A U.S. District Court judge in Montana, just weeks before Election Day, tossed the state’s campaign contribution limits saying only... View Article
Continue readingMontana decision puts campaign finance reform in Congress’s court
With the Supreme Court's decision Monday not to revisit Citizens United, the high court appears to be a dead end for those seeking to address the problem of dark money in elections. Now, key congressmen and reformers say, Congress must act. But the prospects for lawmakers doing so appear slim.
In response to the decision, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., urged Congress to swiftly enact the DISCLOSE Act, a bill he's sponsoring to require organizations making election ads to disclose their underwriters. Whitehouse, seen at left with now Justice Elena Kagan when she was making courtesy calls before ...
Continue readingSupreme Court Fails to Correct or Amend its Citizens United Decision
The Supreme Court had a chance to right a wrong. Unfortunately, by a five to four vote, it declined. Today the court announced its decision to overturn a Montana law prohibiting corporate contributions in elections. The decision comes as no surprise. The Montana law was in direct conflict with the Court’s decision Citizens United, which gave corporations the right to spend unlimited sums of money on political activities, as long as they don’t contribute to candidates directly. But the same activist court that enlarged the scope of the issues presented by Citizens United in order to fabricate a reason to overturn a century of law, today took the narrow approach. By summarily reversing the decision of the Supreme Court of Montana, the court ignored an opportunity to reconsider two important issues in Citizens United: First, that independent expenditures do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption, and second, that current disclosure laws would provide “citizens with the information needed” to “see whether elected officials are ‘in the pocket’ of so-called moneyed interests.”
Continue readingSunlight Foundation, non-profits, file brief in SCOTUS dark money case
The Campaign Legal Center filed this amicus brief on behalf of 14 nonprofit organizations (including the Sunlight Foundation) before the... View Article
Continue readingSunlight Weekly Roundup: Thanks to Citizens United, Americans “don’t think the government works for them anymore”
In our continued effort to highlight the anniversary of January 2010’s Citizens United decision, this month’s weekly roundups will take... View Article
Continue readingCitizens United: Montana Fights Back
Joining us from Montana as our special guest blogger is Montana Cowgirl. You can read more of her blog on Montana... View Article
Continue readingSunlight Weekly Round-up: Montana uses cost to clamp down on transparency
In our still on going campaign to tell our governors to support open government, we stand beside citizen activists who... View Article
Continue readingReading the Bill: In Action
The health care debate is raging on, and a big part of it includes having versions of the bill available... View Article
Continue readingLocal Sunlight 6/1/09
Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series... View Article
Continue readingLocal Sunlight
Every week I climb into the depths of the local political blogosphere to find the Sunlight. I use this series... View Article
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