The US News & World Report Debate Club forum took on campaign finance disclosure last week. CCP President David Keating had this to say:
In the landmark case of Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court wrote that “compelled disclosure, in itself, can seriously infringe on privacy of association and belief guaranteed by the First Amendment.” This is happening today with smaller donors. In the 1970s, contribution records were available only at the Federal Election Commission. The idea was to shine light on enormous secret donations to candidates. Today, you can use the Internet to search for your neighbor’s $50 candidate donation. An employer can take a look at a job applicant’s donation records. That’s ridiculous.
The fact that this information is so widely available is giving a lot of smaller donors second thoughts about making any political contributions, especially in this time of high unemployment.
Absurdly low disclosure thresholds do not serve the legitimate government interest of preventing corruption. Rather, it is designed to discourage Americans from participating in politics.
