On November 10, a lawsuit was filed against several Alaska laws that limit contributions to candidates. Thompson v Dauphinais, 3:15cv-218. The case was assigned to U.S. District Court Judge H. Russel Holland, a Reagan appointee.

The lead plaintiff is a Wisconsin resident who is also the brother-in-law of a Republican Alaska state legislator. The plaintiff, David Thompson, wants to contribute to the re-election campaign of his brother-in-law, but he can’t, because the law limits out-of-state donations to candidates for state and local office to $3,000. The legislator has already received that much in out-of-state contributions.

A unit of the state Republican Party is a co-plaintiff. It wants to contribute to a candidate for local office, but it can’t, because all units put together of a single party can’t contribute more than $5,000 to any candidate for state or local office, and the various units of the Republican Party, including the state party, have already contributed $5,000 to the candidate. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news.