Immigration is in the headlines this week, with President Barack Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, aggressively courting the Hispanic vote in back-to-back addresses to a conference of Latino politicians and the Supreme Court expected to rule next week on a controversial Arizona law aimed at illegal immigrants.
Those developments reflect a volatile debate that permeates deep into the nation's political fabric.
Scout, Sunlight's new issue alert service that tracks legislation and issues across the Congressional Record, the Federal Register and all 50 state legislatures, shows that state lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills relating to immigration ...
Continue readingSupremes hand setback to Obama super PAC bankroller
The Supreme Court on Thursday handed a setback -- and an ominous warning -- to a labor giant that has been one of the most generous bankrollers of the super PACs backing President Obama and other Democratic candidates.
At issue in the case: tactics that the Service Employees International Union, which has bankrolled a constellation of Democratic super PACs to the tune of more than $3 million, used to beef up its political warchest in California during 2005. SEIU imposed a special assessment on its members to fight a pair of ballot initiatives aimed at public service unions. The high court ruled ...
Continue readingWatergate + 40: What have we unlearned?
This Sunday is the 40th anniversary of the break-in that led to President Richard Nixon's downfall. The commemorations this week will mostly focus on the investigative reporting that unravelled the story -- and that now is in danger. That's a concern that we at the Sunlight Foundation share and try to address in the tools we make available to help journalists and citizens be better civic watchdogs.
But it's also important to remember Watergate's other legacy: Two years after the burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices -- by a group of so-called plumbers who were paid by ...
Continue readingSupreme Court Considers an ALEC Bill
The controversial Arizona immigration law that President Obama’s administration challenged came before the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday was written by... View Article
Continue readingHealth care lobbying groups head to the Supreme Court
If war is politics by other means, so is litigation. While there will be plenty of rhetoric today about President Obama's health care law on the second anniversary of its signing -- including a new op-ed by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who was for the health care reform in Massachusetts before he was against it nationally -- the big battle begins Monday, when the Supreme Court opens an unusual three days of argument over the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
In many respects, the mega-case -- a compilation of six separate cases that have been wending through ...
Continue readingThe Senate Judiciary Committee votes to televise Supreme Court arguments
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to favorably report a bill that would require the Supreme Court to allow... View Article
Continue readingSenate Look at Supreme Court Transparency Should Follow the Paper Trail
Tomorrow, a Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee will hold a hearing on televising Supreme Court proceedings. This is an important issue,... View Article
Continue readingSCOTUS: Corporations Not People (at least with respect to one FOIA provision)
Today the Supreme Court handed down a decision in FCC v. AT&T (decision here [PDF]) in which the Court decided... View Article
Continue readingGood, But Not Sufficient.
Citizen’s United opened the door for corporate spending and when Target decided to flex their new political muscle, it blew up in... View Article
Continue readingHappy Anniversary Citizens United
Friday marks the one year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision giving corporations the right to make unlimited... View Article
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