[EL] dark money defined

Mon Jul 20 07:40:39 PDT 2015

If they are spending money to influence the outcome of an election, they
are.

On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 10:26 AM, David Keating <
dkeating at campaignfreedom.org> wrote:

> So that I understand the definition, all groups that are not FEC political
> committees, IRS-reporting 527s or state political committees are dark money
> groups.  Public Citizen would be an example of a dark money group.
>
>
>
> Or is it like pornography and you know it when you see it?  But who
> decides that?
>
>
>
> David
>
> _________________________________________________
>
> David Keating | President | Center for Competitive Politics
>
> 124 S. West Street, Suite 201 | Alexandria, VA 22314
>
> 703-894-6799 (direct) | 703-894-6800 | 703-894-6811 Fax
>
> www.campaignfreedom.org
>
>
>
> *From:* law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:
> law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] *On Behalf Of *Craig Holman
> *Sent:* Saturday, July 18, 2015 6:07 PM
> *To:* law-election at uci.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] 7th circuit john doe opinon
>
>
>
> Ilya:
>
>
>
> The definition of "dark money" for groups is that we do not know about
> their expenditures; it is that the groups do not disclose the sources of
> the funds.
>
> Craig Holman, Ph.D.
> Government Affairs Lobbyist
> Public Citizen
> 215 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
> Washington, D.C. 20003
> T-(202) 454-5182
> C-(202) 905-7413
> F-(202) 547-7392
> Holman at aol.com
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ilya Shapiro <IShapiro at cato.org>
> To: 'Eric J Segall' <esegall at gsu.edu>; Smith, Brad <BSmith at law.capital.edu>;
> Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu>; law-election at UCI.edu <
> law-election at uci.edu>
> Sent: Sat, Jul 18, 2015 3:33 pm
> Subject: Re: [EL] 7th circuit john doe opinon
>
> How are they “dark moneyed groups” if everyone knows who they are?
>
>
>
> Ilya Shapiro
>
> Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies,
>
> Editor-in-Chief of the *Cato Supreme Court Review*
>
> Cato Institute
>
> 1000 Massachusetts Ave. NW
>
> Washington, DC  20001
>
> tel. (202) 218-4600
>
> cel. (202) 577-1134
>
> fax. (202) 842-3490
>
> ishapiro at cato.org
>
> Bio/clips: http://www.cato.org/people/shapiro.html
>
> Twitter: www.twitter.com/ishapiro
>
> SSRN: http://ssrn.com/author=1382023
>
>
>
> *Cato Supreme Court Review*:  http://www.cato.org/supreme-court-review
>
>
>
> Watch our 2014 Constitution Day Conference - Supreme Court
> Review/Preview:  http://www.cato.org/events/13th-annual-constitution-day
>
>
>
> See me defend the right to keep and bear arms on the Colbert Report:
> http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/340923/july-08-2010/automatics-for-the-people---ilya-shapiro---jackie-hilly
>
>
>
> *From:* law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [
> mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
> <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu?>] *On Behalf Of *Eric J
> Segall
> *Sent:* Saturday, July 18, 2015 2:19 PM
> *To:* Smith, Brad; Rick Hasen; law-election at UCI.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] 7th circuit john doe opinon
>
>
>
> So, regardless of whether power (in the guise of enforcement of campaign
> finance laws) was abused in Wisconsin, and regardless of how much Walker
> himself was personally behind or not behind the various groups at issue,
> when well-funded and dark moneyed groups support judges with campaign money
> (and trips) and then those same judges don't recuse themselves in criminal
> investigations of those groups, we have a serious problem.
>
>
>
>
> http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/the-inside-story-of-the-crony-court-that-deep-sixed-the-scott-walker-probe
>
>
>
> Best,
>
>
>
> Eric
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu <
> law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> on behalf of Smith, Brad <
> BSmith at law.capital.edu>
> *Sent:* Thursday, July 16, 2015 3:37 PM
> *To:* Rick Hasen; law-election at UCI.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] 7th circuit john doe opinon
>
>
>
> Thank you. I rest that part of my case.
>
>
>
> *Bradley A. Smith*
>
> *Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault*
>
> *   Professor of Law*
>
> *Capital University Law School*
>
> *303 E. Broad St.*
>
> *Columbus, OH 43215*
>
> *614.236.6317 <614.236.6317>*
>
> *http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx
> <http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx>*
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [
> law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Rick Hasen [
> rhasen at law.uci.edu]
> *Sent:* Thursday, July 16, 2015 3:21 PM
> *To:* law-election at UCI.edu
> *Subject:* [EL] 7th circuit john doe opinon
>
> Since it has been referenced today, here's last year's opinion and an
> excerpt (with my emphasis):
>
> http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/7th-john-doe.pdf
>
> The Supreme Court has yet to determine what “coordination” means. Is the
> scope of permissible regulation limited to groups that advocate the
> election of particular candidates, or can government also regulate
> coordination of contributions and speech about political issues, when the
> speakers do not expressly advocate any person’s election? What if the
