Montana

Corporations, trade associations, non-profits, other organizations, and individuals face significant penalties and reputational harm if they violate state laws governing corporate and personal political activities, the registration of lobbyists, lobbying reporting, or the giving of gifts or items of value to government officials or employees. To help organizations and individuals …

Continue Reading Covington Releases 50-State Survey of Campaign Finance, Lobbying, and Gift Rules (2022 Edition)

Companies doing business with state and local governments or operating in regulated industries are subject to a dizzying array of “pay-to-play” rules. These rules effectively prohibit company executives and employees (and in some cases, their family members) from making certain personal political contributions. Even inadvertent violations can be dangerous: a…
Continue Reading Covington Releases 400-Page, 50-State Survey of Pay-to-Play Rules (2022 Edition)

The Internal Revenue Service today announced proposed regulations to eliminate donor information disclosure requirements for certain nonprofits.  The proposed regulations provide “relief from requirements to report contributor names and addresses on annual returns filed by certain tax-exempt organizations, previously provided in Revenue Procedure 2018-38.”  Once the notice is published in…
Continue Reading IRS Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Donor Disclosure Rules in Response to Court Ruling

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must adhere to public notice-and-comment procedures before it can relieve certain tax-exempt organizations of the burden of reporting the names and addresses of their donors to the IRS, a Montana federal court ruled this week.  Last year’s Revenue Procedure 2018-38 provided that tax-exempt organizations, other…
Continue Reading Montana Federal Court Halts IRS Policy that Eliminated Reporting of Donor Information

Companies doing business with state and local governments or operating in regulated industries are subject to a dizzying array of “pay-to-play” rules.  These rules effectively prohibit company executives and employees (and in some cases, their family members) from making certain personal political contributions.  Even inadvertent violations can be dangerous:  a …
Continue Reading Survey of the Pay-to-Play Laws of the United States

A new corporate political disclosure trend is coming. For years, those advocating increased corporate political disclosure have looked for ways to force companies to publicly reveal the names and amounts of corporate contributions to so-called “dark money” 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofits and 501(c)(6) trade associations. To date, these initiatives have…
Continue Reading New Tactic Emerges in Fight to Compel Companies to Disclose So-Called “Dark Money” Contributions

At the federal level, it is generally illegal for an outside group like a Super PAC or a 501(c)(4) organization to coordinate its independent expenditures with the candidate it supports.  The same is true in many states.  As we recently reported in our 2013 FEC Year in Review, however,…
Continue Reading State Action, Federal Inaction on Coordination Enforcement Cases

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

Montana, which has become somewhat of a hotbed for campaign finance litigation, saw another one of its laws struck down yesterday.  Following a bench trial, a U.S. District Court determined that “Montana’s contribution limits in Montana Code Annotated § 13-37-216 are unconstitutional under the First Amendment” because they “prevent candidates…
Continue Reading Federal Judge Strikes Down Montana Contribution Limits for State Races