In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that campaign finance disclosure laws are unconstitutional, if they are applied to minor parties whose members and supporters will be harassed if their identities are known. The Socialist Workers Party won this case. The court not only excused the SWP from disclosing the names of people who contribute to party electoral campaigns; it also exempted the party from disclosing its campaign expenditures. This was because, if the party had been required to disclose how it spends its money, those reports would have revealed the names of the party’s employees. The case was called Brown v Socialist Workers ’74 Campaign Committee, 459 US 87.

Since then, three other socialist parties have won similar exemptions. They are the Communist Party, the Socialist Action Party, and the Freedom Socialist Party. Non-socialist minor parties have never even tried to win similar exemptions. Now, however, the Nevada branch of the Constitution Party (which, in Nevada, is the Independent American Party) will make such an attempt, in a lawsuit being prepared. For some years, the Nevada party has been subject to the hostility of various branches of local and state government in Nevada. These disputes have involved arresting party activists for petitioning on public property, and disputes over campaign finance reports.