> speech implies, rather than expresses, a preference for a particular
> candidate’s election? If regulation of coordination about pure issue
> advocacy is permissible, how tight must the link be between the
> politician’s committee and the advocacy group? Uncertainty is a powerful
> reason to leave this litigation in state court, where it may meet its end
> as a matter of state law without any need to resolve these constitutional
> questions. The district court thought that the Supreme Court will overrule
> what remains of Buckley, as some Justices have pro- posed. See, e.g.,
> Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. FEC, 518 U.S. 604, 635–40
> (1996) (Thomas, J., dissenting in part). If the Constitution forbids all
> regulation of campaign contributions, there is no basis for regulating
> coordination either. After all, the rationale for regulating coordination
> has been to prevent evasion of contribution limits and ensure the public
> identification of persons who contribute to politicians’ war chests.
>
> *Yet although the Court’s views about the proper limits of
> campaign-finance regulation continue to change, see Citizens United
> (overruling part of McConnell) and McCutcheon v. FEC, 134 S. Ct. 1434
> (2014) (overruling a portion of Buckley that dealt with aggregate
> contribution limits across multiple candidates), it has yet to disapprove
> the portion of Buckley holding that some regulation of contributions to
> candidates is permissible. Justice Thomas wrote separately in McCutcheon,
> 134 S. Ct. at 1462–65 (concurring in the judgment), precisely because a
> majority was unwilling to revisit that aspect of Buckley. The district
> court’s belief that a majority of the Court eventually will see things
> Justice Thomas’s way may or may not prove correct, but as the Supreme
> Court’s doctrine stands it is not possible to treat as “bad faith” a
> criminal investigation that reflects Buckley’s interpretation of the First
> Amendment. Nor does it help plaintiffs to accuse defendants of
> “retaliation”. That just restates the point that campaign finance
> regulation concerns speech; it does not help to decide whether a particular
> kind of regulation is forbidden.* Cf. Fairley v. Andrews, 578 F.3d 518,
> 525 (7th Cir. 2009).
>
> What we have said shows not only that an injunction was an abuse of
> discretion but also that all defendants possess qualified immunity from
> liability in damages. Public officials Nos. 14-1822 et al. 11 can be held
> liable for violating clearly established law, but not for choosing sides on
> a debatable issue. See, e.g., Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603, 618 (1999)
> (“If judges … disagree on a constitutional question, it is unfair to
> subject police to money damages for picking the losing side of the
> controversy.”). The district court thought the law clearly established
> because, after all, the First Amendment has been with us since 1791. But
> the right question is what the Constitution means, concretely, applied to a
> dispute such as this. The Justices forbid the use of a high level of
> generality and insist that law is not “clearly established” until “existing
> precedent [has] placed the statutory or constitutional question beyond
> debate.” Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 131 S. Ct. 2074, 2083 (2011). See also, e.g.,
> Plumhoff v. Rickard, 134 S. Ct. 2012 (2014); Wood v. Moss, 134 S. Ct. 2056
> (2014).
>
> Plaintiffs’ claim to constitutional protection for raising funds to engage
> in issue advocacy coordinated with a politician’s campaign committee has
> not been established “beyond debate.” To the contrary, there is a lively
> debate among judges and academic analysts. The Supreme Court regularly
> decides campaign-finance issues by closely divided votes. No opinion issued
> by the Supreme Court, or by any court of appeals, establishes (“clearly” or
> otherwise) that the First Amendment forbids regulation of coordination
> between campaign committees and issue-advocacy groups—let alone that the
> First Amendment forbids even an inquiry into that topic. The district court
> broke new ground. Its views may be vindicated, but until that day public
> officials enjoy the benefit of qualified immunity from liability in
> damages. This makes it unnecessary for us to consider whether any defendant
> also enjoys the benefit of absolute prosecutorial immunity, which depends
> on the capacities in which they may have acted at different times. See
> Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, 509 U.S. 259 (1993).
>
> --
>
> Rick Hasen
>
> Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
>
> UC Irvine School of Law
>
> 401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
>
> Irvine, CA 92697-8000
>
> 949.824.3072 - office
>
> 949.824.0495 - fax
>
> rhasen at law.uci.edu
>
> http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
>
> http://electionlawblog.org
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Law-election mailing
>
> list
>
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
>
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>

-- 
Adam C. Bonin
The Law Office of Adam C. Bonin
1900 Market Street, 4th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 864-8002 (w)
(215) 701-2321 (f)
(267) 242-5014 (c)
adam at boninlaw.com
http://www.boninlaw.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20150720/d60665bb/attachment.html>