Litigation

Bopp Lawsuit Challenges New IA Disclosure Law

By Peter Hardin

Iowa Right to Life, Inc. has sued in federal court to challenge Iowa’s new law with disclosure requirements for corporate spending on political advertising.

Iowa was one of the first states to pass such a law in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. Its new law mandates that corporations must disclose their political spending to state regulators, and they must identify themselves in the political advertising (see Gavel Grab).

The anti-abortion group “functions as a corporation,” according to a Radio Iowa report, and the lawsuit challenges requirements that the group faces under Iowa law.

The group can not make political ad without forming a political action committee, which involves “burdensome” requirements, according to a press statement by the James Madison Center for Free Speech and lawyer James Bopp, the lead attorney for Iowa Right to Life.

In addition, state law bars political contributions by corporations, but other types of associations such as unincorporated labor unions may make contributions. “Iowa’s attempt to subvert the Supreme Court and burden the speech of corporations is unconstitutional,” Bopp said, referring to the high court’s Citizens United decision.

State Sen. Jeff Danielson, who pushed for the law in the legislature, called the lawsuit a “political stunt” that was intended to keep voters “in the dark” during the late weeks of this year’s political campaign season.

The lawsuit asks to put the new state law on hold until the challenge is decided. The Indiana-based Bopp talked earlier this year about efforts to “pretty well dismantle the entire regulatory regime that is called campaign finance law.” To follow the cases he has litigated, click on Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on September 09, 2010 (boomark / email).