FEC: An Agency Tasked with Regulating First Amendment Activity

January 1, 2018  •  By IFS Staff  •    •  

The Federal Election Commission is the independent agency charged with enforcing federal campaign finance law and enacting campaign finance regulations. The FEC was created after the Nixon Administration’s Justice Department pursued criminal campaign finance charges against the President’s critics. In light of that effort, Congress correctly rejected the idea of letting a future president effectively control a government agency tasked…

Now this is kinda funny!

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December 24, 2006   •  By Brad Smith   •  ,

Light blogging through the New Year doesn't mean that we can't share a good laugh.  Fortunately, the humorless "reform" community is always there to ...

WRTL v. FEC: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

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December 22, 2006   •  By Brad Smith   •  ,

In a bit of welcome news for the Free Speech Community, a special three judge district court has ruled ...

Millionaire’s Amendment MUR Madness

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December 21, 2006   •  By IFS staff   •  ,

We always knew that the so-called "Millionaire's Amendment" was a silly law, but if the FEC's most recent pronouncement on the law's requirements is ...

Disclosure versus Snooping: Do ‘reformers’ know the difference?

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December 19, 2006   •  By Brad Smith   •  ,

The Federal Election Commission has adopted new guidelines requiring political committees to include more information about the purposes of their various disbursements.  It goes ...

Oh that Pesky First Amendment!: The New York Times’ Take

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December 18, 2006   •  By Brad Smith   •  ,

The New York Times once again pulls out its Thesaurus of invective to tackle the issue of campaign finance reform.  Next time, we suggest they ...

FEC recap

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December 15, 2006   •  By IFS staff   •  ,

It's been a busy week in the world of campaign finance.  The FEC's newly announced 527 agreements have (quite appropriately) dominated the discussion.  But ...

Never Happy

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December 14, 2006   •  By Steve Hoersting   •  ,

Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center are unhappy.  They describe the FEC’s ruling yesterday as “too little, ...

[Re]gress for America

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November 29, 2006   •  By Steve Hoersting   •  ,

The FEC declined to answer Progress for America's request for advice by a vote of 4-2 (Chairman Toner, Comm'r von Spakovsky dissenting), calling it ...

Goodbye to Voter Guides? Frankenstein’s Monster Strikes Again

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November 22, 2006   •  By Brad Smith   •  ,

UPDATE:  An abbreviated version of this post by CCP Chairman Brad Smith is available in this week's Roll Call ($) --

Journalists should avoid cliches like the plague

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November 17, 2006   •  By IFS staff   •  ,

Is the right of potential candidates to consider carefully whether to run for the most powerful political office in the world a "tired cliche?"  ...

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