United States District Court for the District of Montana Judge Charles Lovell yesterday struck down three state laws that violated First Amendment rights to political speech: a ban on corporate donations to independent expenditure PACs; a political-civil libel statute; and a vote reporting disclaimer requirement. “This ruling is a solid win for the First Amendment,” [...]
Federal Court Strikes Down Three Montana “Clean” Election Laws
Published on May 17, 2012
Filed Under: Blog, Featured Content, First Amendment, Independent Speech, Super PACs, corporate contributions, free speech, Montana, District Of Columbia, Montana
EPA Administrator Highlights Need for Corporate Involvement
Published on May 2, 2012
Last week, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe released a video of the (now former) EPA’s Region 6 (south/central states including Texas) chief Al Armendariz explaining the agency’s philosophy of enforcement. He highlights their philosophy of making examples of alleged lawbreakers, detailed in a recent piece in The Wall Street Journal titled Crucify Them: “…like how the Romans [...]
Filed Under: Blog, Independent Speech, Armendariz, corporations, EPA, free speech, Range Resourcecs, Texas
Public Broadcasting Must Also Follow the First Amendment
Published on April 13, 2012
Yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court struck down a ban on political and issue advertising in public broadcasts. The opinion, which targets the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) ban on non-profit and political advertising, leaves intact bans on commercial advertisements. The opinion concluded that the ban on political and issue advertising violated the First Amendment’s free speech clause. Although the [...]
Filed Under: Blog, First Amendment, Independent Speech, Uncategorized, ban on advertising, free speech, PBS, District Of Columbia
Dickerson: Non-profits Should be Wary of DISCLOSE Act
Published on March 30, 2012
CCP Legal Director Allen Dickerson recently penned an op-ed in Campaigns & Elections on the danger that passage of the DISCLOSE Act poses to non-profits. The problem with this legislation is that in its zeal for disclosure, it would impose enormous requirements on precisely the sort of traditional, widely favored actions nonprofit advocacy groups have been [...]
Filed Under: Blog, Disclosure, Featured Content, First Amendment, Independent Speech, Campaigns & Elections, Dickerson, Disclose Act, District Of Columbia
Money in Politics is Only Dangerous to Incumbents
Published on March 29, 2012
Today CCP President David Keating testified before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration (video included). The hearing, which discussed S. 2219, is the most recent effort by the reform community to expand non-profit disclosure requirements. This latest effort comes on the heels of a number of previous attempts to dramatically expand the amount of information [...]
Filed Under: Blog, Coordination, Disclosure, Expenditure, First Amendment, Independent Speech, Political Parties, Super PACs, Chuck Schumer, DISCLOSE, Lamar Alexander, Senate Rules Hearing, District Of Columbia
Senate hears witness testimony on “DISCLOSE” Act Thursday
Published on March 28, 2012
DATELINE: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 CONTACT: Sarah Lee, Communications Director, Center for Competitive Politics 770.598.7961 ALEXANDRIA, Va. – CCP President David Keating will present testimony tomorrow morning before the Senate Committee on Rules & Administration concerning S. 2219, the “Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act of 2012” (DISCLOSE Act [...]
Filed Under: Disclosure, First Amendment, In the News, Independent Speech, Newsroom, Press Releases, DISCLOSE, Hasen, Keating, Senate hearing, Wertheimer, District Of Columbia
CCP’s Keating debates John McCain at Money in Politics Panel
Published on March 27, 2012
The Center for Competitive Politics (CCP) today participated in a panel on money in politics and CCP President David Keating held his own on a panel that was mostly unfriendly to the idea that money equals speech when it comes to campaign expenditures. Sitting literally in the middle of a group that includes powerhouses such [...]
Filed Under: Blog, Featured Content, First Amendment, Independent Speech, Political Parties, Super PACs, Buddy Roemer, Citizens United, David keating, John McCain, money in politics, District Of Columbia
The Anniversary of SpeechNow.org and the Rise of the Super PAC
Published on March 26, 2012
Citizens United gets all of the attention: the protests, the whole being called the “Dred Scott of our generation” thing. But if you really think that super PACs are the root of all evil, then you ought to take your attention elsewhere. All Citizens United permitted was corporate or union independent expenditures. Under Citizens United, as long as it did [...]
Filed Under: Blog, Citizens United, Featured Content, First Amendment, Independent Speech, Super PACs, free speech, incumbents, SpeechNow.org, super PAC, District Of Columbia
SpeechNow.org v. FEC — protecting free speech for the last 2 years
Published on March 23, 2012
News Release Dateline: 3/23/2012 Contact: Sarah Lee , Communications Director, The Center for Competitive Politics, 770.598.7961 SpeechNow.org v. FEC — protecting free speech for the last 2 years On Monday, March 26, 2012, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), will celebrate its 2 year anniversary. Free speech proponents everywhere, [...]
Filed Under: In the News, Independent Speech, Newsroom, Super PACs, free speech, SpeechNow.org, super PACs, District Of Columbia