FSFP Senior Counsel Courtney Hostetler recently appeared on The Jason Rigden Show to discuss money in politics and foreign influence in U.S. elections. 

“Super PACs are these giant independent expenditure committees that are allowed to take in unlimited contributions and spend unlimited amounts of money on campaigns. And the reason they can do this is a case that was decided out of the D.C Circuit called Speechnow,” said Hostetler.

Speechnow vs. FEC is a ruling of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit which opened the door to emergence of Super PACs. Since then Free Speech For People has worked with Members of Congress and congressional candidates to file a lawsuit seeking to abolish super PACs in U.S. elections. 

FSFP has also worked to develop legislation in cities including Seattle, Washington and St. Petersburg, Florida to ban political spending by foreign-influenced corporations in order to protect democratic self-government.

“There now are all these little avenues for foreign money to come in…sometimes it’s simply about somebody who is not American, not a permanent resident, whose political stake is in a different country entirely looking at our elections as something that will help them attain a corporate goal. And that’s not really what our elections are for,” said Hostetler.

Listen to the entire discussion here.

Learn more about the case seeking to abolish superPACs here.

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