On March 27, the Liberty Justice Center filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear No on E v. Chiu, a case challenging San Francisco’s compelled disclosures for political speech.
Under Proposition F, the City of San Francisco requires independent groups who wish to express their views on political issues to fill up most of their ads with disclosures—not only of their own donors, but also their donors’ donors, monopolizing the communication with redundant and often misleading disclaimers.
In its amicus brief, the Liberty Justice Center urges the Supreme Court to hear the case, arguing that hijacking political expression with onerous disclosure requirements violates the First Amendment—both directly, by compelling speech, and indirectly, by chilling speech due to privacy concerns.
“These overbearing disclosure requirements force individuals and organizations to censor their speech or convey a message from the government—both commandeering and chilling speech in violation of the First Amendment,” said Reilly Stephens, Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center.
“These restrictions are especially offensive to the First Amendment because they interfere with core political speech, such as discussion of elections, by removing the focus of a communication from the issue actually being discussed and redirecting it to a group’s donors—and to its donors’ donors,” continued Stephens.
The Liberty Justice also filed an amicus brief in No on E v. Chiu when the case was at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The Liberty Justice Center’s amicus brief with the Supreme Court is available here.