Press Release

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in Mozilla Corp.  v. FCC, the legal challenge to the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of its 2015 Open Internet Order. The FCC’s repeal not only eliminated bright line net neutrality rules of no blocking, no throttling, and no paid prioritization but also removed the agency’s authority over broadband. Now, there is no longer a cop on the beat to oversee the practices of telecommunications and cable companies. Last August, Common Cause filed an amicus brief outlining the harms of repealing net neutrality to our democracy, civic engagement, and civil rights.

Roger Stone’s indictment implicates the Trump campaign in campaign finance violations during the 2016 election related to WikiLeaks documents provided by Russian Intelligence officials. The indictment makes clear that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has uncovered evidence that a “senior Trump campaign official was directed” by someone else within the campaign, perhaps Donald Trump himself, to contact Stone and request that Stone obtain “damaging information” on Clinton from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was in possession DNC emails that had been hacked by Russian intelligence officers.

The legal teams taking two gerrymandering cases to the Supreme Court will preview their strategies and path to victory at third annual Common Cause redistricting conference. Voting rights experts agree momentum is in their favor as they aim to revolutionize redistricting before the 2020 Census.

Today’s District Court ruling is a victory for equal representation for every resident of the United States. Americans expect and deserve a fair and accurate census and the removal of the citizenship question will help ensure that occurs. The citizenship question would have driven down participation, resulting in undercounts that would have undermined the fundamental constitutional principal of equal representation.

Today, Common Cause released a new report on the many ways presidential candidates bend and break campaign finance laws as they barnstorm early primary states, fundraise, evade contributions limits, and build their campaign teams while denying they are running for office. “‘Testing the Waters’ or Diving Right In?” is part of Common Cause’s 2020 Candidate Watch project through which the organization will watchdog candidate compliance with and government enforcement of campaign finance laws during the current election cycle.

This is an opportunity to hear directly from the legal teams who will argue against partisan gerrymandering at the U.S. Supreme Court and the activists and academics who are paving the way for fair maps, said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director for Common Cause.