JUSTICE STEVENS AND ETHICS.  Volokh.  “Justices and judges of course often speak out on what is broadly called ‘law reform’ — discussions of how the law ought to be improved — and Canon 4 expressly allows this…”

WHAT STEVENS SAID.  ABC.  “Campaign donations pay for more than political ads and should not be protected as free speech, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens told a Senate panel Wednesday in urging them to rein in the billions of dollars shaping elections.”

VOTE ON AMENDMENT.  Roll Call.  “Senate Democrats plan to vote to amend the Constitution to upend recent Supreme Court decisions tossing federal laws restricting campaign contributions.”

KING LAMENTS.  WT.  “Sen. Angus King, who has introduced legislation requiring campaign donations of more than $1,000 to be reported to the Federal Election Commission within two days, said Wednesday that recent Supreme Court decisions on campaign finance means Congress has to work to strengthen disclosure of money in politics.”

QUESTIONS ON HATCH ACT.  Roll Call.  “Federal Election Commission Vice Chairwoman Ann Ravel went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to testify about undisclosed political money in California, but she ended up answering questions about an FEC employee’s violation of the Hatch Act.”

VIEW ON HATCH ACT.  Wheeling News Register. “You’ve seen it happen dozens of times: A government official breaks the law. He or she is ‘severely reprimanded’ and forced to resign. And there the episode ends.”

SUPER PAC IN WV.  Roll Call.  “Two weeks before the primary, a super PAC that backs Republican women has entered a competitive House race in West Virginia.”

LIMITS IN THE NEWS.  NYDN.  “Rangel campaign officials said they’ve refunded some of the contributions and shifted others to a general election account to comply with the law.”

ME:  CHANGES SOUGHT.  Bangor Daily News.  “Center for Competitive Politics President David Keating said Maine law limiting the amount individuals can donate to a candidate or campaign are in direct conflict with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the issue, McCutcheon vs. FEC.”

MA:  SETTLEMENTS REACHED.  Masslive.com.  “The Office of Campaign and Political Finance reached settlements with the election committees of Chicopee Mayor Richard Kos and West Springfield Mayor Edward Sullivan to rectify findings that city employees ran afoul of state laws prohibiting public workers from soliciting political donations.”

MO:  GIFT BAN SLOW.  CBS.  “As the end of the Missouri legislative session nears, how’s the effort to ban lobbyist gifts to lawmakers going?”

WI:  CAPS OFF.  Madison.com.  “A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision could mean the cap for how much money a single donor can give to state and local candidates will increase from $10,000 to $6.8 million, according to an elections watchdog group.”

HAVE A GREAT DAY.  I’ll send around the next set of links on Monday.  Have a great weekend.