Supreme Court rejects GOP-aligned challenge to campaign disclosure laws

In the wake of Citizens United, a trio of groups supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer sued the state of Minnesota for the right to contribute directly to his campaign without setting up a political action committee. When their efforts were rebuffed by a federal court in Minnesota, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the Taxpayers League of Minnesota and Coastal Travel Enterprises went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Friday their case for an injunction was rejected.

The groups contend that Minnesota’s “registration, record-keeping, and reporting requirements” are unfair and hinder their ability to specifically contribute to Emmer. They sued the state following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, but lost that case in Minnesota District Court. They appealed the decision and asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an injunction to invalidate Minnesota’s disclosure laws until the appeal could be heard — and to suspend the laws during the election.

On Friday, the Supremes rejected their case stating simply, “The application for an injunction pending appeal presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied.”

MCCL, the Taxpayer’s League and Coastal have retained the services of James Bopp, Jr., who was part of the legal team behind the Citizens United decision.

In a press released regarding the lawsuit, Bopp laid out the issues at stake.

“Specifically, MCCL and the other corporations want to spend general treasury dollars to run advertisements for candidates they support. But Minnesota law won’t let them,” he said. “Instead, Minnesota requires them to set up a separate fund to pay for advertisements, and requires that fund to comply with lots of registration, record-keeping, and reporting requirements just to engage in its political speech. But the Supreme Court has said in other cases that corporations have the right to pay for their political speech with general treasury dollars, and they cannot be forced to set up separate funds or to comply with requirements like Minnesota imposes.”

Without an injunction by the U.S. Supreme Court, MCCL and the other groups bringing the appeal must make the proper disclosures on independent expenditures and must set up a political action committee if they want to donate to Emmer.