July 12, 2023 The Honorable Kevin McCarthy Speaker of the House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Hakeem Jeffries Democratic Leader U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515
Re: Support for the American Confidence in Elections Act’s Critical Free Speech and Privacy Protections Dear Speaker McCarthy and Democratic Leader Jeffries, The undersigned nonprofit organizations and policy leaders write in strong support of the free speech and citizen privacy provisions in the “American Confidence in Elections (ACE) Act” (H.R. 4563) introduced by Congressman Bryan Steil. This thoughtful legislation protects and strengthens important First Amendment rights that Americans have enjoyed since the founding of our country. This is a critical counterbalance to the growing push for unconstitutional and harmful disclosures in Congress and at the state level that attack the rights to freely speak, publish, and support groups that advocate for causes supported by Americans across the country and ideological spectrum. The free speech provisions in the American Confidence in Elections Act would defend the vital role nonprofit organizations serve in encouraging free speech and the free exchange of ideas. Privately supporting causes – and the organizations advancing those causes – is a fundamental freedom protected by the First Amendment. Our Founding Fathers used pen names to encourage independence from Great Britain. Nearly 200 years later, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the state of Alabama from demanding the supporter list of the NAACP, citing concerns about retribution against the group’s members and financial backers. And in 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) v. Bonta that nonprofit causes cannot be forced to hand over their supporter lists to the government. The privacy rights at stake in that case were robustly supported by nearly 300 nonprofit groups representing a wide range of causes and political preferences. In the past five years alone, 17 states have passed laws – frequently with bipartisan support – strengthening and protecting nonprofit donor privacy rights. The American Confidence in Elections Act would enshrine four vital privacy protections into law through the following provisions:
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