Essential Ethics

July 6, 2026 Latest Developments: U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Limits on Political Parties’ Coordinated Spending The Court struck down federal limits on political party spending in coordination with individual candidates, holding that the limits in…

Latest Developments:  Los Angeles County Supervisors Move to Create New Ethics Commission The L.A. Board of Supervisors passed a motion May 19th directing departments to take steps needed to “launch” a new L.A. County Ethics…

Latest Developments: How Buckley Changed the Rules for Spending More than 50 years after Buckley v. Valeo, the New York Times analyzed how it led to the end of post-Watergate campaign finance restrictions that would…

Latest Developments: Lobbyists Indicted for Paying for Lawmakers’ Bourbon Trail Tour Four lobbyists have now been indicted on misdemeanor charges for violating North Carolina’s ban on gifts to state legislators. As reported previously in Essential…

Latest Developments: Hawaii Bill Seeks a Corporate Governance Answer to Citizens United A bill pending in Hawaii (SB 2471: Business Entities) follows a call by the Center for American Progress (The Corporate Power Reset That…

Latest Developments: Judge Blocks Churches from Endorsing Political Candidates A federal judge in Texas rejected a consent agreement in which religious groups could speak about politics and candidates as part of their typical activities without…

Latest Developments:  West Virginia to Redact Employer Info from Campaign Disclosures West Virginia lawmakers have passed a law that will redact employer information from recipient campaign reports for political donations of more than $250. Occupations…

Latest Developments:  North Carolina Officials, Lobbyists Investigated for KY Distillery Tours The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is investigating alleged ethics violations stemming from a nonprofit taking legislators and lobbyists on bourbon distillery tours…

Latest Developments: Administration Nominates Two Attorneys to FEC The President has nominated two well-known campaign finance attorneys to fill seats on the Federal Election Commission: Ashley Stow, of Texas, has been nominated to fill the…

Latest Developments: Donors to New Jersey Inaugural Ball Not Fully Disclosed Politico explores the legal “loophole” protecting donors from disclosure after they gave large donations to a 501(c) (4) organization, Mission to Deliver, and then…