As we enjoy the relative radio silence of all things related to super PACs, campaign finance, the influence of the misnamed “dark” money in ...

The two cases we’ve been discussing this week share, in my mind, a defining characteristic: each involves attempts to fool the Court about what ...

Authored by Ashutosh Bhagwat   Abstract: In a recent opinion respecting denial of certiorari, Justice Clarence Thomas expressed concerns about the degree of control ...

Abstract To what extent is U.S. state tax policy affected by corporate political contributions? The 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ...

Abstract: Variations in state campaign finance regulations across states and over time provide an opportunity to test the effects of reforms on the electoral ...

Abstract: The communications revolution has led to a sudden, dramatic explosion in small-donor contributions to national election campaigns. In response, many political reformers, including ...

Abstract: The role of corporations in the U.S. political process has received increased scrutiny in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ...

President Trump recently complained that Google searches are biased against Republicans and conservatives. Many conservatives argue that Facebook and Google are monopolies seeking to ...

Abstract: This essay makes two claims: transparency in government causes the very corruption it aims to prevent, and the problem is universal. Some scholars, ...

Abstract: The theory behind laws prohibiting coordinated communications is intuitive and simple. If a candidate for office, who is subject to statutory limits on ...

Abstract: Since the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in  Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, proponents of stricter campaign finance regulation have increasingly prescribed “disclosure” ...

In a set of remarks preceded by Brooklyn Law School President and Joseph Crea Dean Nicholas W. Allard, famed First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams muses ...

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Download Amicus Brief

The deceptively-named “Honest Ads Act” is a proposal in Congress that would increase regulations for paid political and issue advertising on the Internet – ...

Recently, there’s been a flap at the FEC about whether the Commission should have found certain actors were in violation of the laws governing ...

The campaign finance “reform” movement is at a crossroads. Some influential elements are pushing the envelope farther than ever, but others are stepping back ...

If the government is considering a law that would damage your business, how would you respond? According to a new poll from the Public Affairs ...

A couple weeks ago, the Campaign Legal Center’s lobbyist, Meredith McGehee, took the pages of The Hill to excoriate Virginia for not passing more ...

As New York State legislators consider implementing a taxpayer-financed campaign scheme modeled after New York City’s program, a complaint filed against the New York ...

Melanie Sloan today took an unethical shot at Federal Election Commissioner Donald McGahn, writing in Politico that he “has boasted, ‘I’m not enforcing the ...

On Tuesday, CCP Chairman Brad Smith and CCP Senior Legal Fellow Eric Wang participated in a panel, “The Future of the Federal Election Commission ...

Most Americans express deep reservations about corporate campaign contributions, expenditures, lobbying, and other ways that for-profit entities are involved in elections and legislation. There are two ...

Using information obtained from the New York Times, Real Clear Politics, state websites, and the Center for Responsive Politics, we were able examine the ...

Senior Advisor CCP, Prof Brad Smith testified on behalf of CCP before the United States House of Representatives, Judiciary Committee on lobbying reform ...

Recently, politicians have become concerned about potential widespread distribution of “deepfakes” of candidates and public officials. But, as history has shown, punishing false or ...

This primer answers common questions about the Supreme Court's decision in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, its immediate impact on nonprofits, and possible ...

Targeting tools for online ads have become cheap, easy to use, and effective. This has yielded tremendous benefits for political speech and association. Some ...

Targeted online ads are an essential tool for Americans seeking to join forces with fellow citizens to make their voices heard. Now, some propose ...

A new and creative way to restrict speech has arrived in the form of industry-based contribution bans. These bans typically target an industry and ...

Although the 2020 presidential nominating conventions have concluded, the national parties will be forced to navigate both expected, inflated costs and unexpected costs in ...

Policymakers should consider the following key principles for crafting requirements that promote accurate and effective disclaimers while minimizing costs to speech, privacy, and associational ...

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court struck down a federal law in Citizens United that prohibited corporations and labor unions from independently voicing ...

PDF available here By Eric Wang, Senior Fellow[1] One way to better understand how H.R. 1 would affect nonprofit civic and advocacy groups is ...

The First Amendment is facing a new threat in state legislatures. A spate of bills that would regulate political and issue advertising on the ...

The right of every American to support causes in which he or she believes is under attack through compulsory disclosure laws. These excessive disclosure laws do ...

The nation’s laws have fallen well behind the technological advances of the Internet Age, and, as a result, the privacy of every American has ...

Last month, the Journal of Supreme Court History published a new article from Institute for Free Speech Research Director Helen Knowles-Gardner detailing another aspect ...

This November, the Journal of Supreme Court History published a new article from Institute for Free Speech Research Director Helen Knowles-Gardner detailing the oral ...

Texans have enjoyed the expressive freedom protections of a robust anti-SLAPP law since 2011, when the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) was enacted. However, ...

This First Amendment Day, Seattle University Law Review published an important article from Institute for Free Speech Research Director Helen Knowles-Gardner.

One of the principal misconceptions about “dark money” is that it accounts for a significant percentage of total campaign spending.

Failure to protect campaign contribution limits from inflation harms free political speech.

New research finds that states ranking highly for free political expression are not highly ranked states for corruption. In fact, states that have the ...

The Institute for Free Speech is pleased to present the Free Speech Index: Grading the 50 States on the Freedom To Speak About Government. ...

The Supreme Court’s landmark Buckley v. Valeo decision laid the foundation for modern campaign finance law in the United States. The decision rests on ...