Pay to Play Law Blog : Pay to Play Lawyer & Attorney : Bribery, Campaign Contributions

By Stefan Passantino

The United States Supreme Court has recently announced that it might be revisiting its uber-controversial opinion Citizens United v. FEC. The ruling at issue was in the form of a little-noticed order entered by the Court staying a Montana Supreme Court opinion declining to enforce Citizens United. Nothing controversial there. What makes the opinion intriguing, as noted by recent news reports, is the fact that Justices Ginsburg and Breyer went out of their way to note that:

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With all apologies to 1980s rockers Great White, it would have been quite easy for D.C.Councilman Tommy Wells (D – Ward 6) to take a “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” approach to pay-to-play reform in the District of Columbia. After all, two of his 2011 proposals on the subject were  actively left out of the final version of the city’s recently-passed comprehensive ethics reform bill. Those two proposals would have prohibited bundled corporate campaign contributions and barred District officials from accepting donations from city contractors, but both were met with universal opposition from the other members of the Council.

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If you heard talk of tremors in the Bay Area recently, that wasn't the relatively benign 2.9 and 4.0’s that struck this morning (causing no reported injury). San Franciscans use 4.0 earthquakes to stir their coffee in the morning.

No, the tremors you felt this morning are from the repercussions of the impending plan by the Berkeley City Council to examine strict new pay-to-play laws tomorrow possibly designed to give the Golden Bears more bite than have their San Francisco brethren across the Bay. Under the proposed resolution, the City of Berkeley intends to request that its Fair Campaign Practices Commission institute prohibitions against city contractors from making campaign contributions to candidates for public office.

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By Stefan C. Passantino

The White House is very serious about mandating contribution and issue advocacy disclosure obligations on federal contractors.

We have reported several times (most recently here) on the various tell-tale signs, tea leaves and trial balloons that would lead one to believe that the White House is very serious about mandating disclosure by executive order. Much of the drama stemmed from a draft Executive Order (discussed here) that was floated last April and didn’t appear to get very far.

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Still have questions about what the STOCK Act really means?

In this interview with LexBlog Network Television, I explain the legislation, what drove it, and where it could be headed.

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by Stefan C. Passantino and Benjamin P. Keane

Proponents of ethics reform and increased political transparency in Washington don’t often see reform proposals pass through Congress by overwhelming margins, and rarely does anyone bemoan an excess of “political intelligence” in Washington, but that’s exactly what happened on Capitol Hill this past week. While the reform community can’t quite be sure what version of reform will survive the ongoing tug of war between the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, it is clear that those trading on “inside political knowledge” are clearly in the transparency crosshairs.

If you are a consultant, a lobbyist, a law firm, or simply a person with inside knowledge of how Washington thinks, this post pertains to you (but you already know that, of course).

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The team here at Pay to Play Law Blog wants to welcome a phenomenal group of commentators to the McKenna Long & Aldridge blogosphere.  Last week, MLA launched its newest blog, “Politics, Law and Policy,” authored by a bipartisan group of attorneys and public policy advisors in the firm’s nationally-recognized government affairs practice.  The blog will serve as an important resource for those seeking analysis and resources on the impact of federal and state politics and public policies on a wide range of issues and debates, including health care, energy, infrastructure, taxes, transportation, cybersecurity, and campaign and election compliance.

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Through its recent decision in Ognibene v. Parkes, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a constitutional challenge of New York City’s political contribution limits on “lobbyists” and others having business dealings with the City (a/k/a the “pay-to-play” rules), finding that such limits do not violate First Amendment free speech rights.

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Cue the obligatory training montage and iconic theme music…Like its best known fictional sports hero, the City of Philadelphia is looking to pick itself up off the ethical mat and take a first step toward regaining the public trust when it comes to political decision making and government action. Battered and bruised by an ongoing ethics investigations against its former mayor, allegations of improper political activity on the part of city council staff, and a sordid history of pay-to-play corruption, it appears as if Philadelphia and its Board of Ethics are finally working to change the culture of politics in the City of Brotherly Love, one reform idea at a time.

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