Nonprofits and Disclosure in the Wake of Citizens United

Abstract

Abstract Few campaign finance cases have drawn more public attention than Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Although Citizens United was expected to unleash the electoral activities of business corporations, its immediate consequences more directly involved nonprofit organizations. Like Citizens United itself, most of the cases challenging and seeking to curtail campaign finance regulation have been brought by nonprofit corporations, particularly advocacy organizations tax-exempt under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, and section 501(c)(6) trade associations and chambers of commerce. Moreover, most of the corporate spending in the 2010 congressional elections involved nonprofits. Given the anecdotal evidence that many business corporations interested in electoral activity are reluctant to do so directly and publicly and prefer to channel their money through intermediary organizations, nonprofit (c)(4)s and (c)(6)s in the post-Citizens United regime play a key role as vehicles ...