Lobbying disclosure briefing

I'm sitting at the AFJ lobbying disclosure briefing I mentioned a few posts ago... If you are out of town and signed up for the teleconference, call in! zI'll post a brief summary of the highlights later today.

The highlights:

Lobbying disclosure... civil penalties are skyrocketing to $200,000 max and criminal penalties are as high as 5 years in prison

New compliance certification requires lobbying disclosure reporting entities to verify they are not engaging in any knowing violations of the new law

Because there are steeper consequences of filing, the former best practices of filing "just to be safe" may not be the right call anymore.

Coalitions face different rules. Now every group that contributes to the formal lobbying coalition must have their names/addresses reported by the coalition if they participate in any of the running of the coalition.

Gift and travel rules... if you're a nonprofit, you cannot give gifts to members of Congress the same way you used to. The rules have become tremendously more complicated.Rather than outline them here, take a look at the AFJ report here (pdf).

Nonprofit Law Podcast #20: voter registration and GOTV

Nonprofit Law Podcast #20 concludes the month-long series on election season and nonprofits with an overview on voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities. Check out the shownotes and resources at nplawcast.com!

One-click subscribe in iTunes
Subscribe in other podcatchers

Comedy Central: Colbert run legal

The corporation that airs Stephen Colbert's television show is confident that his run for president on the South Carolina ballot will not violate federal election law prohibiting corporate contributions to a federal candidate. I'm pretty much begging for this to end up at the FEC, if only for the sheer entertainment value...

A recent poll suggests this comedic stunt might be doing more than generating buzz on blogs...

In one match-up, Clinton gets 45% to Giuliani's 35% and Colbert's 13%.

Rasmussen notes that Colbert gets 28% of 18-29 year olds in this match-up, more than Giuliani does! Same in the race with Thompson. It thus appears that young Republicans are abandoning their party for Colbert. Is this a reflection on the fact that they do not want to vote for the Republican after 8 years of Bush, but are weary of voting for a Democrat, so they jump on whoever runs as a three-way candidate?

Colbert's character lampoons conservative talk show hosts. Interesting to see how and from where he draws!

More on Colbert's run

Slate has this piece on the potential election law hurdles facing one Stephen Colbert.

All Saints and a political IRS?

Donald Tobin at Ohio State wrote an interesting column on the law school's election law blog regarding the All Saints church in Pasadena's claim that political influences via the Justice Department intervened to control the IRS investigation against them.

While I think All Saints played its hand almost flawlessly in this controversy, I think it has overplayed its hand with regard to the alleged political intervention by the Justice Department. There is simply no evidence that the Justice Department attempted to influence this case for political reasons. But thanks to All Saints Church's decision to make all documents public, you can decide for yourself.

I have, for years, stated that the IRS was politically insulated when it comes to nonprofits and particularly their audits. All Saints' claim seems to suggest otherwise, but I think Don has it right... we have a rare opportunity to see the documents in an otherwise closed process, allowing the public to determine where the truth lies.

Colbert '08

This isn't really directly relevant to nonprofits per se, but most readers of this blog know I'll delve into campaign finance and election laws from time to time since these laws can impact nonprofits.

Ok, that was a prime example of a sentence that rocks the circular logic. In any event, the Stephen Colbert presdential candidacy (a fake news guy running for real in South Carolina) has created an interesting bit of analysis amongst election law commentators. First was this piece in Politico, and now, a post from Bob Bauer... best line:

All of this, from an election lawyer’s point of view, would be highly entertaining. And perhaps good for more than just a laugh.

All well worth the read... Colbert's candidacy could force the FEC to confront some pretty big issues. Since Colbert seems intent on running for real, this could be interesting.... But if Colbert thinks he'll get the coveted Chuck Norris endorsement, he's sadly missed out.

Nonprofit Law Podcast #19: ballot measures

Nonprofit Law Podcast #19 continues the month-long series on election season and nonprofits with a surface-scratching review of ballot measures. Check out the shownotes and resources at nplawcast.com!

One-click subscribe in iTunes
Subscribe in other podcatchers

Federal lobbying disclosure briefing

This just hit my mailbox... if you are out of DC, you can call in. This is a very confusing new law, particularly as it applies to nonprofits... I plan on attending!

