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A new piece in The Federalist is putting national attention on a New Mexico campaign finance law that critics say forces civic groups to choose between speaking about elected officials and exposing private donors to the government.
The article, written by Marc Wheat and Mitchell Bahnsen, focuses on Rio Grande Foundation v. Oliver, a First Amendment case now being pushed toward U.S. Supreme Court review after the Tenth Circuit upheld New Mexico’s donor-disclosure rules.
At issue is a planned Rio Grande Foundation legislative scorecard — the type of voting record civic groups, newspapers, watchdogs, and taxpayer organizations have published for decades. The scorecard would have informed New Mexicans about how lawmakers voted on key issues. It did not tell voters which candidate to support or oppose.
But because the scorecard named candidates and was planned within a pre-election window, New Mexico’s Campaign Reporting Act treated the communication as an “independent expenditure,” triggering donor-disclosure requirements.
To read this article in full, click here.
To learn more about our landmark workers right case, Rio Grande Foundation v. Oliver, click here.