Campaign Finance Reform
Campaign finance laws can be crafted to promote more open, honest, and accountable government and to bring the constitutional ideal of political equality closer to reality. The Brennan Center supports disclosure requirements that inform voters about potential influences on elected officials, contribution limits that help to mitigate the real and perceived influence of donors on those officials, and public funding that preserves the significance of voters' voices in the political process and levels the playing field among serious candidates, regardless of their wealth or wealthy connections. A combination of well-crafted reforms, including public funding of judicial, legislative, and executive elections, could enhance the speech of millions of Americans who today are locked out of true political participation.
The Brennan Center defends federal, state, and local campaign finance and public funding laws in courts across the country. We also give legal guidance and support to state and local campaign finance reformers through informative publications, direct counseling, legislative drafting, and testimony in support of reform proposals.
Daily updates from the press and blogosphere on our issues.
Money in Politics 2009: New Horizons for Reform
May 8, 2009 – The Brennan Center hosted "Money in Politics 2009: New Horizons for Reform," a one-day conference focused on campaign finance reform. Lawrence Lessig, Micah Sifry, Sam Waterston, and a host of others participated in the lively event. You can get details and watch video of the presentations here.
Citizens United v. FEC (Amicus Brief)
The Brennan Center for Justice - serving as counsel for itself and several new media journalists - filed a supplemental amicus curiae brief in Citizens United v. FEC. The brief urged the Supreme Court to preserve landmark precedents that support limits on corporate spending in elections.
Green Party of Connecticut v. Jeffrey Garfield
In 2005, the Connecticut General Assembly became the first state legislature in the nation to pass a full public financing law that applies to its own campaigns. The Brennan Center is helping to defend this system and Connecticut’s ban on campaign contributions from lobbyists and state contractors.
SpeechNow v. FEC (Amicus Brief)
The Brennan Center for Justice has submitted an amicus brief supporting the District Court decision to reject the constitutional challenge of Plaintiffs to contribution limits for organizations whose major purpose is the election or defeat of candidates for federal office.
Citizens United discussion at Bill Moyers Journal
Campaign Finance Reform expert and Brennan Center staff Monica Youn was joined by Professor Zephyr Teachout from Fordham Law to discuss the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and what it means going forward. Watch now.
No Time To Wait for the Effects of Citizens United
As Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens predicted in his eloquent dissent on the Citizens United case, “[w]hen citizens turn on their televisions and radios before an election and hear only corporate electioneering, they may lose faith in their capacity, as citizens, to influence public policy.” With the 2010 election season looming, we must act quickly to restore public faith in our democratic process.
A bad call on campaign finance
Two approaches to curbing the tide of campaign money that will follow in the Supreme Court’s decision on Citizens United v. FEC.
Illustrations by Risko
With Corporations’ New Outsize Voice, Can Shareholders Speak?
New policy proposal based on British law shows congressional leaders how to give corporate shareholders a voice in election spending.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy’s Testimony for the Committee on House Administration Hearing
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy presented this testimony at the hearing titled “Defining the Future of Campaign Finance in an Age of Supreme Court Activism”.
Monica Youn’s testimony for the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Monica Youn presented this testimony at the hearing titled “The First Amendment and Campaign Finance Reform after Citizens United”.
Letter to Senator Charles Schumer: 4-point plan to respond to Citizens United
The Brennan Center lays out a four-point plan response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, including actions: public campaign funding plans, voter registration modernization, better accountability, and taking a voter-centric view of the First Amendment.
President Obama on the Supreme Court’s decision on Citizens United
The President makes a practical, powerful (and brief) statement on money in politics in the wake of the Supreme Court decision on Citizens United v. FEC.
State lawmakers’ first step must be basic reform
New York’s broken system needs some basic mending before they get down to polishing the bills. The needs for ethics and campaign finance reform are immediate.
Giving corporations an outsized voice in elections
Corporations are pitching a bizarre product—a radical vision of the 1st Amendment. It would give corporations rather than voters a central role in our electoral process by treating corporate political spending as protected speech. If this vision becomes reality, businesses and other big-money players will spend billions either hyping their preferred candidates or running attack ads against elected officials who don’t support their preferred agenda.