District Court Urged to Uphold SEC’s Pay-to-Play Rules Covering State Investment Funds

Democracy 21 joined the Campaign Legal Center in filing an amici brief in New York Republican State Committee v. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) urging the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to deny a preliminary injunction and dismiss the latest challenge to pay-to-play laws. The state Republican parties of New York and Tennessee are challenging an SEC […]

Fred Wertheimer on Justice Roberts, rise of joint fundraising committees

According to Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer: In his opinion in McCutcheon v Federal Election Commission, Chief Justice Roberts said that scenarios, such as the large scale joint fundraising committees described in briefs submitted to defend the federal aggregate contribution limits, were “divorced from reality.” The Center for Public Integrity article below provides a new […]

Watchdog Groups Call on IRS to Adopt New Rules

In a letter sent to the IRS, Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center summarized comments they had submitted regarding the ongoing IRS rulemaking proceeding to consider new regulations to govern eligibility for section 501 (c)(4) tax status. The letter stated: On May 7, 2014, the American Bar Association Section on Taxation submitted comments to […]

Wertheimer: “It’s Chief Justice Roberts who is “divorced from reality””

According to Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer: As the enclosed POLITICO article makes clear, it is Chief Justice Roberts who is “divorced from reality,” not those of us who submitted briefs in the McCutcheon case to explain that donors would be giving huge contributions if the limits on the total contributions by an individual to […]

Summary of H.R. 270, the Empowering Citizens Act

The Empowering Citizens Act (H.R. 270) introduced last year by Representatives David Price and Chris Van Hollen is the most comprehensive campaign finance reform legislation pending in Congress. The bill would end individual candidate Super PACs, repair the presidential public financing system, create a public financing system for congressional races and strengthen the rules prohibiting […]