Essential Ethics

Latest Developments: Massachusetts Public Employee Pays $17,000 Fine for Accepting Gifts: The Boston Herald reports that a department of public works deputy director has paid a $17,000 civil penalty for violating the state’s conflict of…

Latest Developments:  The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, in Cuomo v. New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying State Government, upheld a lower court ruling that found the state’s new ethics…

Latest Developments: Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves approved HB 1664, which expands gift and campaign contribution restrictions for public utilities officials and employees from interested persons to “covered persons.” Covered persons now include persons acting at…

Latest Developments: Recently argued before the Supreme Court, Snyder v. United States has the potential to make it harder to prosecute public officials on charges of corruption, according to an MSNBC opinion piece by a…

Latest Developments: The U.S. Government Accountability Office issued its 2023 Lobbying Disclosure Report. The report, based on audits of a random sample of 98 quarterly LD-2 reports and 160 LD-203 reports, concluded that its findings comport with…

Latest Developments: The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Smith v. Helzer, affirmed a lower court’s denial of an injunction to stop the implementation of parts of Alaska’s Measure 2, which…

Latest Developments:  The Oregon Legislature approved HB. 4024, which would impose campaign contribution limits in one of the few remaining states that has no limits. The bill establishes these limits, beginning January 1, 2027, requires related…

 Latest Developments: The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission issued an announcement that it resolved several ethics cases, which include the imposition of fines of $7,500 and $5,000 against two individuals who failed to file lobby…

Latest Developments:  The Federal Communications Commission announced “a unanimous adoption of a Declaratory Ruling that recognizes calls made with AI-generated voices are ‘artificial’ under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).”NPR explains that the net effect…

Latest Developments:  The Federal Election Commission adjusted for inflation the threshold for reporting campaign contributions “bundled” by federal lobbyists. The new threshold is $22,700, up from $21,800 for 2023. In Case You Missed It:  Listen…