Congressman Al Green and Ron Fein in The Hill: Trump’s racist abuses demand impeachment Posted on July 17, 2019 (June 18, 2020) Impeachment Rep. Al Green of Texas and Ron Fein have an op-ed in The Hill today entitled “Trump’s racist abuses demand impeachment.” The op-ed argues: The House of Representatives has passed a resolution condemning President Trump’s racist comments directed at four members of Congress, telling them to “go back” to other countries. But the House must do more thanRead More
New reply brief in the case that could end super PACs Posted on June 24, 2019 (June 18, 2020) Challenging Super PACs Today, we filed a short procedural reply 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 decision that createdRead More
Victory for Contribution Limits: Supreme Court Allows Ninth Circuit’s Lair Decision to Stand Posted on January 14, 2019 Today the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear a challenge to Montana’s political contribution limits in a case that Free Speech For People has been working on since 2014. The history of the Lair case dates back to September 2011. The plaintiffs alleged that Montana’s campaign contribution limits are unconstitutionally low and violate the First Amendment.Read More
Split Decision from the Ninth Circuit on the Alaska Campaign Finance Challenge Posted on November 27, 2018 Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a 2-1 decision in Thompson v. Hebdon, a case in which we filed an amicus brief. The court struck down Alaska’s limit on nonresident political contributions, over an important dissent by the chief judge of the circuit. Background The case involved challenges to fourRead More
Center for Public Integrity Reports on Our Fight Against Special Cryptocurrency Loophole Posted on November 19, 2018 (November 19, 2018) The Center for Public Integrity reported on Free Speech For People’s efforts to fight a cryptocurrency company’s request for a special loophole that could seriously undermine federal campaign finance law. As the article by Ashley Balcerzak explains: OsiaNetwork LLC, a newly formed limited liability company in Delaware, has asked the Federal Election Commission whether it’s legal for people to shareRead 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
FSFP to Federal Election Commission: Don’t Allow Unlimited Bitcoin Contributions Posted on October 5, 2018 Today, Free Speech For People asked the Federal Election Commission to reject a request for an advisory opinion from a company called OsiaNetwork LLC that would allow unlimited campaign contributions in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency. OsiaNetwork is proposing that donors could lend unlimited amounts of computer processing power to the company for “mining” cryptocurrency, which could thenRead More
New Brief in the Case that Could End Super PACs Posted on June 14, 2018 (June 13, 2018) On Wednesday night, we filed our brief responding to the Federal Election Commission’s motion to dismiss in Lieu v. FEC, the case that could end super PACs. As explained in more detail here, we filed this lawsuit on behalf of a bipartisan coalition of Members of Congress and 2016 congressional candidates. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court inRead More
New amicus brief argues that Seattle’s democracy voucher program promotes political equality and democratic self-government Posted on May 31, 2018 (June 1, 2018) On Thursday, Free Speech For People and Demos filed an amicus brief in the Washington state court of appeals 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 firstRead More
New Report on Impact of Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program on Candidates’ Ability to Rely on Constituents for Fundraising Posted on May 1, 2018 (May 1, 2018) Today, Free Speech For People released a new issue report on The Impact of Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program on Candidates’ Ability to Rely on Constituents for Fundraising. In 2015, Seattle voters enacted a novel democracy voucher program for public campaign financing. The objective of this analysis was to examine whether the democracy voucher program, first used in theRead More