New Travel Rules Take Effect for Presidential Candidates Taking Public Financing
7.27.2010
Last year, the FEC published new rules governing campaign travel on noncommercial aircraft. These rules restrict, and in some circumstances prohibit, federal candidates and certain political committees from spending campaign funds for travel on noncommercial aircraft. The rules also changed the rules that publicly funded presidential campaigns must follow when using government owned vehicles for campaign-related travel.
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FEC Issues New Advisory Opinions Concerning Contributions to Independent Expenditure Groups
7.26.2010
In two important new advisory opinions, the Federal Election Commission ("FEC" or "Commission") confirmed that political committees that only make independent expenditures may accept unlimited contributions in many different circumstances and from a wide variety of different sources. These opinions follow-up on the recent court decisions in
Citizens United v. FEC,
EMILY's List v. FEC, and
SpeechNow.org v. FEC.
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Supreme Court Upholds State Ballot Initiative Disclosure Requirements
7.7.2010
In a recent opinion in
Doe v. Reed, the Supreme Court upheld, 8 to 1, a Washington State law that required the state to make available to the public the name and address of individuals who sign referendum petitions. The case arose when Washington's governor signed a bill that expanded the rights and responsibilities of state-registered domestic partners, including same-sex domestic partners. Shortly thereafter, "Protect Marriage Washington" was organized as a Washington political committee and began to collect signatures to place a referendum on the ballot, which would allow the voters an opportunity to vote to accept or reject the law. Protect Marriage Washington collected and submitted the required number of signatures and the measure qualified for the ballot.
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