CCP
The line of precedent which the court below should have used is typified by McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission. There, this Court struck down an Ohio law which required that each advertisement relating to public issues identify the name and address of those sponsoring the ad – much the same as required by the BCRA “electioneering communication” disclosure provision…
Lastly, this Court should not defer to Congressional claims that this law is designed to inform the public about money in politics. The law was written to inform incumbents about their critics and thereby chill speech. Individual members of Congress benefit personally and politically from this particular law. Although the law purports to apply to incumbents and challengers, it was written by and for incumbents. It would be the rare “electioneering communication” that asks the public to contact a challenger to vote on a particular manner, since the challenger has no vote to cast. The political benefit to members of Congress of a law requiring critics to self-identify is clear. Any claim about the public’s right to know should be understood to be nothing more than a smokescreen.
Supreme Court
Politico: Trump’s down to 3 in Supreme Court search
By Eliana Johnson and Shane Goldmacher
President Donald Trump has narrowed his first Supreme Court nomination to three finalists, with 10th Circuit judge Neil Gorsuch and 3rd Circuit judge Thomas Hardiman emerging as front-runners while 11th Circuit Judge Bill Pryor remains in the running but is fading, according to people familiar with the search process.
Trump interviewed at least those three finalists in New York during the transition, according to a person familiar with the search. Trump himself said Tuesday he would make a selection for the court’s empty seat next week and summoned top Senate leaders to the White House to discuss his impending choice to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died nearly a year ago…
Schumer has drawn a hard line on confirming any Trump pick to the Supreme Court. He told Rachel Maddow of MSNBC in early January, “It’s hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican support that we could support.”
USA Today: Trump: I’ll announce Supreme Court pick next Thursday
By David Jackson and Richard Wolf
President Trump said he will nominate a new Supreme Court justice next week to replace the late Antonin Scalia, a high-profile pick likely to reignite a partisan brawl over judges in the U.S. Senate and across the country.
Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that he will make the pick next Thursday…
While the president wasn’t giving out hints, most of the buzz in legal circles has focused on three federal appeals court judges: Neil Gorsuch of Colorado, William Pryor of Alabama and Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania…
The president is looking at relatively young, solidly conservative “originalist” judges in the Scalia mold, mostly those with lengthy records on federal appeals courts. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump “has made it incredibly clear that he will appoint justices who protect our liberty and hold the highest regards for the Constitution.”
Congress
KRWG New Mexico: Udall Introduces Constitutional Amendment To Overturn Citizens United
By U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.)
Today, just days after the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections, U.S. Senator Tom Udall, joined by U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich and other cosponsors in the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, reintroduced the Democracy for All amendment to restore democratic power to the American people. The constitutional amendment would overturn Citizens United and allow limits on corporate political spending to get big money out of politics. In addition to Udall and Heinrich, the bill is cosponsored by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Reps. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
The Citizens United decision granted corporations and other private entities the First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence public elections and prohibited any election laws that would regulate their spending. The Democracy for All Amendment returns the right to regulate elections to the people by clarifying that Congress and the states can set reasonable regulations on campaign finance and distinguish between individuals and corporations in the law.
FCC
Washington Free Beacon: New FCC Chairman a Win for Free Speech, Free Enterprise
By Elizabeth Harrington
Ajit Pai will serve as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission after his appointment by President Donald Trump on Monday.
Pai has been an outspoken defender of free speech and freedom of the press, as he’s worked to expose the FCC’s politicization since he joined the agency in 2012.
Pai gained notice in 2014 when he exposed the FCC’s plan to “police the newsroom” through a study that would have sent government-backed researchers into nearly 300 newsrooms to learn how they decide which stories to run…
In addition to ending the FCC’s study into “perceived station bias” in newsrooms across the country, Pai helped end an offshoot of the Fairness Doctrine, an anti-free speech policy that required radio and television outlets to air opposing views on political issues.
Independent Groups
The Economist: A watchdog sues Donald Trump over foreign payments to his companies
By S.M.
Ethics lawyers who once worked for George W. Bush and Barack Obama and a trio of prominent legal scholars, under the umbrella of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a non-profit group, claim that Mr Trump’s “vast, complicated and secret” business interests create “countless conflicts of interest” and “unprecedented influence by foreign governments” in violation of Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the constitution. That clause says that no federal official may “accept any present, emolument, office or title” from a foreign entity “without the consent of Congress”…
The formidable team assembled to pursue this legal action includes Zephyr Teachout, professor of law at Fordham University, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at University of California at Irvine, and Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor…
CREW argues it has standing because it has been directly harmed by Mr Trump’s actions: investigating and litigating the president’s constitutional violations constitutes “a significant diversion and depletion of its time, resources, and efforts”-money and time it normally spends policing campaign-finance and anti-corruption laws for lower-level officials and candidates.
