by Stephen Klein | Mar 15, 2017 | Political Speech
A bill that passed the Colorado legislature two weeks ago would make displaying one’s own marked ballot legal, and also allow for the display of photographs of them, or “ballot selfies.” As the bill awaits signature from Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, some pundits...
by Stephen Klein | Mar 1, 2017 | Political Speech
This afternoon, in a speech at the Center for American Progress, Commissioner Ann Ravel, formerly of the Federal Election Commission (as of yesterday), gave her first speech as a private citizen since leaving the agency. Promising she will continue to speak out in...
by Stephen Klein | Feb 15, 2017 | Political Speech
Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, joins the chorus of campaign finance “reformers” who are concerned about the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court, claiming that his “record on money in politics . . . raises significant...
by Stephen Klein | Feb 9, 2017 | Political Speech
Less than a year ago, Norm Eisen, in his capacity as a fellow at the Brookings Institution, convened a campaign finance “Solutions Summit” that brought together a meeting of regulation advocates whose supposed solutions differ about as much as Oxford blue and Midnight...
by Stephen Klein | Jan 26, 2017 | Political Speech
Proponents of campaign finance regulation often base their quest on a nebulous term, “our democracy.” Though undefined, it is meant to serve as a pleasant-sounding, self-evident justification for any and all forms of political speech regulation. But the latest...
by Pillar of Law | Dec 15, 2016 | Political Speech
AUSTIN, Tex. – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, issued two decisions late yesterday in the cases of David and Stacy Cary, both appeals for bribery convictions relating to political campaigning. Both decisions acquit the Carys,...
by Stephen Klein | Nov 30, 2016 | Political Speech
The Wisconsin “John Doe” campaign finance inquisition is a sordid tale, one of the most jarring examples of the criminalization of politics in American history. Using a secret process usually reserved for investigations of organized crime like drug...
by Pillar of Law | Nov 5, 2016 | Political Speech
DENVER, CO – The Pillar of Law Institute won a preliminary injunction this evening against the enforcement of a Colorado law against “ballot selfies,” photographs of one’s own marked ballot usually displayed on social media. “This is a big victory for Coloradoans,...
by Stephen Klein | Nov 4, 2016 | Political Speech
One year ago today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal court in the state, heard oral argument in Cary v. Texas, an appeal consolidating two criminal cases involving a husband and wife, David and Stacy Cary. And there the case has sat, with no...
