Join us at Harvard Law School for the lunchtime forum ‘Corporate Political Spending and Foreign Influence’ Posted on March 28, 2018 (March 28, 2018) Free Speech For People Legal Director, Ron Fein, will join Harvard School of Law Professors John Coates and Charles Fried for the lunchtime forum event, Corporate Political Spending and Foreign Influence. The speakers will discuss foreign influence in elections, how Citizens United opens the door to foreign influence through corporate political spending, and innovative legislative solutions (starting with our groundbreakingRead More
Challenging Super PACs Eight Years After SpeechNow Posted on March 26, 2018 (March 26, 2018) Eight years ago today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decided SpeechNow.org v. FEC, the case that created super PACs. As explained by scholars and experts in political corruption and constitutional law, the SpeechNow ruling was legally erroneous at the time under Supreme Court precedent (including Citizens United). Unfortunately, then-Attorney General Eric Holder decided not to appeal SpeechNow to theRead More
Podcast: Centering Marginalized Communities Posted on March 26, 2018 (June 16, 2020) Defending Key Reforms Our Democracy Honors Fellow Jasmine Gomez joined Allie Boldt (from Demos) joined Laura Friedy on the Every Voice Podcast on how to take an intersectional approach to money in politics to bring new and necessary voices to the movement. Jasmine and Allie discussed their new framework for ensuring that historically marginalized communities — like communitiesRead More
Harper v. Virginia and the Wealth Primary as a New Poll Tax Posted on March 24, 2018 (September 18, 2018) Democracy Amendments Today is the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, which struck down poll taxes in state elections as violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Virginia’s poll taxes, enacted in 1902, had preserved Virginia’s place as an elite white man’s commonwealth. But to this day,Read More
What Did Facebook Know? When Did Facebook Know it? And What did Management Do? Posted on March 21, 2018 (March 21, 2018) Following reports that Facebook data had been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica and used by the campaign of Donald J. Trump, Free Speech For People submitted a books and records inspection request under Delaware Corporations Code Section 220 on behalf of a shareholder to learn what the company knew, when it knew it, and whatRead More
Ron Fein for Wired: Equifax Deserves the Corporate Death Penalty Posted on March 20, 2018 (October 3, 2018) In an oped for Wired, Legal Director Ron Fein calls for the judicial dissolution of Equifax, due to the company’s failure to protect the private data of over 143 million people. Equifax’s failure calls for the corporate death penalty, through a rare but vital procedure called judicial dissolution. Under the law of Georgia, where EquifaxRead More
Watch: Time to Abolish the Wealth Primary and Ensure Political Equality for All Posted on March 14, 2018 (March 14, 2018) At the recent Unrig the System Summit, John Bonifaz, President of Free Speech For People, gave the Spark talk, “Time to Abolish the Wealth Primary: The Newest Barrier to the Right to Vote.” Today’s campaign finance system operates like a wealth primary, an exclusionary process blocking equal and meaningful participation of voters and candidates basedRead More
Barnette at 75: Compelled Speech and Corporate Corruption of the First Amendment Posted on March 11, 2018 (May 22, 2023) This blog post for the 75th anniversary of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette was drafted by Kourosh Azin, a student at Boston College Law School and a spring 2018 intern at Free Speech For People. To some, athletes refusing to stand during the national anthem seemed like a novel means of expressingRead More
Free Speech For People Joins Reform Groups and Watchdogs to Urge Congress to Oppose Poison Pill Campaign Finance Riders Posted on March 9, 2018 (October 3, 2018) In a letter sent on March 1, 2018, to members of Congress, Free Speech For People joined 24 reform groups and watchdogs to strongly urge members to oppose all campaign finance riders from being included in the final FY18 Omnibus Appropriations legislation. One potential rider would demolish the Johnson amendment, which prevents 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations fromRead More
Favorable Procedural Ruling in the Lawsuit that Could End Super PACs Posted on March 7, 2018 (March 7, 2018) We’ve passed the first hurdle in Lieu v. Federal Election Commission, the case that could end super PACs. Earlier today, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the FEC’s attempts to defeat the case on procedural grounds. As background, our original November 4, 2016 federal court complaint, on behalfRead More