Campaign Finance Without Facts: McCutcheon v. FEC on its Fifth Anniversary Posted on April 2, 2019 (April 2, 2019) Democracy Amendments April 2 is the five-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. In that case, the Court struck down contribution limits that limited any one person from giving more than $123,200 to all federal campaigns, parties, and political committees combined. The Court dismissed as “divorced from reality” concerns about howRead More
Remembering Congressman Walter Jones Posted on February 11, 2019 (February 20, 2019) Democracy Amendments We at Free Speech For People were sad to learn of the passing of Representative Walter Jones (R-NC3). Representative Jones was a strong supporter of campaign finance reform. We were proud to work with him as one of the lead plaintiffs in Lieu v. Federal Election Commission, the case that could end super PACs (watchRead More
Today in History: Buckley v. Valeo Posted on January 30, 2019 (January 29, 2019) Democracy Amendments January 30 is the 43rd anniversary of Buckley v. Valeo, the 1976 Supreme Court case that set the foundation for four decades of problematic and often unworkable jurisprudence impeding society’s ability to put limits on the influence of big money in elections. It didn’t have to be that way. In 1975, the Court of AppealsRead More
The anniversary of the 24th Amendment reminds us that poll taxes are not dead Posted on January 23, 2019 Democracy Amendments Fifty-five years ago today, the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The main provision of the amendment reads: The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress,Read More
McConnell v. FEC, 15 Years Later Posted on December 10, 2018 Democracy Amendments Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, a case that points to a future that could have been. The case The case was born out of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, also known as McCain-Feingold after its two Senate sponsors, John McCain (R-Ariz.)Read More
New campaign finance reform book, and a free chapter on the 28th Amendment Posted on October 26, 2018 (December 17, 2018) Democracy Amendments In April 2016, Free Speech For People co-hosted a symposium at Seton Hall School of Law featuring scholars and activists from across the country to help develop new thinking and proposed solutions for overhauling our nation’s campaign finance system. The ideas presented at that symposium led to the new book, ‘Democracy by the People: Reforming Campaign Finance in America’.Read More
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club decision, seven years later Posted on June 27, 2018 (June 28, 2018) Democracy Amendments June 27 marks the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett, which struck down key portions of Arizona’s public campaign financing law as supposedly violating the First Amendment. This blog post for the decision’s anniversary was drafted by Ryan Gorman, a student at Harvard Law SchoolRead More
Bellotti at 40: Corporations, Political Spending, and the First Amendment Posted on April 26, 2018 (April 26, 2018) Democracy Amendments Today is the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, a landmark case that paved the way for Citizens United. It’s not an anniversary to celebrate. In Bellotti, the Supreme Court (by a 5-4 margin) struck down a Massachusetts law that prohibited corporations from spending money on ballotRead 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
The Hill: Trump’s ‘treason’ talk is unprecedented, un-American Posted on February 14, 2018 Democracy Amendments As a piece in The Hill today noted, President Trump recently suggested congressional Democrats were guilty of “treason” for failing to applaud his State of the Union speech. As he put it, “Can we call that treason? Why not?” Here’s why not: The Constitution specifically defines treason, and failing to applaud the president isn’t treason—not by a longRead More