Kansas City, KS — In a decisive early ruling, a federal court granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) in favor of Fresh Vision OP, a grassroots nonprofit organization, in its lawsuit challenging provisions of Kansas campaign finance laws. Attorneys for the Institute for Free Speech and local counsel Josh Ney and Ryan Kriegshauser filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of Fresh Vision OP in June in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

The court issued the TRO late yesterday, temporarily prohibiting the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission from enforcing two provisions in the state’s Campaign Finance Act against Fresh Vision OP based on an overly broad definition of “political committee.”

That term’s meaning is at issue in the case, as Kansas law defines a political committee as an organization for which express advocacy is “a major purpose.” The court found that this definition likely violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s Buckley v. Valeo decision, which requires that express advocacy be “the major purpose” (emphasis added) of an organization for it to be regulated as a political committee.

“[P]laintiffs are likely to succeed in demonstrating that Kansas’s definition of a political committee is invalid as applied to them because, under Buckley, the Kansas definition allows defendants to apply political committee requirements to Fresh Vision without first establishing that express advocacy is Fresh Vision’s singular major purpose,” the court explained in its decision.

“This ruling protects the First Amendment rights of Fresh Vision OP,” said Institute for Free Speech Senior Attorney Charles “Chip” Miller. “The court applied existing precedent that bars the imposition of burdensome political committee requirements on groups that only occasionally engage in express advocacy. Those requirements chill and potentially punish protected political speech.  We look forward to expanding this ruling at the next hearing to protect all similar grassroots organizations in Kansas.”

For now, the TRO allows Fresh Vision OP to resume its community advocacy activities without fear of being regulated as a political committee. The TRO will remain in effect until the court rules on Fresh Vision OP’s motion for a preliminary injunction.

A combined hearing on the preliminary injunction and a trial on the merits for Fresh Vision OP, Inc., et al. v. Skoglund, et al. is scheduled for September 17, 2024. The lawsuit asks the court to declare the challenged laws unconstitutional and block their enforcement.

Additional resources:

• Court’s TRO ruling
• Original press release announcing the filing of the suit
• Our clients’ story
• Case page (including all case documents, as well as photos for media use)

About the Institute for Free Speech

The Institute for Free Speech promotes and defends the political speech rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government guaranteed by the First Amendment.