Breaking: Supreme Court Rejects Stay in Crossroads Campaign Disclosure Case

[Gothmog]

Source: Election Law Blog

With no noted dissents, the Supreme Court has turned down Crossroad GPS’s request for emergency relief from an order that will require disclosure of more of its donors who are contributing money to influence federal elections.

As I wrote last week, “With 4 Justices strongly in favor of disclosure on the Court, I would guess that this results in an eventual denial of the stay, either by a majority vote or a 4-4 split (which keeps the lower court decision in place), unless this is held long enough for Judge Kavanaugh to join the Court.”

This is an important decision which will help insure that voters have valuable information they need in evaluating advertising which is unquestionably aimed at trying to influence how they vote in elections. It does not solve all of the current disclosure problems, but this is a victory for transparency.

Read more: https://electionlawblog.org/?p=101205

[Gothmog]

1. From Marc Elias

Link to tweet

[lagomorph777]

2. So many stays and reversals - can somebody untangle this pretzel for me?

Is it good news or bad news?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. Not sure myself but it seems like the pro-disclosure side

scored with this one. GPS must disclose.

Link to tweet

[lagomorph777]

4. Awesome. Injustice Roberts suffers a reversal of fortune.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. I know. That dick. nt

[sl8]

8. Maybe.

Why do you think he referred it to the Court? The stay would have lasted a lot longer if he hadn't.

[onenote]

9. Ding ding ding

[Princess Turandot]

16. According to some legal analysts, Roberts likely issued the stay to allow for the full court..

to consider it on Monday before the law would have gone into effect on Monday morning. Crossroads GPS waited until the last minute on Friday to file the injunction request. (The lower court ruling was issued in early August.)

In his Saturday order, Roberts said the lower court ruling was 'stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court'. Since it appears that he himself then referred it to the full court, their view makes some sense.

[Gothmog]

15. From my twitter feed

Link to tweet

[neohippie]

6. Sweet Jebus I hope this affects the NRA

Sure would like to know where the NRA got all that money last election cycle and how they spent it

[sl8]

7. More from article's author:

Chris Geidner | @chrisgeidner
2h

There are no noted dissents, making it pretty clear that the Chief Justice's action over the weekend was more about keeping the district court's ruling from going into effect (as it was set to do Monday) until the full court could reach a resolution on the stay request.

Link to tweet

?s=20

[bucolic_frolic]

10. I am all for full disclosure, public funding, fair election funding

I just don't know how many or what percentage of voters run around wondering who is behind the attack ads they throw at them. They just want to feel comfortable with their vote.

[Perseus]

11. Unfortunately, not many voters look into it

Too many voters vote for the guy they think will "drink a beer with them", even though he won't, or is a billionaire so by default, if he is president I will become rich too!, and he is an outsider (he doesn't understand government and they think that is good)...but they won't vote for the guy who would have been a great president because "he is too stiff", or the woman who would have also become a great president because "her emails", even though they don't know the details about the emails.

I am hoping that the current situation, the disgrace that everyone can see on a daily basis from the guy on the chair and his accomplices will move people to start doing their due diligence before casting a vote, I stay optimist that things will change for the better and no other idiot gets to be placed in the presidency.

[moondust]

12. So "turned down" does not mean "denial"?

[stuffmatters]

13. Can Roberts just bookshelf this & bring it back immediately when Repugs get the 5th Koch SCOTUS

Hopefully Crossroads and all the Repub dark money, tax free Pravda infrastructure needs to start a whole new case at square one.
Of course, once the Oligarchs get their 5th SCOTUS seated, this disclosure ruling will be overturned. But I'm wondering if this ruling is going to stand just until the 5th Repug Tool is seated or if this now is a ruling with some teeth against dark money that might be enforceable for a couple of years while a new, challenge case winds is ways through the courts.

Even if it only lasts a couple of weeks tho, it's still heartening that the Circuit Court decision held.

[Gothmog]

14. Political Non-Profits Must Name Their Donors

This is an important ruling https://politicalwire.com/2018/09/18/political-non-profits-must-name-their-donors/

“Advocacy groups pouring money into independent campaigns to influence this fall’s midterm races must disclose many of their political donors beginning this week after the Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to intervene in a long-running case,” the Washington Post reports.

“The high court did not grant an emergency request to stay a ruling by a federal judge in Washington who had thrown out a decades-old Federal Election Commission regulation allowing nonprofit groups to keep their donors secret unless they had earmarked their money for certain purposes.”