Kamala Harris, the Attorney General of California and candidate for the United States Senate, recently issued a regulation that requires charities and tax-exempt organizations to file unredacted Form 990 Schedule Bs before they can solicit contributions from residents of the Golden State. Such unredacted forms list the names and addresses of the nonprofit’s donors.
From Alabama’s attempts to require the NAACP to turn over its membership lists in the 1950s to recent IRS witch hunts against conservative organizations, compelled disclosure has a history of infringing upon the First Amendment rights of organizations and their donors.
As a result, the Center for Competitive Politics (CCP) filed suit against the Attorney General to challenge the regulation on First Amendment grounds. Specifically, CCP argues that the Attorney General’s rule would lead to a chilling effect on the First Amendment freedom of speech and freedom of association rights of CCP’s donors.
Regrettably, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the Attorney General’s regulations do not impinge on CCP’s donors’ First Amendment rights. This is a dangerous, unconstitutional position that is at odds with the United States Supreme Court’s decisions.
National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) recently signed an amicus brief principally authored by the Buckeye Institute, a free market 501(c)(3) organization from Columbus, Ohio, in support of CCP’s petition urging the United States Supreme Court to take up their case.
NTUF believes it is critical that the United States Supreme Court hears CCP’s appeal. Doing so would allow an opportunity to rectify California’s affront to the First Amendment.