campaign finance Archives - Independence Institute

How “progressive” court decisions promoted the rise of dark money 0
- August 11, 2019
“Progressive” Supreme Court decisions that led directly or indirectly to the orgy of anonymous spending
READ MORE
With due respect to the Supreme Court, some campaign finance laws are unconstitutional 0
- July 17, 2017
But Citizens United included a second decision, one rarely mentioned. In this part of the case, the court upheld federal laws requiring contributors to political ads to publicly reveal their names. Unlike the first ruling, the second was a constitutional mistake. Although the court has since reaffirmed its position, it should promptly reconsider.
READ MORE
New Study Shows Campaign Disclosure Rules Violate First Amendment 0
- March 3, 2015
This article was first published at the American Thinker website. Many commentators and politicians have attacked the Supreme Court’s 2010 case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission for holding that citizens do not surrender their First Amendment rights when they organize under state corporation law. The Vermont state legislature has even adopted an application
READ MORE

Get Members of Congress Out of the Business of Rigging Campaign Rules 0
- May 4, 2014
The Supreme Court’s latest campaign finance decision, McCutcheon v. FEC, has sent up the predictable howls. In McCutcheon, the Court struck down, as violating the First Amendment, certain incumbent-protection rules that Members of Congress had rigged for their own election campaigns. But no one—including the Court—has yet convincingly addressed a question even more fundamental than
READ MORE
Rebutting the Claim that an “Anti-Corruption” Principle Should Re-Write the First Amendment 0
- October 27, 2013
Law professors are overwhelmingly left-of-center, and they spend an undue amount of time trying to justify nearly unlimited federal power. Sometimes they torture constitutional history to do so. For example, several have long asserted that the Constitution’s grant of power to Congress to regulate “Commerce” was designed to grant authority to regulate the entire economy—or
READ MORE
Federal “Campaign Finance” Laws are Mostly Unconstitutional 0
- October 14, 2012
In a recent posting, I wrote: [I]t is dubious whether the Constitution even gives Congress power to regulate the source and amount of campaign contributions and expenditures. The background and meaning of the Constitution’s “Time, Places and Manner Clause”—which Congress uses to justify such laws—strongly suggests not. The Time, Places and Manner Clause is Article
READ MORE

Contribute