  Here are a few key take-aways.

Timing.  The Court’s argument calendar is…
Continue Reading Supreme Court to Take Up Biennial Contribution Limits

Last Friday, a district court upheld a long-standing ban on federal political contributions made by federal contractors.  In practice, the universe of those directly affected by this ban, and the opinion upholding it, is relatively small.  Corporations are already prohibited from contributing to candidates and parties.  The prohibition therefore generally…
Continue Reading Federal Court Upholds Ban On Federal Political Contributions By Government Contractors

According to press reports, the legal fight between the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) and Americans for Responsible Leadership (ARL), an Arizona-based 501(c)(4), appears to have drawn to a close.  ARL apparently has dropped its bid to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.  And instead of producing documents to…
Continue Reading Nonprofit to Disclose Donors in California

At the close of last week, we were tracking the California Fair Political Practices Commission’s (FPPC) efforts to conduct an audit of Americans for Responsible Leadership (ARL) to determine whether the Arizona-based 501(c)(4) needed to disclose its donors under California law.  A state trial court had ordered ARL to submit…
Continue Reading California Supreme Court Orders Arizona Nonprofit to Undergo Audit

In California, the Fair Political Practice Commission (“FPPC”) is facing off against an Arizona nonprofit, Americans for Responsible Leadership (“ARL”), in a dispute that is quickly making its way through the state court system.  The case may ultimately have important implications for donors who give to certain nonprofits that in…
Continue Reading California Targets Nonprofit Donor Disclosure

A federal appeals court last week dealt a blow to legislative efforts to limit the effects of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision.  Following Citizens United, campaign finance reformers attempted to restrain independent corporate political speech by pushing for laws which prohibited corporations from funding independent political advertisements…
Continue Reading Recent Appeals Court Decision Could Send Campaign Finance Reformers Back To Drawing Board

Since the federal court decisions in Citizens United and SpeechNow, courts, state campaign finance regulators, and state attorneys general have consistently found that Super PACs—entities that make only independent expenditures—are not bound by contribution limits.  Yesterday, a federal court in New York bucked this trend—at least preliminarily.

For…
Continue Reading Federal Court Upholds Super PAC Contribution Limit in New York Races for Now

With respect to the upcoming presidential election, it appears that the dust has settled on the Montana contribution limits litigation.  As a refresher, the district court invalidated the State’s contribution limits and the State appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit and requested an emergency stay pending appeal.  Yesterday…
Continue Reading Montana Contribution Limits Survive for Upcoming Election

As we noted last week, the Montana contribution limits case was headed to the Ninth Circuit.  Without ruling on the merits of the suit, the Ninth Circuit today “temporarily stayed” the district court’s order, which had invalidated Montana’s campaign contribution limits.  The Ninth Circuit stated that its review…
Continue Reading Update on Montana Contribution Limits Litigation