Below is a transcript of Bradley A. Smith’s remarks on disclosure at the AmericanForum: How we finance our political campaigns debate:
What we know is the Supreme Court has consistently upheld the privacy interest of people. Of course you vote secretly and there’s all kinds of things in life that you get to do secretly, your taxes are not made public and the court has recognized that hard fought, hard won cases by civil libertarians over the years that invasions of privacy can be very dangerous.
One of the key cases of course is the NAACP v. Alabama involved that state of Alabama in the 1950s seeking to gain information on NAACP donors and members which would wipe out the NAACP at that time. Now granted we’re not in that situation now but we could be again.
Is it that farfetched that somebody won’t start dropping bombs around the donors of groups on an issue like abortion or same sex marriage? I don’t think it is.