The Philadelphia Inquirerand its on-line site, Philly.com, have been covering a story that features law makers taking large amounts of money, making promises for votes, a potential cover-up and a politician contemplating suing the newspaper that broke the story. The story seems to have it all, from a campaign finance reformer’s standpoint. Politicians stuffing money into their pockets […]

Over Christmas break, the New York Post published my op-ed on the Moreland Act Commission and what more we can expect from them in the coming year.  Also check out the op-ed in the Albany Times-Union from Professors Jeffrey Milyo and David Primo regarding the Commission’s preliminary report from earlier in the month.  The bottom line is that the solution to actual corruption […]

President Obama urged his supporters to sell the Affordable Care Act during this year’s Thanksgiving meal.   He received significant criticism from many for what was perceived to be an attempt to inject politics into a time for family and friends.  But even the architect of “Health Care for the Holidays” probably would have recoiled from a Thanksgiving Tweet from the Center for […]

Two top-notch organizations have added new blogs that will discuss campaign finance issues, among other things.   First, the Executive Branch Project at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies has created the Executive Branch Review Blog, which addresses all things executive branch. Here’s the description of the effort:   An increase in […]

Fans of the Institute for Justice and MakeNoLaw.org should tune in tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET to Dr. Diana Hsieh’s live Internet radio show, Philosophy in Action.  My colleague Paul Sherman will be the guest, discussing campaign finance, the First Amendment, and the 2012 election.  Here’s more information on the show:   Many people support restrictions […]

With Election Day mere hours away, the Campaign Legal Center is taking a final swipe at the amount of money Americans are spending communicating with voters.  Aghast that total election spending may pass $6 billion, the Center crunches the numbers on what that money could buy if it weren’t spent on political speech:   With […]

Another round of elections, another chance to relearn an old lesson: Money does not buy elections. This time, Politico learns that “In six of the most hotly contested GOP primary contests this cycle, the best funded candidate lost.”   That money does not buy elections is a fact that has been borne out time and […]

The First Amendment Center has published an interesting post discussing important solitary dissents in the history of First Amendment law. Among their selections are Justice Harlan Stone’s dissent in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, arguing that public school students could not be required to salute the flag or recite the pledge of allegiance.  Although Stone […]

The Federal Election Commission has been in many fights about free speech. But now it’s in a fight with free speech, or rather with “Free Speech,” the name taken by a group of three Wyoming residents who, represented by the Wyoming Liberty Group, yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the FEC. And, for once, a […]

In the hysteria that continues to surround the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, one often-overlooked fact is that, at the time Citizens United was decided, 26 states already allowed for-profit corporations to spend unlimited amounts on political advertising (the 24 that prohibited spending are listed here).  Many of these states […]