A Cold Breeze in California: ProtectMarriage Reveals the Chilling Effect of Campaign Finance Disclosure on Ballot Measure Issue Advocacy

Abstract

Although a state government may have an interest in disseminating donor information behind some campaigns for or against ballot measures, the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of the “informational interest” from Buckley v. Valeo was not a concern in Proposition 8, which implicated a purely social issue. Thus, in light of the use of donor information to abridge free speech, this articulation of the informational interest does not survive strict scrutiny: as applied, California’s disclosure law indirectly infringes upon First Amendment rights by facilitating the suppression of political speech.

Keywords: First Amendment, free speech, ballot measure, campaign finance, disclosure, election law, proposition 8