Essential Ethics

Latest Developments: Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Draft Regulations: The Department of Justice has proposed changes to FARA regulations that may make it harder for private companies to avoid FARA registration for “commercial” activities, even…

Latest Developments: Largest-Known Campaign Finance Fine: The Court of Appeals of the State of Washington affirmed in full a 2022 trial court judgment that Meta, Facebook’s parent company, pay $24,660,000.00 in civil penalties and $10,522,159.59…

Latest Developments: Trump Signs Memorandum of Understanding to Assist in Transition: As reported by Politico, the Trump transition team has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Biden White House to assist in the transfer…

Latest Developments: Court Upholds Arizona ‘Dark Money’ Law: An appeals court in Arizona unanimously upheld Proposition 211. The Arizona Free Enterprise Club and the Center for Arizona Policy had argued that Arizona’s requirement to disclose donors…

Latest Developments: Annual Report on Private Ordering: The Center for Political Accountability, a non-profit organization promoting transparency and private ordering (self-regulation) in regard to corporate political spending, released its annual CPA-Zicklin Index. They noted a…

Latest Developments: Ohio Law Banning Campaign Contributions from Foreign Nationals Reinstated: As previously noted in this blog, a federal district court had enjoined Ohio’s new campaign finance law with respect to all foreign nationals, largely…

Latest Developments: California Pay-to-Play Law Amended: SB 1243 and SB 1181 have been signed by the Governor and will make the following changes to the state’s pay-to-play law (known as the Levine Act) applicable to…

Latest Developments: Federal Campaign Finance Lawsuit Fails: Though it expressed sympathy, the Sixth Circuit felt constrained by U.S. Supreme Court precedent and rejected an attempt to overturn federal limits on political parties’ ability to coordinate…

Latest Developments: Federal Court Blocks Foreign Influence Rule: An Ohio federal district court has granted an injunction preventing the enforcement of Ohio House Bill 1, which was intended to limit foreign influence in elections by…

Latest Developments: AI Content in Election Communications: CNN reports that the FEC plans to seek public comment on rules requiring all radio and television broadcast stations that air political ads to disclose on-air if there…