POLITICS

RI donor-disclosure laws upheld again; conservative group says it will appeal to high court

Patrick Anderson
The Providence Journal

A federal appeals court has upheld Rhode Island's campaign-spending disclosure laws against a constitutional challenge by a coalition of conservative groups. Those groups say they intend to appeal to the Supreme Court.         

A three-judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday said Rhode Island laws making top donors identify themselves in certain election advertising does not infringe on those donors' free-speech rights.

In a 37-page written decision, Judge Bruce Selya wrote that the state's interest in informing the electorate is "as vital to the survival of a democracy as air is to the survival of human life" and Rhode Island's campaign finance laws are sufficiently tailored to that purpose. 

Writing for the three-judge panel that upheld the constitutionality of Rhode Island's campaign-spending disclosure laws, First Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Bruce M. Selya dismissed the plaintiffs' comparing donor-disclosure laws and anti-civil-rights efforts to identify NAACP members as "equating aardvarks with alligators."

He also likened the argument from Rhode Island’s right-leaning Gaspee Project and Chicago's Illinois Opportunity Project that disclosing donor identities would subject them to harassment and reprisals as "a Rumpelstiltskin-like effort to turn dross into gold."

And called the analogy of donor disclosure laws to anti-civil-rights efforts to identify NAACP members like "equating aardvarks with alligators."

Backed by conservative legal group The Liberty Justice Center, the plaintiffs in 2019 sued the Rhode Island Board of Elections, arguing that paid political messages that are not coordinated with a specific campaign are protected speech.

Saying they want a "safe space" for anonymous political advocacy, they asked the court to strike down the state's disclosure laws on these uncoordinated "independent expenditures."

Rhode Island requires all groups making electioneering communications to disclose all donors giving at least $1,000 and for the advertisements themselves to list the group responsible and top five largest donors.

The state laws were passed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which threw out government prohibitions on such messages, but said financial-disclosure requirements are acceptable.

Last fall, U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy ruled for the state and dismissed the case. The plaintiffs appealed.

In an email Thursday, Daniel Suhr, managing attorney at the Liberty Justice Center, said they would fight on.  

"Free speech and citizen privacy are fundamental to our democracy. We continue to believe in the strength of our arguments, and we plan to appeal to the Supreme Court to vindicate these foundational constitutional rights,” Suhr wrote.

Even if they appeal, there is no guarantee the high court will take the case.

The Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause Rhode Island and the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island filed briefs in support of the state's disclosure laws and on Thursday hailed the appeals court ruling.

Lawyers working for Attorney General Peter Neronha represented the state in the case.

“The First Circuit’s recent decision upholding Rhode Island’s campaign expenditure disclosure law is a win for transparency, and accordingly for all Rhode Islanders," Neronha said in a news release.

“Rhode Islanders have a right to know who is spending in an attempt to influence their votes,” said Campaign Legal Center Counsel Austin Graham wrote in a news release.

panderson@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_