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The Brennan Center for Justice A New Campaign Finance Jurisprudence By: Fred Wertheimer The world of campaign finance jurisprudence radically changed when Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito joined the Supreme Court in 2005 and 2006 to create a new Court majority. The Roberts majority proceeded to overturn a century of the nation’s policies and […]
Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer The FEC issued seriously flawed regulations today to implement the Citizens United decision. The regulations come nearly five years after the Supreme Court decided the case and provide yet another example of the dysfunction that characterizes the agency. Incredibly, the FEC left out of its action today the […]
Statement by Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer In voting today to approve an advisory opinion request made jointly by the Republican and Democratic National Committees, four FEC Commissioners invented out of thin air a new opportunity for the national parties to raise contributions in excess of the contribution limits enacted by Congress. The three Republican […]
Democracy 21 joined the Campaign Legal Center in strongly urging the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to reject the request from the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Democratic National Committee (DNC) seeking to undermine the existing federal limits on contributions to national political parties established in the wake of Watergate. The watchdog groups filed comments on […]
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a challenge to the federal “electioneering communications” disclosure provisions in Independence Institute v. Federal Election Commission (FEC). Last month, Democracy 21 and Public Citizen joined the Campaign Legal Center in filing an amici brief in the case, urging the Court to reject the suit, arguing that […]
Democracy 21 and Public Citizen joined the Campaign Legal Centerin filing an amici brief in Independence Institute v. Gessler,urging theU.S. District Court for the District of Colorado to dismiss a challenge to the Colorado Constitution’s “electioneering communications” disclosure provisions. The state law is materially identical to the federal “electioneering communications” disclosure statute which was upheld […]
Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens gave an important speech last week in Washington, D.C. in which he criticized the Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance decision in the McCutcheon case. In that case, a 5-4 Court majority struck down the federal limits on the total contributions an individual could make to all candidates and all […]
On Thursday, September 18, 2014, Representatives David Price (D-NC) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced H.R. 5641, legislation to shut down individual-candidate Super PACs and strengthen the laws that prohibit outside groups from coordinating their activities with candidates and parties. The legislation is a standalone bill that contains the provisions dealing with Super PACs and […]
On Friday September 19th, Democracy 21 and Public Citizen joined with the Campaign Legal Center in filing an amici brief in Independence Institute v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), urging the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss a challenge to the federal “electioneering communications” disclosure provisions upheld by the Supreme Court as recently […]
In 1974, Congress enacted limits on contributions to candidates to prevent corruption. Today, these contribution limits are in danger of being wiped out by individual-candidate Super PACs. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 unleashed the world of Super PACs into our elections. Along with them, came individual-candidate Super PACs. Super PACs raise unlimited contributions from […]
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