DECISION STANDS. ATL. “Secret money in politics will soon be a lot less secret. The Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand a lower-court ruling forcing politically active nonprofit groups to disclose the identity of any donor giving more than $200 when those groups advertise for or against political candidates.”
REFORMER CHRISTMAS. ESQ. “What matters is that, in this case at least, there seems to have been a faction on the Court that is willing to be flexible on dark money, and that’s willing to overrule the Chief on the subject, too. Of course, it’s a 4-4 court right now. I am not optimistic about the future, but this was a nice moment.”
TIMES ON RUSSIA AND 16. NYT. “For two years, Americans have tried to absorb the details of the 2016 attack: hacked emails, social media fraud, suspected spies — and President Trump’s claims that it’s all a hoax. The Times explores what we know and what it means.”
FB AT WAR. NYT. “More than 300 people across the company are working on the initiative, but the War Room will house a team of about 20 focused on rooting out disinformation, monitoring false news and deleting fake accounts that may be trying to influence voters before elections in the United States, Brazil and other countries.”
E-FILING STARTS. OS. “After over 15 years of legislative attempts, Senate candidates might finally start electronically filing their campaign finance reports.”
REFORMERS IGNORE. DC. “Nine months ago this week, the Committee to Defend the President filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), accusing the Democratic establishment of orchestrating the most elaborate money laundering scheme in U.S. electoral history.”
COMPLAINT ON FUNDRAISING. NYT. “A progressive group in Utah that advocates government transparency and accountability filed a federal complaint against Representative Mia Love, a Republican, on Tuesday over alleged campaign finance violations, escalating the liberal fight against the vulnerable incumbent just seven weeks before November’s midterm elections.”
ETHICS GRADE. CNN. “Ethics and trustworthiness are not the exact same thing. And what people said when they voted for candidate Trump versus how they feel about President Trump may well be two very different things.”
AUSTRALIA: LOBBYING OVERVIEW. GUA. “There’s only so much information available on Australia’s largely opaque lobbying system. It takes time, effort, and the right tools to wade through the federal lobbyist register and join the dots. So, we have extracted the data, broken it down, and reshaped into something digestible.”
HAVE A GOOD DAY.