Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett & McComish v. Bennett Institute for Justice and Goldwater Institute Challenge Arizona’s “Clean Elections Act”
In 2008, the Institute for Justice and the Goldwater Institute teamed up to challenge Arizona’s punitive system of funding campaigns with taxpayer money. The consolidated challenges to the “matching funds” provision of Arizona’s so-called “Clean Elections” Act eventually made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which on March 28, 2011, heard argument in Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (No. 10-238) and McComish v.Bennett (No. 10-239).
The cases sought to vindicate the rights of independent political groups and candidates who did not take taxpayer funds to speak freely during political campaigns without having the government attempt to “level the playing field.” Under the Arizona law, if a group made an independent expenditure in favor of a privately financed candidate, the unelected bureaucrats at the Clean Elections Commission doled out an almost dollar-for-dollar amount of “matching funds” to the publicly funded candidate. That meant that for every dollar a group or individual spent to support the candidate of their choice, over the publicly funded candidate’s initial government subsidy, the government paid an equal amount of money to the political competition.
The Ninth Circuit, in conflict with controlling Supreme Court precedent and contrary to decisions from other federal appellate courts, found this system to be constitutional. IJ and Goldwater successfully petitioned the Supreme Court for review of that decision, and on June 27, 2011, the Court reversed the Ninth Circuit, striking down Arizona’s unconstitutional “Clean Elections” system.
In 2008, the Institute for Justice and the Goldwater Institute teamed up to challenge Arizona’s punitive system of funding campaigns with taxpayer money. The consolidated challenges to the “matching funds” provision of Arizona’s so-called “Clean Elections” Act eventually made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which on March 28, 2011, heard argument in Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (No. 10-238) and McComish v.Bennett (No. 10-239).
