Back on June 2, the Clarksburg, West Virginia police arrested City Councilmember Martin Shaffer for distributing anonymous leaflets that criticized two other members of the City Council who were up for re-election. On September 14, the city dropped the charges. A West Virginia law says no person may “publish, issue or circulate” anonymous material that either supports or aids the defeat of a candidate for public office. Some city officials are saying that law should be repealed or amended, since it is of doubtful constitutionality. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog for this news.
Well Richard, what implications does this have on the bigger legality issue? I am sure many other states or even FEC regs require disclosure. Might they have had a case?
@JP: Most other states have unconstitutional disclaimer statutes on the books. So does the FEC. Some are enforced, some not. I’ve been fighting these since 1996. I worked closely with Martin in this case,and in the upcoming civil suit. It’s important to distinguish between disclaimers and disclosure. Disclaimers have been unconstitutional since Talley v California (1960). Disclosure, filing campaign finance forms with an agency, is generally constitutional, see cases such as MCLF.
robbin, gtbear at gmail.
How many lawsuits against any Federal/State/local MORONS making or enforcing UNCONSTITUTIONAL Federal/State/local laws/ordinances ???
This stuff AIN’T atomic physics — even in this New Age banana republic.