End Citizens United // Let America Vote Action Fund President Tiffany Muller released the following statement on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta today, in which petitioners challenged a California policy requiring tax-exempt organizations to confidentially disclose their major contributors to the California Attorney General’s office in order to police charitable fraud.
“The Supreme Court has opened the door to even more political corruption in its Americans for Prosperity v. Bonta decision. Its defense of undisclosed, “dark” money could be predicted from a Court which has a majority whose confirmations rested on tens of millions of dollars in secret political spending. This ruling is a gut punch to democracy, an open door to corruption, and an invitation for billionaires and corporate special interests to buy policy outcomes and elections.
“The message from this decision, combined with the Court’s attack on voting rights in Brnovich early today, is that ‘democracy is not for you.’ The freedom to vote and have your voice heard is for corporate special interests and billionaires – the ones who put them on the Court.
“The Court took a dangerous first step that could lead to eliminating transparency, a fundamental component to a healthy and vibrant democracy. A lack of transparency, particularly with groups spending large amounts of money related to election spending, can lead to corruption and erode the people’s faith in elections. Today’s decision does not protect rank-and-file donors, but instead protects the wealthy few who can afford to spend large sums of money to influence our elections in their favor.
“This case screams for action in Congress to pass the For the People Act, which contains the DISCLOSE Act, a key provision of the legislation that requires organizations that engage in electioneering – including super PACs and 501(c)(4) dark money groups – to disclose the identities of donors who have given them $10,000 or more during an election cycle. It would also require an organization that spends $10,000 or more on campaign expenditures to file a disclosure report with the Federal Election Commission within 24 hours of purchasing the expenditures.”
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