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
Victory: Federal Election Commission Adopts Our Recommendations on Cryptocurrency Mining for Campaigns Posted on April 25, 2019 Today, the Federal Election Commission voted 4-0 to adopt an advisory opinion that embraces Free Speech For People’s recommendations regarding a platform to enable use of distributed computers to mine cryptocurrency for political campaigns. Free Speech For People was the only campaign finance reform organization involved in the regulatory process. BACKGROUND In September 2018, aRead 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
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
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Hears Argument in Key Campaign Finance Case Posted on March 6, 2018 (March 7, 2018) Massachusetts has prohibited business corporations from making political contributions since 1907. On Tuesday, March 6, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments in 126 Self Storage v. Sullivan, a challenge to the state’s longstanding ban. (In 2015, we wrote about the trial court decision in this case, back when it was known as 1A AutoRead More
Small Pool of Rich Donors Dominates Election Giving Posted on August 3, 2015 (November 29, 2018) Newly released Federal Election Commission reports and Internal Revenue Records confirm what many of us already know: A small group of wealthy donors are dominating our elections. A recent New York Times analysis reports that today’s fundraising efforts rival that of a full-blown arms race, with many presidential hopefuls depending on a very small group of donors toRead More