Nonprofit and Foundation Advocacy Speaker Series

Join Alliance for Justice for a briefing on how recent changes to federal lobbying disclosure, gift and travel rules impact nonprofits.

Mike Trister and Holly Schadler from Lichtman, Trister & Ross will discuss changes to the federal lobbying disclosure under the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 as well as new congressional gift and travel rules.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007
2:00-3:30 p.m.

Location: TBD, Washington, DC

Space is limited so please RSVP by calling Jeff Prior at 202-822-6070 or sending an e-mail to jeff@afj.org

This briefing will be made accessible to participants outside of D.C. only via a conference call. Call-in information will be provided via e-mail prior to the event.

FEC hearings begin today

CQPolitics has the story... it's a busy day in DC today, as the Attorney General nomination hearings are happening at the same time. More coverage on the FEC hearings in the blog tomorrow...

Pay out requirement for colleges and universities?

The Senate Finance Committee is considering adding a pay-out requirement to colleges and universities following news of wildly successful endowment fundraising at some of the nation's top universities. The AP has the story here. The payout provision would be similar to private foundations, which are required to spend a certain percentage of their assets every year toward their exempt purpose. Currently, educational institutions are considered public charities, and do not have this requirement.

Nonprofit Law Podcast #18: Renting mailing lists

Nonprofit Law Podcast #18 continues the month-long series on election season and nonprofits with a look at renting mailing lists. Check out the shownotes and resources at nplawcast.com!

One-click subscribe in iTunes
Subscribe in other podcatchers

WRTL and the FEC

Two great articles today on the upcoming FEC hearings on how it will handle the WRTL ruling on electioneering communications (Chronicle of Philanthropy || The Hill). You'll recall that the law limited nonprofits (amongst others) from broadcasting communications featuring the name or liekness of federal candidates near primary or election time. Confronted with a case where ads designed to lobby federal officials who were also running for reelection, the Court held that unless an advertisement can only be seen as an attempt to influence the election, campaign finance laws can't regulate.

The FEC needs two days to hear from all of the parties on this one... the Court's opinion leaves open a question on whether these ads still trigger disclosure requirements. I may try to sit in on some of the testimony, but I'll certainly post about it next week.

ORU update

ORU officials are denying allegations made by former professors (see my earlier post for details). Interesting development according to this CNN piece is that the IRS has already begun investigating whether the 501(c)(3) university engaged in illegal electioneering...

Claim Democracy 2007 Conference

University of DC's College of Law is hosting an election reform conference November 9-11... the speakers will assuredly have a lot to say about nonprofits' roles in election activity, so it might be worth the time to check out.

Details are at claimdemocracy.com.

Oral Roberts University in big trouble?

Hot off the election law listserve... a pointer to a Tulsa World article regarding a lawsuit by professors that allege facts that, if true, could be a major problem for Oral Roberts University. The lawsuits suggests that university leaders forced professors to work on a mayoral campaign and that someone has filed a complaint with the IRS. The IRS won't comment on the complaint (they never do as a matter of internal policy), but you can bet they'll take a look to see if there's fire where that smoke is...

Colleges and universities like ORU are 501(c)(3) public charities, prohibited from engaging in anything that supports or opposes candidates for office.

Law review note on blogging

As I'm getting set to record my audio guide on the laws impacting nonprofits' use of new media, I noticed Rick Hasen's pointer to this excellent student note (PDF) on the FEC's approach to blogging. Worth the read if you want to delve more into the nuts and bolts!

Nonprofit Law Podcast #17: Debates & forums

Episode #17 of the Nonprofit Law Podcast continues the month-long series on election season and nonprofits with a look at debates and forums. Check out the shownotes and resources at nplawcast.com!

One-click subscribe in iTunes
Subscribe in other podcatchers

Gingrich's 527 excuse?

Newt Gingrich blamed McCain-Feingold as a major factor in his decision not to run for president... a lot of folks have questioned this as a front, and Politico suggests the legal reasoning was, well... off.

Light blogging this week

I'm on another bandwidth-limited excursion, so posts may be limitedthis week. In the meantime, check out the latest episode of the podcast on voter guides...

Nonprofit Law Podcast #16: Voter guides

Episode #16 of the Nonprofit Law Podcast continues the month-long series on election season and nonprofits with a look at voter guides. Check out the shownotes and resources at nplawcast.com!

One-click subscribe in iTunes
Subscribe in other podcatchers