Trump Administration
New York Times: President Trump’s Big-Money Establishment
By Editorial Board
President Trump says his administration signals the end of “the establishment” that “has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.” He pledged in his campaign to tend to the interests of the forgotten workingman, and, in his Inaugural Address on Friday, said he was “transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.”
Mr. Trump may be out to challenge one establishment – the liberal elite – but he is installing one of his own, filled with tycoons, Wall Street heavyweights, cronies and a new rank of shadowy wealthy “advisers” unaccountable to anyone but him. His gilded cabinet, still being confirmed, presents a jarring contrast with his message.
The Media
Washington Free Beacon: David Brock’s Shareblue to Be ‘Nucleus’ of Multi-Platform Anti-Trump Media Entity
By Joe Schoffstall
David Brock, the Democratic operative who founded the left-wing Media Matters for America, plans to use a news entity he recently purchased as the nucleus of his efforts to delegitimize President Donald Trump, according to confidential documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon…
Shareblue, formerly called BlueNationRising, was purchased by Brock in 2015 and rebranded the following year. The confidential memo shows how Brock plans to use Shareblue as the “nucleus” to disseminate information to the public to damage Trump and his allies.
“We will delegitimize Donald Trump’s presidency by emboldening the opposition and empowering the majority of Americans who oppose him,” the memo states. “Shareblue will be the dynamic nucleus of a multi-platform media company that informs, engages, and arms Americans to fight.”
“Shareblue is positioned to frame opposition research from American Bridge and other progressive groups, as well as leaks and intel from Democrats on House and Senate committees, in our signature punchy, emotive style-and disseminate it directly to our followers in a daily inline persuasion campaign.”
The States
Pierre Capital Journal: State House votes to cast aside government ethics overhaul
By Associated Press
A Republican-backed bill that would dismantle a voter-approved government ethics overhaul passed Tuesday through the House, where GOP lawmakers decried the ballot measure campaign as deceptive and said the initiative is likely unconstitutional.
The chamber voted 54-13 for the repeal bill, which would remove from law the initiative that created an ethics commission, public campaign funding and limitations on lobbyist gifts to lawmakers…
Initiated Measure 22 has been in the crosshairs since before the session started. A group of two dozen GOP legislators and others filed a lawsuit in November challenging the measure’s constitutionality in state court. A judge put the initiative on hold while the lawsuit moves forward.
Republican Rep. Larry Rhoden, the repeal bill’s prime sponsor, said the top reason to remove the law is that it’s “simply unconstitutional.” Dismantling it would clear the way for discussions on how to replace the initiative, he said.
Washington Post: South Dakota Republicans are about to get rid of the state’s first independent ethics commission
By Amber Phillips
South Dakota Republicans are on the verge of doing something that backfired spectacularly for congressional Republicans earlier this year: Getting rid of an independent ethics commission…
On the eve of Congress’s first day back in session in 2017, Republicans in control of the House of Representatives pushed a provision that would have gutted an independent ethics office that investigates them. Republicans abruptly dropped the plan after public backlash from their constituencies and two tsk-tsk tweets from then-President-elect Donald Trump…
Advocates won’t get a second chance to reinstate their ethics package. Lawmakers are considering the repeal under a protection known as “state of emergency,” which effectively prohibits a referendum on it.
Minneapolis Star Tribune: 3rd ex-Rhode Island lawmaker in 11 days charged criminally
By Mitchelle R. Smith
A former Rhode Island state lawmaker has agreed to plead guilty to fraud charges, becoming the third former House member in 11 days to be charged with criminal conduct and prompting the U.S. attorney to decry the state’s political culture…
“This says something about our political culture here, which I think should get our attention,” U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha said during a news conference announcing the charges and plea deal…
Attorney General Peter Kilmartin was more measured, saying that while it’s “no wonder the public has a mistrust of the government and their elected officials,” most lawmakers are good, honest hardworking people…
Following Monday’s announcement, the good-government group Common Cause Rhode Island announced it is requesting audits of campaign accounts and financial disclosure statements of all General Assembly members.
Legal News Line: D.C. attorney general reintroduces legislation targeting pay-to-play politics
By Mark Iandolo
Karl A. Racine, attorney general for the District of Columbia, announced Jan. 9 that his office has reintroduced legislation targeting pay-to-play politics in Washington, D.C.
The legislation, called “The Campaign Finance Transparency and Accountability Amendment Act,” seeks to sever connections between contributions and business with the district, close the loophole that allows for unlimited donations to PACs in non-election years, and limit a public official’s use of employees to receive or ask for donations…
“This proposal adds significant disclosure requirements and would make our campaign-finance laws among the strongest and most transparent in the nation. Although this legislation did not move forward during the last council period, we appreciate that then-Judiciary Committee chairman Kenyan McDuffie held a hearing, and we believe now is the time to move forward with these reforms. We look forward to working on this with the new council in 2017.”
