Political Activity Law/Political Law/Election Law

Day: March 4, 2009

  • Massey Coal Argument

    We owe a debt of gratitude to the Supreme Court for this transcript of the argument in Caperton v. Massey Coal.  What, if anything, in the Court’s opinion will speak to campaign finance law?  The oral argument features Justice Scalia mentioning the “527 loophole” and Justice Breyer musing about the terminology of an appropriate standard of bias:

    Call it a “probability”; call it an “appearance.”  Use the language that you want, but put them together, and they spell “mother.”

    A little Google searching and the reference might be to an old song or poem.

    M-O-T-H-E-R
    “M” is for the million things she gave me,
    “O” means only that she’s growing old,
    “T” is for the tears she shed to save me,
    “H” is for her heart of purest gold;
    “E” is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
    “R” means right, and right she’ll always be,
    Put them all together, they spell “MOTHER,”
    A word that means the world to me.

  • Former Sen. Smith, Senior Advisor

    Covington & Burling issued a press release announcing that former Sen. Gordon Smith has joined the firm as a senior advisor.

    During his 12-year tenure, he served on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Indian Affairs Committee. Senator Smith was a ranking member on the Senate Finance Subcommittee on International Trade and Global Competitiveness, and for six years chaired the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on European Affairs.

    USAT remarks on the move here that

    Smith becomes the latest in a long line of ex-members who found post-congressional employment opportunities on K Street. CQ MoneyLine, a nonpartisan group that tracks money and politics, says there were 158 former members of Congress who were registered lobbyists last year with at least one client.

  • Montgomery County Ethics

    A Montgomery County official is being questioned about a $25,000 grant to his son’s company, according to this Post report.

    Montgomery’s ethics law prohibits government employees from participating in “any matter that affects . . . property or business in which a relative has an economic interest, if the public employee knows about the relative’s interest.”