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Political Spending: Civic Engagement is Not a Threat to Democracy
January 1, 2018  •  By IFS Staff  •    •  

The First Amendment guarantees every American freedom of speech. That freedom includes the right to spend money on speech. Without money, a political group cannot buy ads, print fliers, organize protests, or hire staff. Short of shouting one’s opinions on a street corner, it takes money to spread a message. Recognizing this relationship, the Supreme Court has long prohibited the…

Recent Political Documentaries Have a Knee-Jerk Skepticism of Free Speech
June 2, 2017   •  By Joe Albanese   •  , , ,

I recently watched the new Netflix documentary Get Me Roger Stone, about the eponymous Republican political insider. The film traces Stone’s career from its ...

New study fails to prove that money sways politicians, despite activists’ excitement
May 24, 2017   •  By Brad Smith   •  ,

Politics is full of people with strong beliefs. Sometimes those beliefs are about principles, like free speech. Other times they are beliefs about facts, ...

Roosevelt Institute Study on “Political Money” is Not the Revelation It Claims to Be
May 16, 2017   •  By Joe Albanese   •  ,

A new study on the impact of “money in politics” has been released by the Roosevelt Institute, and sympathetic outlets are already hailing it ...

Putting “Dark Money” In Context: Total Campaign Spending by Political Committees and Nonprofits per Election Cycle

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May 16, 2017   •  By Luke Wachob   •  ,

PDF available here Not every group that spends money on campaigns or candidate-related speech is a political committee. If that were so, only politicians, ...

CLC Says CCP’s Wrong about “Dark Money.” Here are the Facts. Readers can Decide.
May 9, 2017   •  By Scott Blackburn   •  , ,

In a blog post from earlier today, the Campaign Legal Center’s Brendan Fischer critiques a mid-April CCP blog post I authored highlighting “Five Lessons ...

Stop Using ‘Special Interests’ As An Insult
April 27, 2017   •  By Joe Albanese   •  , ,

Commentators have debated for months what President Donald Trump’s pledge to “drain the swamp” really means. Many believe that the “swamp” represents so-called “special ...

Out-of-State Spending Was High in Georgia Special Election, and That’s OK
April 20, 2017   •  By Joe Albanese   •  , ,

The outsized attention being paid to a few special elections means an early opportunity for the politically active to create favorable momentum going into ...

Five Lessons about Spending in the 2016 Campaign You Might Have Missed
April 19, 2017   •  By Scott Blackburn   •  , , , ,

The Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) recently released their final tally of spending in the 2016 election cycle. Here are 5 takeaways: Despite hyperbolic ...

Significant Constitutional and Practical Issues with Connecticut House Bill 5589
April 14, 2017   •  By Zac Morgan   •  , , ,

In particular, H.B. 5589 explicitly imposes a limit on contributions to organizations making only independent expenditures. This provision directly contravenes the universal guidance of ...

Constitutional and Practical Issues with Maryland House Bill 898
April 13, 2017   •  By Matt Nese   •  , , ,

On behalf of the Center for Competitive Politics (“the Center”), we respectfully submit the following comments addressing constitutional and practical issues with portions of ...

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