Revisiting Campaign Finance Regulation 10 Years After Citizens United

ACS held a panel discussion on the state of campaign finance on January 16, 2020.  Titled "Revisiting Campaign Finance Regulation 10 Years After Citizens United," the event featured Jason Abel, Lee Goodman, Chisun Lee, and Ciara Torres-Spelliscy and was moderated by Michael Tomasky. 

A decade after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, super PACS and independent expenditures now dominate the political landscape. The FEC, tasked with monitoring these expenditures and enforcing campaign finance laws, lacks a quorum. What is the current state of play and what changes can and/or should be made to the way our elections are regulated?

Featured Speakers:

Michael Tomasky, Editor, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas; Columnist, Daily Beast; Moderator

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Professor of Law, Stetson University

Chisun Lee, Deputy Director, Election Reform Program, Brennan Center for Justice

Jason Abel, Partner, Steptoe

Lee Goodman, Partner, Wiley Rein

Lindsay Langholz, ACS, Welcome remarks

Related Resources  

• Citizens United v. Fed. Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010). 
• DISCLOSE Act crucial to transparency of federal election spending by David Earley  
• After Citizens United, a Vicious Cycle of Corruption by Thomas B. Edsall  
• The Decade of Citizens United by Richard L. Hasen 

• A look at the impact of Citizens United on its 9th anniversary by Karl Evers-Hillstrom, Raymond Arke and Luke Robinson  
• Secret Spending in the States by Chisun Lee, Douglas Keith, Katherine Valde and Benjamin T. Brickner  
• Halloween’s over. The Federal Election Commission? Still a zombie. by Dave Levinthal 
• The Floodgates Were Already Open by Nathaniel Persily  
• Shooting Your Brand in the Foot: What Citizens United Invites by Ciara Torres-Spelliscy