A look at money, transparency and policy since Citizens United v. FEC

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The Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court ruling has left an indelible mark on U.S. politics. Since the January 2010 ruling, outside groups and organizations have been able to promote their own special interests with neither accountability nor transparency.

In the nearly three years since the ruling a flood of secretive money has washed over campaigns, super PACs have raised hundreds of millions of dollars and little has been done in the way of implementing policy to reveal the source of all donors.

We’re taking a look back at the events since Citizens United v. FEC and created a timeline highlighting the milestones. These events cover four categories: Courts (major court rulings and cases), Disclose (legislation around greater disclosure of political contributions and spending), Super PACs (trend and news for independent expenditure only committees) and FEC (decisions made by the Federal Election Commission).

To navigate through the timeline click the arrows to the left or right of the page or scroll through timeline events at the bottom by clicking and dragging, then click on the event you would like to view.

 

We hope that the timeline puts the Citizen’s United ruling and the resulting cash flood into better context. Please take a moment to explore the events over these past three years and consider how they’ve shaped our elections. Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.

Money, Transparency and Policy Since Citizens United v. FEC