The Courts
Courthouse News Service: Abortion Clinics Win Battle With Ohio in Sixth Circuit
By Kevin Koeninger
The [Sixth Circuit] panel upheld a permanent injunction granted by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Barrett in August 2016 and ruled that Ohio Revised Code 3701.034 violates abortion providers’ due process and First Amendment rights.
Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Planned Parenthood of the Southwest Ohio Region sued Lance Himes, interim director of the Ohio Department of Health, or ODH, to stop enforcement of the statute…
Planned Parenthood claimed the state law denied abortion providers funds “because of – and in retaliation for – their constitutionally protected advocacy for abortion rights,” while the state argued the providers are not necessarily entitled to any government funds.
ODH appealed to the Sixth Circuit after Judge Barrett granted Planned Parenthood the injunction, and the case was argued in August 2017.
U.S. Circuit Judge Helene White authored Wednesday’s opinion, writing that ODH “mischaracterizes plaintiffs’ argument.”
“Plaintiffs do not claim an entitlement to government funds,” she wrote. “They acknowledge the government’s right to define the parameters of its own programs, and have complied with all program requirements.”
White added, “What they do claim is a right not to be penalized in the administration of government programs based on protected activity outside the programs.”
Congress
The Hill: Steps Congress can take to defend America against foreign influence operations
By Laura Rosenberger and Jamie Fly
Congress should improve disclosure requirements for online political advertisements. Americans should have the right to know who is funding political ads they see online, just as they do for political ads on radio, print and television. One bipartisan bill, the Honest Ads Act, would address one part of this challenge by creating a searchable database of political ads published on large online platforms and require disclosure of who is purchasing advertisements. Such disclosure requirements would help ensure that foreign funding is not illegally used to fund political campaigns in the United States…
Congress should also update and modernize the outdated Foreign Agents Registration Act, as well as provide sufficient resources for the Department of Justice to implement it rigorously…
Congress should support public-private partnerships to tackle the challenge posed by disinformation and abuse of social media platforms. Congress should create a fund with pooled public and private resources that would establish media literacy education and training pilot projects across country, helping to build resilience against foreign or other malign manipulation of our open society…
Congress should pass – and the administration should implement thoroughly – legislation that imposes stringent sanctions on any country or individual that interferes in our democratic institutions and processes.
FEC
Bloomberg Government: Mom Running for Congress Asks FEC for Child-Care Help
By Ken Doyle
The Federal Election Commission may soon decide whether a mother running for Congress can use campaign money to pay for child care.
Democrat Liuba Grechen Shirley, who’s seeking to challenge Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), formally asked the Federal Election Commission whether political donations could be used to pay for care for her 1-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter while she’s campaigning…
Full-time child care “is not financially possible,” according to Shirley’s request for an FEC advisory opinion. “It is critical that we make running for office accessible to all working parents, not just the independently wealthy.”
Campaign money can be used only for expenses directly related to running for or holding federal office. The law bars personal use of the funds.
In a 1995 advisory opinion, the FEC allowed a campaign to pay for part-time childcare during travel to political events by a candidate and his wife, according Shirley’s filing.
In 2008, the FEC drafted an opinion concluding that a stay-at-home father could tap campaign funds for child-care expenses. However, the draft wasn’t approved because the FEC lacked a quorum of commissioners at the time.
The commission’s next open meeting is scheduled for April 26.
Candidates and Campaigns
Daily Beast: Democrats Are Raising Gobs of Cash. It May Not Be Enough.
By Gideon Resnick
In a large number of congressional races throughout the country, Democratic candidates are raising gobs of cash for their own campaigns-in the process, shedding the necessity of national party groups for financial aid. The success of this strategy has been fueled by unparalleled enthusiasm on the left, wins in smaller legislative contests, and the increased prevalence of online fundraising platforms like ActBlue…
The flow of fundraising money directly to the candidates could have a profound impact on everything from how the respective parties prioritize their resources, to midterm messaging, to what seats end up most competitive in November. It’s not without risk for the broader Democratic Party…
So far, GOP groups have more than enough money to bolster any anemic fundraising candidates…
But nationally generated funding pools aren’t always as effective as locally generated ones. Television stations charge much higher ad rates to super PACs and political committees than they do to actual campaigns-meaning that a candidate’s dollar can go further. And while a party apparatus can help save a candidate under siege, it can also destroy his or her chances by pulling out its resources.
