Institute For Free Speech
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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…

Significant Constitutional and Practical Issues with Washington House Bill 2256
May 19, 2015   •  By Matt Nese   •  , , ,

On behalf of the Center for Competitive Politics, I am writing you today to respectfully submit the following comments regarding the constitutional and practical ...

Significant Constitutional and Practical Issues with Maine Legislative Document 1192 (S.P. 419)
May 6, 2015   •  By Eric Wang   •  , , , ,

L.D. 1192 imposes disclosure requirements that single out by name political contributors whose aggregate contributions exceed a certain threshold, but the disclosure appears to ...

In Defense of Private Civic Engagement: Why the Assault on “Dark Money” Threatens Free Speech and How to Stop the Assault
April 20, 2015   •  By Matt Nese   •  , ,

The right to private civic engagement – the right to participate in politics confidentially as an individual or in association with others – is under ...

Significant Constitutional and Practical Issues with Connecticut Senate Bill 1126 (as Substituted)
April 16, 2015   •  By Eric Wang   •  , , ,

This legislation would treat an expansive universe of activities having absolutely nothing to do with elections as potentially being coordinated spending with a candidate, ...

Significant Constitutional and Practical Issues with California Assembly Bill 1494
April 13, 2015   •  By Matt Nese   •  , ,

On behalf of the Center for Competitive Politics, I respectfully submit the following comments to highlight serious constitutional and practical problems presented by Assembly ...

Can elections be bought? – Analysing the relationship between money and success in political campaigns

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April 1, 2015   •  By IFS Staff   •  ,

Abstract: Research on political science has been inconclusive in establishing whether political campaigns significantly influence electoral results. This study attempts to solve the dispute ...

Constitutional and Practical Issues with Montana Senate Bill 289
March 17, 2015   •  By Matt Nese   •  , , ,

On behalf of the Center for Competitive Politics, I am writing you today to respectfully submit the following comments regarding the constitutional and practical ...

Why Outside Spending Is Overrated: Lessons from the 2014 Senate Elections
February 19, 2015   •  By Luke Wachob   •  

The Koch brothers and their network of wealthy conservative donors recently announced that they intend to spend almost $900 million on the 2016 elections. ...

2015 Proxy Season: The Relentless Targeting of Political Speech Continues

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January 29, 2015   •  By Joe Trotter   •  , , ,

The 2015 proxy season is underway and all indications suggest that it will be another record-breaking year for the number of proposals targeting companies ...

Fact versus Narrative

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December 15, 2014   •  By Luke Wachob   •  

We were pleased to see The New York Times recently acknowledge that campaign spending in the 2014 election cycle declined from spending in the ...

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