Appeals court sides with federal judge, allows Minnesota campaign law to stand

[wellstone dem]

Source: Minneapolis Tribune


By a 2-1 vote, the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday sided with a federal judge in allowing a state campaign finance law to require corporations to disclose when they spend money to support or defeat a candidate.

"Minnesota did not ban corporate independent expenditures," the Appeals Court wrote. "Instead, based upon the lower court's findings, as strongly supported by the record, we find that Minnesota created a statutory scheme designed to require corporations to disclose certain information when making independent expenditures."


The decision affirms a ruling by U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank in September 2010, in which he refused to strike down the law. In his ruling, Frank said that voters have "an interest in knowing who is speaking about a candidate on the eve of an election."


One of those reports before the primary elections last year showed that Target, Best Buy and other corporations gave to MN Forward, a pro-business group that is buying ads to support GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. The disclosures riled groups at odds with Emmer's opposition to same-sex marriage, and they launched a blistering attack on the companies.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/local/121895804.html

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Great decision. Minnesota elections are protected from anonymous corporate donations! Thank you Courts!

[Melinda]

1. Off to the Greatest with ya!!

Great news for Minnesota!!! :toast:

[wellstone dem]

2. This is such wonderful news!

The comments are great. This law needs to be taken nationwide.

[roguevalley]

3. I am impressed with Michigan, Minnesota and others in that area.

yea!

[blackspade]

4. Me too.

I guess when you get hammered enough you get tired of it and start punching back.

[JTFrog]

5. K&R!

[Purveyor]

6. K&R Thanks for posting. eom

[patrice]

7. K&R for Good news!!!

[drm604]

8. K&R

Let this be an example for other states.

[SoapBox]

9. Great news...until the Five Activist Judges on the Supreme Court get a hold of the case.

And we know what they do!

Trample all over the people and boost the mega-corporations.

[jaysunb]

18. + 1 n/t

[thereismore]

10. !!!! Awesome. nt

[Plucketeer]

11. Excellent development! nt

[MsPithy]

12. There's the free market, for ya.

Both voters and shareholders should know where the corporations are putting their political dollars. If massive amounts of money is speech, it is hard to imagine that the framers would not have assumed that in politics we would get to know who is speaking.

As for shareholders, they have the right to know where their money is going.

[wellstone dem]

13. They reposted in a different section. Corected link...

http://www.startribune.com/politics/121895804.html

[wellstone dem]

14. Link to decision

http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/11/05/103126P.pdf

[wellstone dem]

15. One of the parties trying to block disclosure is an anti-abortion

organization==Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life.

As I was trying to find today's decision, I found another decisions that MCCL brought trying to keep donors secret.

http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/05/11/034077P.pdf

[SemperEadem]

16. Good news for Minnesotans!

[rpannier]

17. I'm rather surprised

It's a rather conservative, pro-corporate court that at times has rendered some rather bizarre opinions (some so bizarre that the entire 9 members of the US Supreme Court found their decisions to be highly suspect at best)

But, on this they have done good.

[bertman]

19. Excellent! REC. nt

[lonestarnot]

20. Now can we get that in all states!

[alp227]

21. Great news! This is the same court that upheld the NFL lockout though.

But cross your fingers if this gets appealed to the highest court, y'know the Citizens United v. FEC one.

[booley]

22. These companies say it's about free speech

That money equals speech and they have aright to free speech.

But then why do they also want to hide what they said?

[Odin2005]

23. WOOHOO!

[myrna minx]

24. K&R n/t