Lawsuit Could End Campaign Finance Disclosure

Opponents of I-1000, the assisted suicide/death with dignity measure, want to keep their privacy. Human Life of Washington, represented by the James Madison Center of Indiana, is suing in federal court to be allowed to do just that.

Their lawsuit would not only allow them to conceal their donors from public disclosure, it would throw out many of Washington’s campaign finance laws, including the definitions of "political committee" and "independent expenditure," and allow other groups to conceal their donors as well.

If successful, Human Life could upend Washington’s entire campaign finance disclosure system, just in time for the November elections.

Human Life argues that they oppose not this particular initiative, but any form of doctor assisted suicide, thus their advertisements are "education which just happens to be on the air during campaign season" and not "campaigning." That argument has worked for non-profit organizations in the past, as courts have looked for the magic words "vote for or against" to distinguish education from electioneering. But, there is no hard and fast rule.

This means that the conduct of campaigns, the rules of elections and the will of the voters, who approved these campaign finance disclosure laws as I-276 in 1972, are yet again in the hands of the courts.

PolitickerWA’s Bryan Bissell, the TNT and the AP all have write ups. For budding attorneys who see election law as a growing field, the complaint and the motion for a preliminary injunction are also available.

Human Life says their donors will be harassed, investigated, and made to pay penalties for not following state campaign finance laws. Death with Dignity supporters say those donors are probably out-of-state Catholic churchgoers, and we the people have a right to know.

We say if you give money to a political or education campaign, whether it's death, abortion, intelligent design, or mass transit, you open yourself up to the finger-pointing, harassment, personal attacks and sometimes even logical arguments that come with being a part of the public debate.