The challenged disclosure rules included disclaimers required for ads and required reporting around contributions greater than $2,000 that are given to or received by independent expenditure groups.
Volunteers and organizers with the Alaska Civic Engagement State Table gather on Election Day 2020 in Mountain View to remind residents to vote.
U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in a written ruling also said that in the context of elections, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that “lower federal courts should ordinarily not alter … election rules on the eve of an election.’” She said the plaintiffs “waited over one year to seek preliminary injunctive relief.”The lawsuit was filed earlier this year on behalf of political donors and third-party groups known as independent expenditure groups.
Daniel Suhr, an attorney for the plaintiffs and a managing attorney at the Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center, in a statement said: “We remain confident in our arguments. This was only a preliminary ruling and we plan to continue vigorously pursuing the case to protect Alaskans’ First Amendment freedoms.”
The plaintiffs in the case are listed as Doug Smith and Robert Griffin of Anchorage; Allen Vezey of Fairbanks; Albert Haynes of Wasilla and Trevor Shaw of Ketchikan. The lawsuit describes each of them as sometimes donating more than $2,000 to organizations that make independent expenditures.
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