Essential Ethics

Latest Developments: The California Fair Political Practices Commission’s transparency portal displays a graph showing an extraordinary spike in charitable contributions made at the behest of public officials in 2020. The spike is due to contributions made at the…

Latest Developments: The Federal Election Commission met and, as part of its agenda, discussed a proposal to address so-called “Scam PACs.” According to the proposal, “These proposed changes would not label committees as scam PACs, nor would they require any…

Latest Developments: The Governor of Wyoming approved B. 148, which increases various state fees. The measure raises the lobbyist registration fee from $25 to $75 for lobbyists who receive reimbursement or compensation in excess of $500 in a reporting period….

Latest Developments: The United States Department of Justice announced that a “New Jersey woman was sentenced [this week] to two years in prison for engaging in a bribery and procurement fraud scheme while she served as a…

Latest Developments: The Federal Election Commission issued Advisory Opinion 2021-03, which permits “Members of the United State Senate and United States House of Representatives… (to) use campaign funds to pay for bona fide, legitimate, professional personal security personnel…

Latest Developments: The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reinstated a guilty verdict in United States v. Rafiekian. The defendant was accused of failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) when lobbying for Turkish…

Latest Developments: The Governor of California issued a memo to his staff and department heads expanding a “ban on political consultants lobbying him and his administration to include unpaid advisers.” According to the Sacramento Bee, the Governor’s staff “asked…

Latest Developments: The Federal Lobbyist Registration threshold has increased from $13,000 in activity per quarter to $14,000 per quarter. The increase is effective for activity from January 1, 2021. As the Senate’s website explains, “An organization employing…

Latest Developments: The Governor of Montana signed SB 1, which revises the definition of “lobbying.” The bill deleted references to “public officials” as the object of lobby efforts and instead uses the term “legislator” to clarify that lobbying…

Latest Developments: The Ohio Secretary of State’s Office issued a revised campaign contribution limit chart for the period from February 25, 2021 to February 24, 2023. For example, the limit on contributions from a PAC to a statewide candidate, such…