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New FEC chair tries backdoor route to campaign finance oversight

The new chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission says the agency is going to stop defending itself when sued for inadequately policing campaign financing.

The order to FEC lawyers from Democrat Ellen Weintraub, a commissioner for 16 years who took the gavel in January, is a backdoor attempt to enhance enforcement of political donation disclosure rules at a time when the agency is in an extended period of deadlock. (Only four of the six seats on the FEC are filled – two Republicans, an independent and Weintraub – and it takes four votes for almost any action.)


If her colleagues "are not going to vote to enforce the law, I'm not going to pull any punches and I'm not going to be shy about calling them out," Weintraub told Mother Jones. "And if we get sued, that requires four votes to defend those kinds of lawsuits ... I'm not going to authorize the use of agency resources to defend that litigation."

Four campaign finance lawyers, including three who used to work at the FEC, told the magazine the move was unprecedented and had the potential to reshape the campaign finance system, depending on how the courts react.

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Could the end of “the democratic century” be the wake-up call we needed?

What the century scholars call “the democratic century” appears to have ended on January 20, 2025, when Donald Trump was sworn in as America’s forty-seventh president. It came almost one hundred years after German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolph Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.

Let me be clear. Trump is not America’s Hitler.

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It’s time to defend the guardrails of democracy

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Getty Images, Alexander Sikov

It’s time to defend the guardrails of democracy

Lawyers know that President Trump’s executive orders targeting individual law firms, and now, theentire legal profession, are illegal and unconstitutional. The situation puts a choice to every lawyer and every law firm. Do you fight – speak out and act out against this lawless behavior? Or do you accommodate it, keep your head down, and wait for the storm to pass?

The answer is to fight. Here’s why – and here’s what lawyers should do.

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Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Could Help Save the Democratic Process

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Getty Images, Andriy Onufriyenko

Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Could Help Save the Democratic Process

After contributing more than a quarter of a billion dollars to elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk has now turned his attention to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, giving millions of dollars to support Judge Brad Schimel, the Republican candidate.

According to The Brennan Center, this race is the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history. If Musk is successful, it will tip the High Court’s balance to his political favor.

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