Disclosure: A Threat to Associational Privacy

January 1, 2018  •  By IFS staff  •    •  

Disclosure, in the campaign finance context, refers to laws and regulations requiring candidates and political groups to report information about their activities to the government, which then makes that information available publicly. The required information varies greatly, depending on the affected organization and the local, state, or federal government mandating the disclosure. Disclosure rules fall into two broad categories: disclosure…

CCP Comments on Constitutional and Practical Issues with Minnesota Senate File 1915

April 1, 2014   •  By Matt Nese   •  , , ,

If Senate File 1915 becomes law as written, there is a high likelihood that the law will be found unconstitutional if challenged in court. ...

Unintended Consequences: Iowa Edition

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March 11, 2014   •  By Luke Wachob   •  

When governments pass laws intended to curb the influence of wealth in politics, they often end up with regulatory regimes that are either so ...

Publius was Not a PAC: Reconciling Anonymous Political Speech, the First Amendment, and Campaign Finance Disclosure

March 1, 2014   •  By Matt Nese   •  ,

Anonymous political speech has been the scorn of entrenched powers and the saving balm of emerging voices throughout English and American history. In its simplest terms, ...

Disclosure for Disclosure’s Sake

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January 17, 2014   •  By Eric Wang   •  

It has become shibboleth among the speech regulation lobby that all “disclosure” is good, and that no amount of disclosure can be too much. ...

Actions Speak Louder than Words

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January 14, 2014   •  By Luke Wachob   •  

The Obama administration has not been shy about its position on campaign finance disclosure: it wants more of it. The IRS targeting of conservative ...

Protecting Anonymous Speech Used to be ‘Common Sense’

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January 10, 2014   •  By Luke Wachob   •  

Today, we celebrate the anniversary of one of the most important pieces of writing in American history – Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Originally published ...

Professor Coates’ bad government proposal for the SEC

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December 30, 2013   •  By Brad Smith   •  

Last week, I commented on this blog post by Harvard Professor John Coates, in which he scolds the Securities and Exchange Commission for at ...

Did hundreds of thousands of “investors” really write “personally” to the SEC on corporate disclosure? No, not really.

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December 22, 2013   •  By Brad Smith   •  

As followers of this blog will know, for the last four years Democrats and others on the political left have been trying to get ...

The IRS, “Political Activity,” and “Disclosure:” A Brief Rejoinder to Mr. Ryan

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December 17, 2013   •  By Allen Dickerson   •  ,

The Campaign Legal Center’s blog today republished a letter to the editor penned by Paul S. Ryan, the Center’s Senior Counsel. Entitled “The IRS ...

Policy Primer: Campaign Finance Disclosure – The Devil is in the Details

December 1, 2013   •  By Matt Nese   •  ,

Disclosure laws vary between the federal government and the states, and from state to state, but the general framework is quite uniform. Most campaign finance ...

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