Event
Washington Post: World Press Freedom Index 2018
On April 25, 2018, The Washington Post and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the world’s largest non-governmental organization specializing in the defense of media freedom, will hold a conversation on freedom of the press around the world.
The program will include a presentation of RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index, which examines the degree of freedom that journalists, news organizations and citizens enjoy in more than 180 countries. The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with journalists moderated by Washington Post Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Dana Priest.
Program: 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
The States
Good4Utah: Utah Legislature votes to override two of Gov. Herbert’s vetoes
By Glen Beeby
The Utah House and Senate met to debate overturning two of the governor’s vetoes.
The most controversial was Senate Bill 171, Intervention Amendments.
It would allow the legislature to take on court cases and defend laws it’s passed.
Supporters point to a campaign finance law which passed a few years ago, but the attorney general didn’t defend it.
“They stipulated the bill was unconstitutional. Not only did they surrender. They said they would pay the court costs of those bringing the lawsuit,” said Representative Brad Daw (R-Orem).
Those against the bill note the unintended consequences the legislature faces is getting involved in different lawsuits…
Although there was some disagreement here on the floor the veto overrides passed easily. Speaker Greg Hughes said this is more about a balance of power…
Hughes admits the issue will likely be decided by the Utah Supreme Court and Governor Herbert seemed to agree. In a statement he said:
“Clearly the Governor and the Legislature disagree about the appropriate roles and functions of the respective branches of state government. We would encourage the legislature to intervene in a court case as soon as possible so that the Utah courts can quickly resolve these important constitutional issues.”
Gotham Gazette: Cuomo Touts Political Ad Transparency Law as Other Reforms Languish
By Samar Khurshid
Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday held a ceremonial bill-signing, one of several since the state budget was approved, to tout the passage of new restrictions and disclosure requirements for political advertisements on social media. But the bill was a component of Cuomo’s larger Democracy Agenda, measures including voting and campaign finance reform that otherwise fell by the wayside during budget negotiations and seem unlikely to pass in the remaining months of the legislative session in Albany…
Prompted by the widespread Russian influence campaign that targeted nearly two dozen states during the 2016 presidential election and the proliferation of secretive political advertising on social media platforms like Facebook, Cuomo proposed and the state Legislature successfully passed the “Democracy Protection Act,” which prohibits foreign entities from creating independent expenditure committees or buying political ads, requires anyone who purchases an online political ad to register as an independent expenditure committee, and also requires online ads to include information about who paid for them, as is currently required of traditional media platforms.
The state Board of Elections will also now create an public archive of those online ads and retain them for five years.
Boston Globe: Thornton Law Firm didn’t break state campaign finance laws, prosecutor says
By Andrea Estes
Thornton Law Firm didn’t violate state campaign finance laws when it reimbursed its partners for up to $175,000 in donations to state and local politicians, a special prosecutor said Wednesday.
In a statement, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said he didn’t find “sufficient evidence” to bring criminal charges against the Boston law firm, but recommended reforms to state campaign finance laws that “address the ambiguities in the law that gave rise to these allegations.”
The changes would ensure that partners’ donations are made from personal checking accounts and would require attorneys to sign annual sworn statements that the donations came from personal funds.
The decision by Blodgett, who was assigned the case as a special prosecutor after Attorney General Maura Healey recused herself, ends the state inquiry into Thornton Law Firm. But the firm still faces federal investigations into election law violations and its billing practices in a class-action lawsuit, which both began in 2016.
Cleveland.com: Ohio State Rep. Larry Householder sues political groups over attack ads
By Andrew J. Tobias
Southeast Ohio State Rep. Larry Householder has sued a pair of political action committees over their financing of a slew of political attack ads targeting him.
Householder alleges the TV, radio and printed ads — which make reference to an FBI investigation, which closed without charges in 2006, into Householder’s activities as speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives in the 2000s — are false and defamatory, and asks a judge to pull them off the air. The ads were produced by the Honor and Principles PAC and the Conservative Alliance PAC, two Virginia-based groups that are named as defendants in the lawsuit, filed in Householder’s home Perry County on Wednesday.
