Citizens United

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, enacted in March 2002, aimed to limit the amount of financial support interest groups and national political parties…

A resolution seeking a U.S. constitutional amendment on campaign spending limits is before Kentucky House members. The measure aims to reduce so called…

Kentucky’s top 10 “power players” in financing election campaigns are mostly Republican Party supporters who dabble heavily in national politics and...

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overrule a Montana campaign finance law is likely to boost the rise of super PACs in Kentucky. The Montana law…

The Supreme Court strengthened its Citizens United case Monday when it struck down a 100-year-old Montana ban on corporate spending in state and local elections. In a summary reversal that had no oral arguments, justices ruled 5-to-4 against the state along the same lines it did for the controversial 2010 decision that allows for unlimited spending by companies and unions in federal campaigns. Locally, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Congressman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., have sat on opposite sides of this debate. McConnell issued a statement praising the high court's ruling as a victory for the First Amendment and exaggerated claims of corporate control. In another important victory for freedom of speech, the Supreme Court has reversed the Montana Supreme Court, upholding First Amendment free speech rights that were set out in Citizens United. As I pointed out in an amicus brief that I filed in the Montana case, a review of Federal Election Commission records of independent spending supporting the eight Republican presidential candidates earlier this year showed only minimal corporate involvement in the 2012 election cycle.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is being scolded for flip-flopping on campaign disclosures after his denunciation of legislation requiring that Super PAC donors provide their names. Speaking before the American Enterprise Institute last week, McConnell argued that contributors to third party organization have a right to remain secret and that the Disclose Act is threatening their free speech. But local and national critics point out that wasn't McConnell's position a few years ago when he was at the forefront of opposing campaign finance reform. "Money is essential in politics, and not something that we should feel squeamish about, provided the donations are limited and disclosed, everyone knows who's supporting everyone else," McConnell told NPR's Talk of the Nation in 2003.