Trump’s hush money payments to influence the election are grounds for impeachment Posted on April 1, 2019 (April 1, 2019) Impeachment President Trump has been directly implicated—by his own personal lawyer—in a criminal conspiracy to illegally influence the election. This justifies an impeachment investigation. Facts On August 21, 2018, President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges. Two of those charges stem directly from criminal actions that he took at the directionRead More
Impeachment and Attacking the Freedom of the Press: A Lesson from History Posted on March 31, 2019 (March 31, 2019) Impeachment April 1 marks the anniversary of the impeachment of a federal judge who was impeached nearly a century ago for misconduct that included abusing his power to attack the press. As we explained in The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump, one major reason for the House of Representatives notRead More
Impeachment Inquiry Resolution Formally Introduced into House of Representatives Posted on March 28, 2019 (March 28, 2019) Impeachment A resolution to authorize the House Judiciary Committee to launch an impeachment inquiry has been introduced into the House of Representatives by Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, joined by Representative Al Green of Texas. The resolution is patterned on the February 1974 resolution that authorized an impeachment inquiry against President Richard Nixon. As we explainedRead More
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib to Introduce Impeachment Resolution Posted on March 25, 2019 (March 25, 2019) Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib will introduce this week a resolution to formally begin an impeachment investigation of the President. The resolution will address multiple impeachable offenses committed by the President, including violations of the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses of the Constitution, illegal payments made to influence the 2016 Presidential election, and obstruction of justice. WhileRead More
Free Speech For People and allies file amicus brief supporting Seattle’s democracy voucher program Posted on March 22, 2019 Free Speech For People and Demos filed an amicus brief in the Washington Supreme Court in the case of Elster v. City of Seattle. Our brief helps defend the city against a constitutional challenge to Seattle’s “democracy voucher” program, a nationally-recognized public campaign financing system enacted by voter initiative in 2015 and first used in theRead More
Free Speech For People Joins Allies Supporting Transparency in Presidential Pardons Posted on March 21, 2019 (March 21, 2019) Today, a coalition of organizations including Protect Democracy, Free Speech For People, and others sent a letter to Congressman Adam Schiff, who has introduced a bill designed to improve transparency in presidential pardons. The key part of Schiff’s bill says: In the event that the President grants an individual a pardon for an offense againstRead More
Appeal Filed, Federal Appeals Court to Review a Case that Could End Super PACs Posted on March 18, 2019 Today, we filed a notice of appeal in Lieu v. Federal Election Commission, the case that could end super PACs. This notice of appeal starts the process by which the U.S. Court of Appeals will soon have the opportunity to review its 2010 ruling which created super PACs. Lieu v. Federal Election Commission, which wasRead More
Free Speech For People to Massachusetts Elections Agency: Close Campaign Finance Loophole Posted on March 15, 2019 Free Speech For People submitted a comment to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance urging it to close a longstanding, bureaucratically-created exception to the state’s campaign finance statutes. The arbitrary loophole allow politically savvy groups to avoid registering as political committees in Massachusetts while donating up to $15,000 directly to candidates. That’s 30Read More
Watch Now: John Bonifaz on Democracy Now! Posted on March 14, 2019 Thursday, March 14, Free Speech For People Co-Founder and President, John Bonifaz, was on Democracy Now! to make the case for why Congress must immediately begin impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. Watch the interview below and read the transcript on Democracy Now!Read More
HOW WE CAN END SUPER PACS, OVERTURN SPEECHNOW, AND ADVANCE A NEW JURISPRUDENCE ON MONEY IN POLITICS WITH THE CURRENT SUPREME COURT Posted on March 12, 2019 (June 9, 2020) Challenging Super PACs INTRODUCTION In 2015, Free Speech For People began developing a legal strategy to bring new test cases that could win at the Supreme Court, even under the Roberts Court as it existed at that time. These test cases were designed to make jurisprudential progress without challenging Citizens United, and assumed that we would need to getRead More