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…

This “Free Speech Week,” Senate Dems Vote for Political Speech Restrictions

October 21, 2021   •  By Nathan Maxwell   •  , , , , ,

Some federal lawmakers have stopped at nothing this year to advance their bundle of political speech restrictions, now as S. 2747, the so-called “Freedom ...

Democrats Propose a Federal Speech Czar

October 20, 2021   •  By Brad Smith   •  ,

Deep inside the Democrats’ latest “compromise” proposal on elections and campaign finance is a new cup of poison for free speech and fair campaigns. Of course, the sponsors ...

The Freedom to Vote Act is remarkably anti-voter

October 19, 2021   •  By Nathan Maxwell   •  , , ,

Yet, the so-called Freedom to Vote Act, which is expected to receive a vote in the Senate this week, would restrict our right to ...

LTE: Revised H.R.1 Has a Plan for a Government Speech Czar

October 4, 2021   •  By David Keating   •  ,

The new Democratic voting- and speech-regulation bill dropped the idea of switching “the Federal Election Commission to an odd number of seats.” Unfortunately, it ...

Comments to the FEC on Notice of Availability of Rulemaking Petition Regarding Subvendor Reporting

October 4, 2021   •  By Brad Smith   •  , ,

Before embarking on a rulemaking placing new, burdensome regulations on businesses, political committees, and entities making independent expenditures and electioneering communications, the Commission must ...

Campaign Legal Center v. Federal Election Commission (Due Process)

August 18, 2021   •  By IFS Staff   •  ,

The Institute for Free Speech urged two federal judges to put a stop to unethical legal gamesmanship by members of the Federal Election Commission. ...

How Ted Cruz’s Fight with the FEC Could Benefit Free Speech for Everyone

August 12, 2021   •  By Luke Wachob   •  , , , ,

Senator Ted Cruz’s recent victory over the Federal Election Commission in a loan-repayment case clarified important First Amendment principles. The Institute for Free Speech ...

Transcript of the FEC Discussion of the Draft Statement of Policy Regarding Closing the File at the Initial Stage in the Enforcement Process

July 1, 2021   •  By IFS Staff   •  ,

At a late April open meeting of the Federal Election Commission, the agency’s six commissioners discussed a proposed policy to close the file at ...

Democrats Are Using the FEC as a Partisan Weapon

June 26, 2021   •  By Brad Smith   •  ,

The FEC’s Democrats are regularly refusing to dismiss complaints and notify respondents that they are in the clear when the commission has voted not ...

The First Amendment Is Lucky to Have Mitch McConnell

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell hammered the first nail into the coffin of the draconian S. 1 legislation on Wednesday, announcing that the Democrats’ 800-plus-page rewrite of ...

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