Free Speech For People and National Election Defense Coalition to U.S. Election Assistance Commission: Don’t Let Voting Machine Vendors Use Obsolete Standards Posted on June 7, 2019 (June 18, 2020) Election Protection Free Speech For People and the National Election Defense Coalition (NEDC) submitted a public comment to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission regarding the Commission’s proposed new voting system guidelines. These guidelines were last updated in 2005. Unfortunately, the Commission’s past practice has been that, after guidelines have been updated, voting machine vendors can still testRead More
BREAKING: New Hampshire Becomes the 20th State to Call for a Constitutional Amendment Overturning Citizens United Posted on June 6, 2019 (June 18, 2020) Democracy Amendments Today, the New Hampshire Senate voted to pass HB 504, a bill calling for an amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, which allowed unlimited money from wealthy and corporate donors to flood elections. The state Senate vote follows the March 19 approval of HB 504 by the state House ofRead More
Vote for Free Speech For People to receive a share of $150,000 from CREDO Mobile! Posted on June 3, 2019 (June 18, 2020) FSFP Updates Free Speech For People is honored to be selected to participate in the CREDO Donations Program for the month of June. Each month, CREDO selects three organizations to be featured by the donations program. CREDO Action members vote throughout the month to determine how to allocate $150,000 to the three organizations. Your vote for FreeRead More
Victory: Corporate Challenge to Contribution Ban Fails as U.S. Supreme Court Lets Massachusetts Decision Stand Posted on June 3, 2019 (June 18, 2020) Defending Key Reforms We recently celebrated a victory as the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear 1A Auto, Inc. v. Sullivan, a challenge to a Massachusetts state law banning corporate contributions to political candidates. Free Speech For People worked with Common Cause Massachusetts on an amicus brief in the state supreme court. The corporate challenge Massachusetts has prohibitedRead More
Our Case to End Super PACs Advances to the Federal Appeals Court Posted on May 30, 2019 (June 12, 2019) Today, we filed an early brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Lieu v. Federal Election Commission, the case that could end super PACs. The goal of the Lieu litigation is to give the D.C. Circuit, or the Supreme Court, the opportunity to overturn the D.C. Circuit’s 2010 SpeechNow decisionRead More
Court of Appeals Upholds Law Banning Political Spending in Local Elections by Foreign Nationals Posted on May 30, 2019 A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected a challenge to a federal law banning political spending by foreign nationals in local elections. This law had been upheld by the Supreme Court with respect to federal elections, but this is the first decision applying it to state or localRead More
FSFP Welcomes Our New Summer Legal Advocacy Program Interns! Posted on May 29, 2019 (May 29, 2019) Free Speech For People is pleased to announce our summer 2019 Legal Advocacy Program interns! We appreciate the talent, time, and commitment to defending our democracy the new Legal Advocacy Program interns bring to the Free Speech For People team. Learn more about our new Legal Advocacy Program interns below! Justine Morris is a risingRead More
Just Security: How Impeachment Proceedings Would Strengthen Congress’s Investigatory Powers Posted on May 28, 2019 (May 28, 2019) In a new article from Just Security, Michael Stern explores how impeachment proceedings would strengthen Congress’s investigatory powers and address the continued defiance of subpoenas, requests for information, and more by the Trump administration. Stern explores the depth of information the House could receive via an impeachment inquiry including that such an inquiry offers theRead More
New Report from Demand Justice Details the Case for a Kavanaugh Investigation Posted on May 24, 2019 (May 24, 2019) In September 2018, Free Speech For People launched a campaign calling on Congress to begin an impeachment investigation of then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh, for committing perjury. We later expanded the grounds for an impeachment investigation to include allegations of sexual assault and bringing the judiciary into disrepute. We were honored to work with Demand Justice onRead More
First Republican Representative Joins Call for Impeachment Posted on May 22, 2019 On Saturday, May 18, Justin Amash became the first Republican member of Congress to call for impeachment proceedings against the president. Congressman Amash, the representative from Michigan’s 3rd district, laid out his thoughts on impeachment in a Twitter thread: Here are my principal conclusions: 1. Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report. 2. PresidentRead More