In a 6-3 opinion, the Supreme Court has stuck down on a facial challenge California’s law requiring disclosure of donor information to CA officials for law enforcement purposes. But the case has major implications for campaign finance disclosure rules.
Justice Sotomayor in dissent says “Today’s analysis marks reporting and disclosure requirements with a bull’s-eye” and she’s exactly right. Chief Justice Roberts for the Court does the exact switcheroo on what “exacting scrutiny” means as he did in McCutcheon in the contributions context.
More later, but the key point is that it will be much harder to sustain campaign finance disclosure laws going forward.
[This post has been updated.]