Would disclosure diminish the First Amendment rights of contributors who currently benefit from anonymity?
The anonymous donors who fear disclosure say their rights to freedom of association with the fund aggregators who sponsor candidate-focused ads would be injured if their identities were revealed. This argument is derived from the 1958 Supreme Court case of NAACP v. Alabama, where the NAACP won the right to confidentiality for its members at a time when civil rights workers were being lynched and murdered in the Deep South. That situation is different in kind from a corporation that wishes to spend $1 million anonymously to elect a Supreme Court justice to hear its case in the appeals pipeline, and is worried that the target of its support may have to disqualify himself from their case if their campaign relationship is known. Or, from a case where a wealthy individual is willing to spend $1 million anonymously to elect a governor he believes will carry his policy water. As the late Justice Louis Brandeis famously said, “Sunshine is the best disinfectant.” Association of campaign donors
Related Questions
- Rights of publicity for the actorsQuestion: Is sexually explicit Fan Fiction protected by the First Amendment right to free speech?
- Does House Joint Resolution 28, the Voting Rights Amendment, eliminate the Electoral College?
- What are their rights to housing benefit (HB) and council tax benefit (CTB)?
