Via How Appealing comes news of this vote to deny rehearing en banc in Zimmerman v. City of Austin. The vote is not all that surprising given that since Randall v. Sorrell, courts generally have not struck down campaign finance… Continue reading

Teddy Schleifer for the Houston Chronicle: A federal judge issued a temporary injunction Friday, knocking out Houston’s fundraising blackout rule which prevents city candidates from raising money before Feb. 1 of an election year. You can find the 42-page ruling… Continue reading

Via SCOTUSBlog comes the news that the Supreme Court, without comment, has denied cert. in Danielczyk v. U.S.,The decision not to hear the case is significant, because it means the Supreme Court majority, which has shown hostility to campaign finance… Continue reading

Missoulian: “The Montana Republican Party donated $500,000 to gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill and approximately $30,000 to attorney general candidate Tim Fox after a judge struck down the state’s campaign contribution limits.” More here. We saw a similar move… Continue reading

Following up on this post, the Ninth Circuit motions panel, in an opinion by Judge Bybee, unanimously stayed the district court order which would have had the effect of removing most of the contribution limits in the state of… Continue reading

The Eighth Circuit has issued its en banc opinion in the Swanson case.  The Eighth Circuit now joins the Second, Fourth (after the rejection of the district court decision in Danielczyk) and Ninth Circuits (in the Thalheimer case in which… Continue reading

Another interesting campaign finance case filed by the Right to Life Committees, and another interesting campaign finance case out of Vermont.  The decision on summary judgment denied the plaintiffs’ challenges to the application of Vermont’s law.  Along the way, the… Continue reading

The time to appeal has passed in the litigation over challenges to a number of City of San Diego campaign finance laws. [Disclosure: I am one of the lawyers for the City of San Diego.]  The case went to the… Continue reading

Jason Campbell has published this student note in the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review.  Here is the abstract: Since the early twentieth century, the Tillman Act has barred corporations from contributing directly to candidates for federal office. In Citizens… Continue reading

From Gil Cabrera of the San Diego Ethics Commission and T.J. Zane of the Lincoln Club.  [Disclosure: I am one of the attorneys for the City of San Diego in this litigation.]

Here.

Agreeing with the Second Circuit and Eighth Circuit (now up on en banc appeal) and disagreeing with the district court in the Danielczyk case (now on appeal to the 4th Circuit), a federal district court in San Diego today had… Continue reading

Viveca Novak has written this must-read profile of Jim Bopp for the American Prospect.  Viveca, a former Time correspondent who I got to know during Florida 2000, has recently taken up the position as Editorial and Communications Director for the… Continue reading