Staff Report
Alabama’s Attorney General Luther Strange is moving to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that blocked one portion of the state’s new campaign finance law banning the transfer of money between political action committees.
Many have called the ADC’s lawsuit and the subsequent ruling, an open door for the ADC to continue to launder money.
The state’s ethics law was designed to stop such practices and bring transparency to the election process.
On Wednesday, 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta notified Alabama court officials that the attorney general’s office and the other defendants in the case are appealing.
The Alabama Democratic Conference sued state officials over a portion of the law that prohibited ADC’s PAC-from-PAC-to-PAC to use for so-called, “voter communication programs” and get voters to the polls. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Ott ruled last month that the state’s law violated the ADC’s First Amendment rights.
Judge Ott’s ruling did not affect the biggest section of the law that prohibits PAC-to-PAC transfers of campaign contributions but it made a large exception for the ADC that could open the door for other lawsuits.
